Criteria for selecting student mobile learning device (educational concerns)

As schools move toward mobile learning, they have to make decision about the type of mobile device that the students will use.  Regardless of whether the school supplies its own device or whether students supply their own,  there  are some basic minimal  requirements.

1) The device has to connect to the  internet so students can use qr codes, do internet searching,  bookmark commonly used sites,  watch educational videos and create online surveys.

2) The device should have enough memory for basic apps such as an  e-reader, a note-taker/ word processor,   spreadsheet,   media player, and a dictionary app.  The device will have other apps that help the students to climb the learning ladder from memorization to synthesis/evaluation  for their  specific learning goals.  There will be many more higher level learning apps (70%) than lower level ones (30%).  Those apps that simulate or duplicate real-world use of the subject area  learning will be the most useful apps.

3)  The device should have a camera and microphone so students can take pictures, record videos, and record audio. They will want to  capture and demonstrate their learning through images and sound (pictures, sound recordings, and movies).

4) Students need to be able to do texting  on the device so they can seek the perspectives of others and to learn from others outside the classroom.  As students learn to ask good  essential questions, they can seek the perspectives of others so they can go beyond the limited perspective of the textbook.  If we value diversity, let’s bring it into the classroom through seeing the opinions of others.

5) As students use their mobile device to explore concepts through productivity based learning, they will want to be able to call their experts such as their aunt or grandfather for things such as what is was like during the Depression,  how a farm business has been changed by technology, etc. so the mobile learning device needs to have phone capabilities.  Even better, if it can have videoconferencing.

6) Students need access to their social media sites on their mobile learning device so that they can distribute surveys.  When they want to receive many responses, they know they can distribute the surveys to their online friends.  The more people responding, the better the data to analyze and the more critical thinking involved.

If we want students to be prepared for their future in the real world, the world outside the classroom, then we need to start taking them virtually into that world and allowing them to bring that world into the classroom through their mobile learning device.

I have 20+ Spanish spontaneous speaking/fluency activities  available at Teacherspayteachers: 
http://bit.ly/tpthtuttle

My three formative assessment books:   http://is.gd/tbook

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Aim For Real Learning With Apps

During the Olympics many athletes told about their training.  For example, swimmers lifted weights to develop stronger arms. They watched tapes of their turning around  and made adjustments.  They stressed that the most important thing that they could do to improve their swimming was to swim.

Do we use apps  in our classrooms to do  developmental drills or do we use apps to allow students to swim?  Students can do math app after math app of math drills without ever doing real world math; , can the students  figure out how much they are spending in a store and how much change they  are to get back?   Likewise, English students can do grammar drill after grammar drill on various apps;  can they write a persuasive essay about preventing the destruction of a forest for a shopping mall?  Again, modern language students can do vocabulary drills on  food in many different apps; can they, in the target language, order a meal and tell what is wrong with the meal?

Our students will use some developmental apps but then  they have to move up to  real life or simulation apps where students use the learning in real experiences.  For examples, you can give  your  math students a certain amount of  virtual pretend money such as $150.00 and tell them to go clothing shopping at an online store on their mobile device. What can they buy? How much will they have left?   Modern language students can visit a restaurant in their target language and explain to the waiter  what they want to eat  for each part of the meal.

Let’s use apps to do real world uses of the subject area and not to drown students in developmental apps.

I have 20+ Spanish spontaneous speaking/fluency activities  available at Teacherspayteachers: 
http://bit.ly/tpthtuttle

My three formative assessment books:   http://is.gd/tbook

Open-ended questions for higher level answers in Web 2.0

Often times teachers  ask many  closed-ended questions (lower level questions) about a learning goal and then they are surprised when they get lower level answers back.  Close-ended question usually begin with question words like “Who…?” as in “Who invented the ….?”,  “When ….?” as in “When did she invent …?,   “Where….?” as in “Where is Spain? ” and “What …?” as in “What  is the capital of New York?”.  In order to get higher level answers, one needs to ask big powerful questions.  These questions can be essential or critical questions; they can be open-ended questions which have many possible correct answers.   Open-ended questions often start with “Why….?” as in “Why do you think solar energy is better than water energy?”, “What..?” such as “What are the differences between ….?” and “How….?” such as “How are these two wars similar?”  When students think there is only one right answer, they limit their thinking.  Most real life problems do not have one right answer.

Here are some examples:

Texting in Social Studies:

Closed-ended question:  What does “occupy” mean?  There are a fixed number of answers. Once the students answer the question, they are done. They realize that the teacher has a specific  definition in mind and they try to guess it.

