21st Tools: Making it easier to fulfill the fundamental principles of Growing Success

Here are some great thoughts from my teaching partner Chantelle Davies, Some interesting thoughts as we continue to move forward with technology in our classrooms.


Ontario’s Growing Success document outlines assessment, evaluation, and reporting policy for the Ontario Curriculum. It is based on seven fundamental principles which provide the foundation for the policy that is outlined in the document. Each of the policies outlined in the Growing Success document build upon these principles. These seven fundamental principles are as follows and suggest that “teachers use practices and procedures that:

• are fair, transparent, and equitable for all students;
• support all students, including those with special education needs, those who are learning the language of instruction (English or French), and those who are First Nation, Métis, or Inuit;
• are carefully planned to relate to the curriculum expectations and learning goals and, as much as possible, to the interests, learning styles and preferences, needs, and experiences of all students;
• are communicated clearly to students and parents at the beginning of the school year or course and at other appropriate points throughout the school year or course; 
• are ongoing, varied in nature, and administered over a period of time to provide multiple opportunities for students to demonstrate the full range of their learning;
• provide ongoing descriptive feedback that is clear, specific, meaningful, and timely to support improved learning and achievement;
• develop students’ self-assessment skills to enable them to assess their own learning, set specific goals, and plan next steps for their learning.

As I reflect on different aspects of the document I think about how the 21st Century tools we use in the classroom today impact our assessment and evaluation. In light of having recently completed progress reports, I consider how important students mastery of the learning skills are to a successful school year. Early in the year, we often focus on the learning skills of responsibility and organization. We work hard with students in September and October to ensure they are completing their work in a timely manner; and that they can create and follow plans to complete this work to the best of their abilities.

While we all hope that these skills come naturally to our students; in many cases these skills need to be taught. In light of the fundamental principles that ask us to be transparent and to communicate clearly with students and parents, technology makes it easier for us to do so and thus in turn also helps us to provide our students with further support in staying organized. For example, as I make greater use of my classroom blog I am also using it as a space to share what our class learnings have been, provide copies of handouts/homework that have been assigned, and share when deadlines are coming up. Having this additional tool not only helps to make students more accountable (because they can’t say they didn’t know when a test was), but it also teaches them how to use other tools to remain responsible and organized. My students know that if they forget to take their reading logs home on the weekend that they don’t have to come to school with their work incomplete on Monday. They can look on the class blog for a copy of the task choices they have to choose from and still ensure they have been responsible; completing their homework.

In addition to learning skills, using 21st Century tools allows us to be more effective in meeting several of the fundamental principles outlined in the document. For example, the use of some technologies allows us to ensure that feedback is clear and timely. This can be seen when students are using tools such as google documents or google slides to complete their work. The ability to highlight and comment right on specific section of their work ensures that students are clear on which aspect of their assignment you are speaking of. As well, tools that all us to give audio feedback allow teachers to give feedback faster and to ensure that the feedback is clear for all students, without the limitation of being able to read the teachers written word.

It is still possible to meet the seven fundamental principles from the document without incorporating technology into your practice. However, not only does technology allow us to better engage and support all students; it makes us more efficient at meeting these important guidelines around assessment and evaluation.

Evaluation, Reporting and Technology

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As this week comes to an end, we are getting ready to send out progress reports to our students in the Hamilton Wentworth District School Board.  As the reports are completed, I had a discussion with some of my peers about the process.  One idea that was interesting to me was that once parents and students see a mark they ignore any other feedback.  Feedback is meant to give students an idea of what they did well and what steps they need to do in order to improve.  However, whether a student gets an A or F, it seems that the feedback does not matter to them.  The A students feel they have done things right and figures they do not need to do more while the F students feel they have failed so there is no point in trying further.  So how do teachers get around students' (and parents') fixation on marks?

