Seesaw: Web Student Portfolio/ for an Entire Class!

Digital Portfolios are the rage these days as educators are trying to harness emerging technologies to try to engage students and have them build a historical record of products demonstrating progress. There are many products that can do this job out there (Google Slides and Docs are one of them). One product I had a lot of fun demoing recently is a luscious looking one called Seesaw (Chrome Store App).

With Seesaw you give students and authentic audience for their work (students, teachers, parents) with immediate feedback that is controlled by you! Students have the ability to post a number of different pieces of media (images, videos, audio, links, documents, drawings) to demonstrate work produced. You as the teacher control the flow of products so students can't just post something without some moderation.

The tools at your students' disposal to create a working portfolio. 

There's a social component to this as well. The interface works a lot like Instagram with the ability for students to "Like" and "Comment" on other students' work - again with your approval. Parents are also plugged into your class and can see the class feed and have the ability to like and comment on student work. So parents get a real time look at what their student is doing in your class.

And students get a chance to choose what goes into their portfolio to represent their best work to show student progress. Check out the video below of a (very precocious and future President of the United States) 10 year old student talk about how Seesaw works.

This tool isn't just for elementary students (although much more Primary schools utilize it more than Secondary schools do)...this is a powerful Freemium service that has the ability to really engage High School students and give parents a look at what their student is doing in your class.

If anyone wants to give it a try, I can help with the setup and implementation. There are a slew of tools you can use to identify your student's progress that I haven't got into on this post. And if there are any teachers using Seesaw already, I wanna hear about it! Below are some links that may be helpful to those that are interested in checking it out!

Seesaw Teacher Overview
5 Great Features of Seesaw

Great PBL Site: StoryMap

As a History teacher, I was always looking to incorporate more maps into my curriculum. Google Maps & Earth have come a long way throughout the years, but I always wanted students to create visual products that were relevant to them and the concepts we were covering in class, were engaging throughout the creation phase, were easy to use, and looked sharp when complete. I've looked for and utilized products that did a fraction of these requirements. Never really satisfied....until now! Enter StoryMap!

StoryMap, built out of the Northwestern Knightlab, is an easy to use Project Based Learning tool that can be utilized in a slew of different disciplines to develop geography skills in students and allow them to create something they could be proud of and have fun doing it!! It's easy to use, you use your Google Account to sign up for it, it's free, and did I mention it's easy to use??

Everything starts with a map of the world and a search bar. The search feature uses Google Maps and typing the name of a city, country, physical boundary will pin that spot. From there, it acts like Slides or PowerPoint in that you add slides for the order of "flow" and the student can add text, include links, and media to each slide. The media supported are web url & uploaded pictures, gifs, Youtube videos, content from Vine, Twitter, Instagram, and a few others.

Click the pic below to see what one looks like. The following example comes right from the StoryMap website.

Click the pic to see one of the greatest BAs on that show!!!

This opens up opportunities for students to compare and contrast life in the same location at various time periods, built around a concept you are teaching in class, using media native to them. For instance:

• The Visual Arts teacher may want students to research influential Middle Age artists and document their their journey through their life and career - documenting their physical movement, influential works, and a modern day connection (Tweets! Grams! Vids! Vines!) to the area and artist 
• The Physical Education Teacher may want to track the developments of various weight training and exercise programs (CrossFit, Yoga, The Scandinavian Squat...I made that last one up, but it sounds cool) and show media of individuals using it throughout the journey
• The History Teacher may....well....I'm sure if you're a History Teacher you've already left this post and are checking it out on your own
• The ELA Teacher can plot the various aspects of a character's journey through a novel tracking the arch as well as media that is related to their physical and fictional journey

And as with any great story created, it needs to be told!! Presentation skills are essential to be taught and practiced across the curriculum and this product is made for student presentations in mind! It looks slick on a big screen and you can have students create an informal or formal presentation based on their creative product!

Some drawbacks:

• Network issues and access! Building one at home is much easier than at school and they will have access to the media more readily at home
• Work Around: Have them plot each "slide" at school after the research phase, add the titles and text at school, and have them build the media aspects of the project at home
• When presenting, the students will need to present off of your laptop or Chromebook - they'll get stuck as the network here will iBoss them to death having Tweets, Instagram and Vine media on their projects

The possibilities and uses for this product are immense! Give it a shot and if you're interested in working with it but need some help, I'd be happy to sit down with you to show you the nuts and bolts or even conduct a mini-lesson and teach your students how to use it.

Below is an example I created last night with some minor edits today. I've included the link to view it in your browser and also how it looks and functions when embedded on a website.

Link to view it in your browser (Looks better there anyway and you can swipe on your screen if your Chromebook has that ability): Where I've Lived