Open-ended question: How are the “occupy” movements in the USA similar or different to the “occupy” movements in Europe? Students can answer this question in many different correct  ways and, then, discuss their various answers. They widen their learning as they hear  the different responses. They consider aspects they had not thought about.

Wiffiti in English:

Close-ended questions:  Who did Don Quixote persuade to join him?   The  answer to this question is a factual answer. Once a student says the name of the person, he/she is done with learning.

Open-ended question?  What would Don Quixote have to offer you for you to join him?  Again, students will have a wide variety of correct answers. They see that the answer to this question goes far beyond the book.  What do other  people in your life offer you to join them? Do you join them?  Open-ended questions lead to powerful answers about the learning goal and about life.

Let’s ask open-ended higher level questions instead of closed-ended lower level thinking questions with our Web 2.0 tools.

Students’ Web 2 school projects: Redoing to be Web 2.0

Much of  students’ Web 2.0 use is for   “drop and run” projects.  Where is read-write? Building on Others?  Collaboration?  Global?  Higher Level Thinking?

Many 2.0 tools

Some example of how to transform some to be more 2.0 and less 1.0.

Podcast/Voki/Audacity:   George Washington Example

Glogster / QR poster:  English writing

Images (Flickr, …):  Whale example

Videoconferencing/Skype:   Books

Video:   Shakespeare

Facebook/Twitter:  Paper Use

Others?

Tuttle’s formative assessment books:   http://is.gd/tbook

Cell and SmartPhones: Best Practices and Lessons Learned

3 hour workshop

Classroom examples/lesson learned for each

Find Reference Info

Google 466453

Chacha 242-242
Apps – Dictionary, Thesaurus, …

Internet

Capture Information
Photo

Voice

Video

Communicate through texting

Celly

Twitter

Wiffiti

Communicate through media

Flickr slideshow

Yodio

Geo-tours with QR codes and GPS

Learn Globally

BBC
Collaboration

Do Higher Level Thinking

Contrast and Compare
Synthesize from various sources

Learn content

Interactive

Varied/differentiated media sources

Assess learning

Google Forms / Polleverywhere / Spreadsheet

Use QR Codes

Hints: 1 Name 2 Multiple 3 Link 4 See

QR code generator: http://createqrcode.appspot.com/

Tuttle’s formative assessment books:   http://is.gd/tbook

Constant Peer Review on the Same Essay Improves Student Writing

I  teach a college composition course.  We spend much time in peer reviewing (probably 70% of class time) in a formative assessment process. Today the students had their 6th peer review on the same “essay” and we are just up to doing  three body paragraphs.  I asked my students to do a questionnaire on the process we use.  About 15% said that they did not peer review in their high school English classes.  Of those they did peer review, they stated that peer review  focused on grammar, spelling and punctuation. As one student said of our process,  “we  focus on changing idea.”  Most students (80%) had not had more than one peer  review their writing; so far we  have had 6 different peers react to their writing.  As one student mentioned “you get a different view and different aspects about your paper from other people ” and “You receive others’ opinions using the same format you used to write it.”  My goal is simple: for students  to constantly improve in their writing.  Formative assessment which focuses on monitoring and giving feedback continually through the process enables students to improve in each aspect of their writing, starting at the pre-writing phase.  A more thorough description of this process is found in my Successful Student Writing Through Formative Assessment

How often do your students peer review  each other’s work?

My book, Formative Assessment: Responding to Your Students, is available through Eye on Education.

Also, my  book,  Successful Student Writing Through Formative Assessment, is available through Eye on Education.

Self-Assessment as Critical Skill: Formative Assessment as a Stepping Stone

I am painfully aware that helping students to be able to self-assess is a slow task. On the other hand, I realize how critical this skill is as a lifelong skill. Unless students can self-assess, they will not be able to improve on their own. I certainly do not want my students dependent on me for the rest of their lives to make sure that they are “correct”. I want them to be able to determine for themselves what they are doing and how well it helps them to get to their desired goal. They should be empowered to make their own decisions about the things they do. They do need our help in developing from very structured self-assessments  (Right or Wrong for lower level answers) to evaluating their decisions without any given criteria. Students need to transition through this process.