 The simple answer is to do away with marks and focus on feedback.   Many may question this idea, however, with the use of technology this is truly a possibility.  Consider report cards.  They are still being delivered in the same manner as they have been for a great number of years.  Teachers try and write a summary of each student's learning three times a year to help inform parents about their children's progress.  This made sense many years ago when it was difficult to reach parents.  However, today we can reach parents in many ways; e-mails, cell phone, blogs where parents and students can access classroom activities.  These tools give parents and students instant information about how well they are progressing.  Parents no longer need to wait for a report to find out how their children are managing, they could do this with the use of technology.

  To consider how using technology could change the way we report I began to explore how teachers are using OneNote in the classroom.  One teacher expressed that she liked OneNote because she could use it both as a textbook and an exercise book.  Everything was in one place and she and the student had access to this at all times.  The teacher can monitor how students are progressing and give feedback that is timely and specific to that students work.  If a parent was interesting in how they student was progressing all they would need to do is view the their child's work and the feedback that is being given.  Since feedback should be focused on strengths and needs it would tell parents exactly what they did well and what they need to do to improve making a mark irrelevant.

On a final note about reporting and the use of technology, I have often heard administrators state, "There should be no surprises on the report cards for parents."  The underlying message is that communicating with parents about their children 's progress should be ongoing. What better way of informing parents than using technology?  By using tools such as OneNote, or e-portfolios, parents can see students work all in one place with the teacher's feedback.  The report card will have no surprises.

By using technology to give students regular and timely feedback on their work would there be a need for report cards?  What more could be crammed into the tiny space of the comment sections that could not be seen by having parents actually view their work?

OneNote and Assessment

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Recently, my teaching partner Chantelle Davies and I were exploring OneNote and decided to use it to complete on of our tasks for our course, Integration of Technology in the Classroom.  As we explored the program we discussed how it would be useful for assessment by creating tabs for each student and then adding annotated notes.  With this is in mind, I decided to further explore how to use OneNote for assessment with a focus on the audio and video features.  What I discovered was that OneNote offers an app called OneNote Class Notebook Creator.

OneNote Class Notebook Creator allows teachers to create a workspace for every student, offers content library for adding material, and a collaboration space.  With this tool students can work in their space and teachers can give feedback in the same place.  The work and feedback can be accessed anywhere any time.

According to OneNote's site the app allows teachers to:

• Empower students to take naturally visual notes with ease—place images, text, printouts, tables, ink, screenshots, and files anywhere in OneNote’s “anything, anywhere” freeform canvas
• Keep tabs on student performance—see exactly which students soar and struggle by observing their full learning process, from note-taking, to problem solving, to submission
• Revolutionize homework feedback with real-time coaching while students work
• Encourage collaborative creativity between students with fast synchronization on pages
• Eliminate paper by replacing printouts on paper with printouts to OneNote
• Organize every lesson, handout, and assignment in flexible shared notebook structure
• Combine OneNote with the creative power of digital ink to deliver the most natural digital educational experiences possible

What I did find interesting is that OneNote allows teachers to write comments in each students space.  The teacher can also highlight work and add an audio recording to share feedback with the students.  Also, the audio feature allows teachers to add comments or instructions for students who may struggle with just written instructions.  The audio feature will also allow students to share their ideas and knowledge removing a barrier for those who have difficulty writing.

In a similar manner, students and teacher can both add video to the workspace.  For teachers, they can add video for those students who are visually inclined learners.  With videos inserted, students or teachers can comment on what is being shown.  Text or audio can be used to create a comment.  With the use of OneNote in class, teachers can have students share their knowledge in multiple ways allowing each student create work that suites their learning style best.  It also allows teachers to give feedback in a timely manner in a variety of formats (audio, video or text) or by using any combination of these.

As I explored OneNote offered to employees by the Hamilton Wentworth District School Board, I found that though OneNote Class Notebook Creator app is free it is not currently available to staff.  I tried to download the app but was informed that an administrator needed to do so.

If anyone has used this in class, please share how you have done so.  What do you like about using OneNote and what challenges have you faced in the classroom while using OneNote?

Links:
OneNote For Teachers

Collaboration