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So, All My Students Have A Device ... Now What?

@joe_edtech

I'd like to start with a very brief story about successful teaching in a 1:1 classroom. One of my former colleagues, Tim Kosiek of Buffalo Grove High School, was led to pursue 1:1 computing for his AP Environmental Science classes. At BGHS, APES has generally been considered a "gateway" AP class. In other words, it is a class that many seniors take as a challenge, likely the first or only AP class these students take. It is a deliberate attempt to get seniors ready for the rigors of college. The challenge for Mr. Kosiek was that he just wasn't sure if he was ready to take his APES class digital. Of the classes he taught, he believed that Physics was more digital ready, and he didn't know if he had gone far enough in his digital conversion to make 1:1 computing in APES worthwhile. However, his fears were soon put to rest, and his kids, rising to the challenge, began to succeed like never before.

His first year piloting 1:1 devices turned out to be a great one. Not only did he wind up with a higher number of students choosing to take a rigorous science elective during their senior year in high school, his students also saw a significant increase in achievement both in the class and on the AP Exam. In 2011, there were 48 students that took the APES exam and 77% of them got a 3 or higher. In 2012, after introducing mobile computing to the curriculum, there were 84 students who took the AP Exam and an incredible 85% of them scored a 3 or higher. 

So, where the mobile computers the magic bullet? Mr. Kosiek said that some of the higher success rates can be attributed to better access to information through technology, but most of the additional success was due to routine formative assessment through online quizzing. There is actually a great deal of Instructional Design and Self-Efficacy research that backs up Mr. Kosiek's ideas about formative assessment, providing students with timely, personal feedback can be very effective.

Teacher Screen for GoSoapBox

GoSoapBox is an online tool that can help you integrate not just technology tools, but formative assessment strategies into any 1:1 classroom. With GoSoapBox you can create quizzes or polls for instant feedback and ongoing discussion, and allow students to post questions to the discussion board anonymously. Additionally, GoSoapBox allows for students to post suggested questions for review or discussion, and then the questions can be voted on by the class. The questions with the most votes rise to the top of the list and tell you which topics probably need to be discussed the most. 

If you do absolutely nothing except allow your students to log into your class (called an "event" on GoSoapBox) you can see which students are online and students can use a toggle switch, called the "Confusion Barometer," to tell you if they are "getting it" or if they are "confused" by the material. And yes, just as is the case with Kahoot and Socrative, you can export reports to give you further information about your students' individual answers.

Unlike the other tools we've talked about on this blog, it is not easy to find good, recent tutorials on YouTube, and the navigation around the website's help section can be a little confusing. However, if you are having trouble getting started integrating technology tools into your 1:1 classroom, GoSoapBox strikes me as a great place to dive in and start taking advantage of the opportunities afforded to you and your students in a digital learning environment. All it takes is a free account to get started.

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What digital tools are you using for formative assessment in your classroom?