Formative assessment provides a wonderful stepping stone to self-assessment. As students learn to assess others, they learn what is important about the learning, how that learning can be demonstrated, and  how to identify and implement formative feedback.  They develop the skill to objectively look at their own work. They understand  that they have the techniques to improve.  As one of my English students said, ” I’m learning to look at my own paper as I do when I peer review another student’s paper.”

How do you help your students to be able to self-assess? Do you use formative assessment as a stepping stone?

My book, Formative Assessment: Responding to Your Students, is available through Eye on Education.

Also, my  book,  Successful Student Writing Through Formative Assessment, is available through Eye on Education.

Check Lower Level Learning Immediately (Formative Assessment)

We all want our students to be learning at the higher levels of thinking.  However, they first have to learn  lower level information.  For example, Spanish students want to converse in the language but until they learn basic vocabulary and grammar such as the present tense; they cannot converse.  We can change the format of class so that after we have introduced the lower level learning and have them practice it enough to know whether they understand the concept, then we can have them practice the lower level learning at home.

If we have them use an online program that “drills” them, shows them the right answer, and shows them  how to get the right answer,  they can immediately know how well they are doing and be given the opportunity to improve.  They do not have to wait until the next day (or in terms of a college course five days or week) to find out if they can do this lower level thinking.  Since the teacher has put in the program   a full explanation of how to get the right answer, the students can overcome their learning gap (formative feedback aspect of formative assessment).  They can redo the program to verify that they can do this lower level activity well.  They feel successful.  They have practiced this learning in the safety of their homes.

Then, in class, the teacher  can move the students to higher levels from the lower level.  For example, the Spanish students can tell what activities they do that day, can describe the various activities of their family members, and ask others what they things they do during a day.

So how do you practice lower level learning so that students know immediately if they are right or wrong and if they wrong,  do they learn how to change their thinking to get right answers? How do you  use formative assessment to move your students forward in their learning?

My book, Formative Assessment: Responding to Your Students, is available through Eye on Education.

Also, my  book,  Successful Student Writing Through Formative Assessment, is available through Eye on Education.

Woeful Book Wiki Turned to Wow Book Wiki

As I prepare for my NECC presentation on assessing Web 2.0 tools, I have visited many schools’ wikis, websites, etc.

I’m feeling more and more discouraged.  I’ve noticed that most wikis are simply an online collection of student work. For example, all students in a class may do a book report and these book reports are posted to the class wiki.  The students post their book report and the project is done when the last book report is posted. There has been no interaction among students or other adults.  They have only worked in one learning style, linguistics.  Likewise, the students have paraphrased  (summarized) their book; they have not analyzed it.

Let’s look at another version of a book wiki.  The teacher asks all students to select a book that has friendship as a theme. They read their book and post an explanation of  how the book demonstrates friendship (analysis level of thinking). They create a drawing or a concept map that shows the specific  friendship in their book and post that to the wiki.  Then the students select at least three other book reviews to read. After they read each review, they comment on how their own book’s theme of friendship  is similar or different to this student’s review. They come up with an example of that book’s friendship from their lives and post it. Then the class has a discussion on various types of friendship.

Let’s change wikis from just a collection place to an interactive high-level thinking learning place.

My book, Formative Assessment: Responding to Students, is available through Eye-on-Education.

Apply the Heat to Learning

Another thought about putting plastic on windows to insulate the window. After putting the tape on the window and putting the plastic over the tape, the last step is to apply heat. The heat forces the plastic to attach itself more firmly and tightly to the tape. It changes the loosely fitting plastic to very tight and firm plastic.

How often do we apply heat to our student’s learning after they have had some basic instruction and practice? Do we present them with a challenging task that causes them to apply their learning to a high degree? Do we have them think at the analysis, synthesis or evaluation levels? Do we have them take their “book” learning and apply it to real life? Do we have them evaluate present conditions based on past ones? Do we apply heat to their learning?

How do you apply the heat to your students’ learning?

For any one who is interested in implementing formative assessment in the classroom, my book,
Formative Assessment: Responding to Students is available through Eye-on-Education.

Integrating Thinking Through Reading

As teachers we can incorporate many critical thinking through reading activities into our classroom. We can have students:

Annotate the text

Explain the context of the reading

Outline or Summarize

Predict

Ask questions about the text

Compare/ contrast to other readings

Connect to other readings or other things containing the ideas found in the text

Creating Thinking Curriculum

How do we change our curriculums from memorization of facts to higher level thinking curriculums?

One way is to ask questions that require our students to compare and contrast. How is the American Revolution like the French Revolution? How is it different? How  does the Spanish present tense compare to the Future tense?

Another way is to ask questions that ask our students to explain the consequences of some act.  For example, Science classes can explore the implications of every American home using five compact bulbs on the energy use for the nation.

In a third technique students evaluate a situation.  Which  of these solutions is better and why?  Math students can figure out which of three loans will be a better financial deal and explanation their reasoning.

Students will still know the basic but more important, they will be able to use the basic information in higher level thinking.

How do you  cause you students to engage in higher level thinking?

University Pressure on Students: Lack of Standards.

My Canadian cousin was telling me that certain universities require that a student have a 95 in specific subjects before they will accept him or her. Those universities are promoting the grade over learning struggle in education. How much better it would be if the universities required that students be above proficient in certain standards. However that would require that the universities were able to identify those standards or parts of certain standards that they deemed truly critical. If the universities could do that, then they could communicate it to public schools so that the teachers would know what the students had to achieve. As it is now, the universities do not specify what standards they require. The state exams are such a small sample of the standards that they do not really show a students’ progress in the standards. No wonder that public schools are unsure of what their students are to learn.

How do you express the standards to you students? How do you require them to achieve the standards to a high degree? How do you use technology to help them arrive at that high-degree of thinking for the standard?

© Harry Grover Tuttle, 2007

Necessary Educational Tool – Digital Camera

I see a digital camera as a required technology for every educator. I think that educators enjoy simply tools- tools that help promote students’ higher-level standards-based learning and tools that do what we want when we want without a lot of complication.

With it, we and our students can

-take still images that represent stages of learning in a process. Most cameras allow you to take low resolution images which work great for most classroom and web projects. If you take at the lowest resolution, then probably you do not have to use a third party program to get “small memory” images.

-make movies for our class or for other classes using YouTube. Many cameras can directly upload to YouTube type programs. For example, mine records in .mov. Check your camera manual for the format of your movies.

-do audio recording for podcasts, collecting oral interviews, recording language experiences.

Simple technologies can help our students in powerful learning.

How else do you use a digital camera to help promote students’ higher-level standards-based learning?

© Harry Grover Tuttle, 2007

Real Focus in Technology-Infused Academic Learning in Podcasts-NECC

At NECC, I had several people come up and challenge my ideas about technology-infused learning in podcasts. They did agree that the students only spent 25% of their time in learning science (1 day of learning content, 1 day to plan the podcast and 2 days to produce it) but they insisted that the students were doing higher level thinking within the podcasting. I agreed that the students were but that higher-level thinking had nothing to do with science content. It focused on media literacy. They were selecting which images to use and which words to use. Hopefully, each time they were becoming better at media literacy. However, media literacy does not show up on state assessments. Nor have most schools identified it as a major academic priority. If a school has identified this 21st skill as a priority, then they have to have a way to measure it and assess it. If it is not on the state assessment and not a school recognized academic priority, then doing such an activity does not contribute to the school’s academic priorities.

They still are only learning science 25% of the time during the project! What is your percentage of learning to technology in a project?

© Harry Grover Tuttle, 2007

Effective technology-Each Technology at Different Thinking Level- NECC

I gave a session at NECC on Wed. on “Assessing how a school’s academic priorities are supported by technology.” Based on many observations of schools, I’ve come to believe that 70% of all school technology-infused activities are neither focused on state standards or state assessments nor are they effective uses of technology.

Many teachers use multiple technologies in a project. Do the teachers use each technology to raise the thinking level of the project or do they use each technology on the same level of thinking. For example, in a project of analyzing the health of a stream if a teacher has students use digital camera, PowerPoint and Podcasts during the project, does each technology serve as a step to the next ladder of higher learning or are all technologies used at the same level such as comprehension? A teacher can start with digital images for comprehension, have a compare and contrast PowerPoint, and an evaluation done in a podcast.

Do you increase students’ level of thinking through each technology use in the same project/unit?

 

© Harry Grover Tuttle, 2007

 

 

Some Free Concept Mapping Programs

(Gliffy)

Thanks to Freeware resources, you and your students can use concept mapping programs in school and at home for free. You can map out your ideas and structure your higher level thinking activities.

Online

Bubb.us can create a bubble concept map with ease. Each box has several icons: + to move the icon; X to remove it; color icon to change the color; folder for a sibling folder; folder for a new child balloon; and a paper clip to attach a bubble to another bubble. It is quick to use. However, I did not see how to format the text. The maps can be exported. It is primarily text-based.

Gliffy Online allows you to create three private and unlimited public maps in the free version. Its many shapes are drag and drop. You can change the color of the font and the background of any shape. You can eliminate the background grid. To make it public, click on Share and Public. It appears the closest to the Inspiration program that many teachers are familiar with.

Download Program

Compendium uses a node metaphor. There are drag and drop icons for questions, answers (argument, pro, con) notes, and references (actual docs like pdf, PowerPoint, weblink), strategy, activity, etc. You can easily link from one item to another. Has a great tutorial.

Cmap tools permits a map within a map. A primary item usually has a proposition (phrase connecting one item to another). It is primarily text based. This program is supported by several universities.

Additional programs are briefly listed in Wikipedia

Now you can do concept maps at home, your students can do them at home, and you and the students can do concept maps on any school computer even if it does not have have Inspiration.

Map On! Think On!

© Harry Grover Tuttle, 2007

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Flickr – Student Learning by Associating Categories (Tags)

There are several Flickr programs that allow you and your students to find tags associated or clustered with the initial tag you searched for.

Flickstorm sorts by topic rather quickly – bottom half has tags
http://www.zoo-m.com/flickr-storm/

Airtight Interactive Type in a term, see images about the term and see connections
http://www.airtightinteractive.com/projects/related_tag_browser/app/

Tagnautica shows the associated tags and images (my favorite visual association so far)
http://www.quasimondo.com/tagnautica.php

Flickr clustering allows for clustering of ideas so that “bill” can be clustered in numerous ways. Type in the tag and then click on cluster
http://flickr.com/photos/tags/bill/clusters

This can be a great educational game for your students. You think of a tag like ice for your science unit and then you ask the students to list all the related tags (categories) that they can think of. Then type “ice” into one of the above and compare the tags to the students. Have the students determine which are science categories and which are non-scientific categories. This type of inference thinking helps to broaden the students’ thinking and helps them to think in terms of connections instead of one isolated term. They have to compare and contrast tags.

So how do you have you students develop tag (category) building through Flickr?

 

© Harry Grover Tuttle, 2007

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Podcast: Students Add Worthwhile Learning Content

So why is it worth listening to your students’ podcasts? Does their podcast add new knowledge? Does it give others a new and deeper perspective on the topic?

Here’s some suggestions for a Social Social class podcast:

1- Compare how a local historical event fits in with the bigger one. For example, where does your town’s underground railroad station fit in the bigger underground railroad route? How did the actual location of the slaves’ hiding places compare to where the hiding places in other stations? Was the station near a river? How did the slaves “sneak” in?

2-Evaluate a local system such as the monetary system of “Ithaca Dollars” against the monetary system of the USA. How are they same? How are they different? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each? Contrast local government to state or federal government.

3-Create a graph of the growth (or decline) of your town since it was incorporated. Explain the growth (or decline). How does it compare to other towns in your geographical area?

4- Analyze the values of your community as expressed through bumper stickers. What does a random sampling of cars at the various grocery stores show you about what people value? How does the result of that study compare to the way your community voted in the last elections?

How have your students produced new worthwhile learning content for others? Share your stories.

© Harry Grover Tuttle, 2007

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Learning Performance Tasks: Climbing the Learning Ladder

If we want students to learn a standard to its highest level, then we have to structure the learning for them.

One technique is to make sure that you have questions or activities at each of the three different thought levels: Knowledge-Comprehension; Application- Analysis; and Synthesize – Evaluation.

In Science , this would look like:

• Explain the three aspects of the stream (biological, physical, and chemical) and how each can be measured

• Analyze the stream for each aspect

• Evaluate the health of the stream by examining the relationship of the three aspects

You might create a word processed unit planning template to remind you to incorporate all three levels for each standard. You may have a word processed list of the various verbs for each level of Bloom so you can pick active thought verbs. You can structure your assessments so that they assess each of the three levels.

© Harry Grover Tuttle, 2007

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Challenge Student Thinking Through Differentiated Simulation Cards

Students like adventure in the classroom and a simulation can engage them in in-depth thinking. This approach can work in any class where you create a strong scenario to which students can react.

If you have created a simulation such as creating a nation, you have your students set up their new nation by deciding on a form of government, on the laws of the land, on the monetary system and taxation, on the transportation system, on the types of shelter, etc. Then you present them with situations that challenge their new nation.

You can vary the difficulty of your challenge for the academic level of your class.

One card may say “Your citizens are protesting the high taxes and promise to vote you and other leaders out of their offices in this (democracy) unless the taxes are lowered. What do you do? Explain your action.”

A more structured version may say, “Your citizens are protesting the high taxes and promise to vote you and other leaders out of their offices in this (democracy) unless the taxes are lowered. If taxes are lowered, then there is no money for governmental services. What do you do? Explain your action.”

An even more structured version may say “Your citizens are protesting the high taxes and promise to vote you and other leaders out of their offices in this (democracy) unless the taxes are lowered. If taxes are lowered, then there is no money for governmental services such as highways, water, and health services. What do you do? Explain your action.”

An very structured version may say “Your citizens are protesting the high taxes and promise to vote you and other leaders out of their offices in this (democracy) unless the taxes are lowered. If taxes are lowered, then there is no money for governmental services such as highways, water, and health services. Do you keep the high tax rate and show them what services their taxes support? Do you lower the taxes and lower the services? Or do you ignore them? Explain your action.”

With a word processor, it is easy to differentiate the situations by adding more structure. Also, you could use one or more digital images as a prompt to aid those who have difficulty in reading.

So how do you engage your students in differentiated responses to a scenario through technology?

© Harry Grover Tuttle, 2007

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Student Produced Educational Podcasts: Label the Standard

In getting ready to help a teacher develop Social Studies podcasts, I’ve listened to many student podcasts.

I’ve heard factual reports (the history of ….), role playing/dramatic reenactments such as the tax act, etc.

In none of them did I hear the education reason for the podcast. Students jump right into the topic. It seems that facts are the most important thing in students’ podcasts. However, state benchmarks require higher level thinking about the standards. They require compare and contrast, inference level thinking.

So how can we transform podcasts from reporting of facts to be higher level? Let’s use Social Studies with the topic of the US American Revolution:

Instead of focusing just on the American Revolution, students can focus on the general causes for a revolution and then give world wide examples of revolutions. (NYS Standard 2: examine the broad sweep of history from a variety of perspectives)

They explain the critical vocabulary used to describe revolutions and give examples of these words or phrases from multiple revolutions.

Students compare the various “wars” that have taken place on USA soil as to the purpose of each side, how the wars were fought, and how each war reshaped the USA.

Those podcasts directly focus on a standard and involve higher level thinking. Please share the podcasts that your students have done that are standards-based and higher level thinking based.

© Harry Grover Tuttle, 2007

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Students Learn More With Similarities/Differences PowerPoints

Robert Marzano in A Handbook for Classroom Instruction That Works had identified that, of all classroom activities, the students benefit most from finding similarities and differences. When the students find similarites and differences, they are using higher level thinking skills.

So how can we use this to make students’ learning more powerful?

In Social Studies, students can compare two countries in terms of their future potential as a world power in a PowerPoint. The students go beyond just copying facts to looking for the different components of a world power.

In English, students can show how the same theme is in two different works of literature through a PowerPoint. They begin to analyze how each theme is presented in the different works and see the variety of ways of expressing this theme.

In Science, students can compare the health of two streams through a PowerPoint. The ph of one stream is a static fact but when it is compared to the ph of another stream, students begin to generate many questions.

In Math, students can show the similarities and differences between various geometric shapes through PowerPoint. When students put a square next to a rectangle, the differences become apparent.
In languages such as Spanish, students can compare the uses of estar and ser through a PowerPoint. By having to contrast these two, they come to see when each should be used.

Students can use the many features of PowerPoint such as arrows, text blocks, colored fonts, and shapes to accentuate the similarties and differences between two concepts. As they dramatically illustrate the similarities and differences, they demonstrate their higher level thinking.

The students’ PowerPoints are robust learning experiences that maximize their learning since the students compare and contrast.

So what similiarities/differences types of PowerPoints have your students done?

© Harry Grover Tuttle, 2007

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Student Peer-to-peer Videoconferencing Categories

The following are different categories of student peer-to-peer videoconferencing. The more categories that you, an educator,  are aware of, the more you can select the category that will most benefit your students.  Most of these categories involve higher level thinking.

Instructional – Peer-to-peer: Students

– Brainstorm ideas
– Share what they have learned with each other
– Ask each other questions about a certain topic

– Survey each other and produce graph of results

– Collaborate with others to create something

– Debate
– Guessing game/ figure it out

– Compete in quiz shows or “be the first to”

– Participate in simulations

– Be part of round tables

– Teach a topic to another group

– Critique each other’s work

 

What other categories of  student peer to peer videoconferencing can you add?