© 2012 Sherston Software Ltd.
Speaker :
Mr Matt Wingfield
Managing Director
TAG Developments
© 2012 Sherston Software Ltd.
Using Social Networking for
Learning & Assessment
Matt Wingfield
Managing Director – TAG Developments
Diane Mayers
Independent Consultant
Yen Jia Teng, Jeffery
English Teacher, Yusof Ishak Secondary
© 2012 Sherston Software Ltd.
Session Agenda:
1)
Social Media in the Classroom – Prof. Stephen Heppell
2)
Introducing the Collaborative Online Learning Tools Project
and the MAPS Social Media Collaboration and Analytics tools
- Matt
3)
The pilot schools’ perspective of using MAPS – Diane
4)
Hands-on Session – using the software as a student – Matt
& Diane
5)
A Secondary School Teacher’s Perspective – Jeffery
6)
Questions & Answers
© 2012 Sherston Software Ltd.
Professor Stephen Heppell
If we were seeking to develop water safety we
wouldn't keep children away from water until they
are 14 and then throw them off the pier and hope
that they can swim…
…similarly with social media, blindly banning
them is inappropriate and equally dangerous.
http://www.heppell.net/facebook_in_school/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01y6stowvEs&feature=relmfu
© 2012 Sherston Software Ltd.
The Project & Partners
Collaborative Online Learning Tools
The Collaborative Online Learning Tools project is a joint venture being
undertaken by:
Co-funding the project and providing
oversight & monitoring of the project
as a whole.
Provision of existing MAPS e-assessment
tools, gathering user requirements and
creating the technical specification for the
new tools.
Working with TAG to localise existing tools
and develop new tools. Providing local project
management & support to pilot schools.
© 2012 Sherston Software Ltd.
Collaborative Online Learning Tools
Setting the Scene – Why the CoL Tools project?
To address perhaps the biggest
challenge in e-assessment today…
© 2012 Sherston Software Ltd.
Collaborative Online Learning Tools
Setting the Scene – Why the CoL Tools project?
Can we machine mark
evidence based assessment?
© 2012 Sherston Software Ltd.
Collaborative Online Learning Tools
Setting the Scene – Why the CoL Tools project?
Progress to date in e-assessment:
E-Testing works well – highly robust & reliable
but high reliability can come at a cost…
© 2012 Sherston Software Ltd.
Collaborative Online Learning Tools
e-assessment: At what Cost?
Reliability
Validity
© 2012 Sherston Software Ltd.
Collaborative Online Learning Tools
Meanwhile… in the world of Social Networking
There are lots of advantages to using social media to support formal and
informal learning…
Encourages Real Life Skills:
 sharing knowledge;
 dynamic/adaptive learning.
Engages learners – the hidden hooks:
 a familiar medium that they are
already using;
 highly collaborative;
 provides equal opportunity.
BUT…there are challenges…
© 2012 Sherston Software Ltd.
Collaborative Online Learning Tools
Makes it even worse for teachers!
Specific to assessment the challenges of social media include:
Lots of disparate tools…
Lots of evidence…
Difficult to untangle…
© 2012 Sherston Software Ltd.
Collaborative Online Learning Tools
This is all very time-consuming for teachers…
…evidence based assessment cannot compete because it is hard work;
online testing is simple, quick and AUTOMATIC…
© 2012 Sherston Software Ltd.
Collaborative Online Learning Tools
The solution…
© 2012 Sherston Software Ltd.
Collaborative Online Learning Tools
The Solution: A New Approach
Robots!
© 2012 Sherston Software Ltd.
Collaborative Online Learning Tools
The Solution: A New Approach
Advanced text/data mining techniques allow us to model
teacher marking behaviour…
- we teach the machine to mark like a human;
- then teachers validate the marking.
© 2012 Sherston Software Ltd.
Collaborative Online Learning Tools
How it will Work:
The project builds on TAG’s existing MAPS toolset / framework, adding
automated text/data mining capabilities to:
…be accessible to them either
through MAPS or via their LMS
Provide teachers with a suite
of social media analytical
tools to validate marking/
tagging and inform future
teaching, which will…
© 2012 Sherston Software Ltd.
Collaborative Online Learning Tools
How it will Work:
© 2012 Sherston Software Ltd.
Collaborative Online Learning Tools
The Solution: Based on Existing Tried & Tested Tools
IDA was impressed by TAG’s existing evidence based assessment toolset
and services based approach to the framework behind these.
A fully featured ‘e-portfolio’ that includes:
- a blogging tool - with the ability to ‘tag’ evidence
- APIs for social networking tools – e.g. Facebook
- facility to capture evidence via mobile devices
Designed to support project-based learning:
- capture of dynamic ‘as it happens’ evidence
- facilitates collaboration as part of a task
- provision for tagging individual evidence
Award winning on-screen marking tool:
- contextually tag evidence to assessment criteria
- can be used with multiple criteria sets
- compatible with wide range of evidence types
© 2012 Sherston Software Ltd.
Collaborative Online Learning Tools
Hand’s On Session
Let’s Have a Go!
Go to: http://tinyurl.com/liveassess
Login as:
Username:
newuser80 …newuser81; newuser82 ; etc…
Password:
password
Check you have the latest version of Flash here:
http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/
© 2012 Sherston Software Ltd.
Contact Information & Useful Links
Questions?
Matt Wingfield
Managing Director – TAG Developments
matt.wingfield@sherston.com
Tel: +44 203 176 0394
www.mapsassessment.com
www.tagdevelopments.com
© 2012 Sherston Software Ltd.
Speaker :
Diane Mayers
Independent Consultant
© 2012 Sherston Software Ltd.
Collaborative Online Learning
(CoL Tools) Project
A quick guide
Diane
Mayers
Consultant
iGine
Jeffery
Yen
English Teacher
Yusof Ishak
Secondary School
© Sherston Software 2012
Collaborative learning
Peer Assessment
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Facebook MAPs App
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© Sherston Software 2012
iGINE~ MAPS
Microblog
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Social
Networking
Analysis
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Latent Semantic Indexing
The
Teacher
If the
teachers
teacher
now marks
mark
agrees
isthe
final
with
piece
and
MA overrides
then the
the
MA MA.
suggestion is reinforced. The MA
Marking
assistant
makes
can therefore
“learn” that this work
suggestion
based on not
previous
matches/does
match the criteria.
experience
© Sherston Software 2012
Hands-on session
© Sherston Software 2012
These tools have made
independent as well as
collaborative learning. Pupils are
more engaged and self-directed.
… encourages collaboration
between peers, thus building that
inter-dependence culture and
fostering the habit to learn from
one another.
… increased pupils' engagement during
tasks/helped them go through tasks
more independently
… the micro blog tool enable students to
comment on each other’s work so that
they can improve their work
… it can be used in project work,
science experiments also non
academic subjects such as PE and
CCA’s to monitor pupils' progress and
also be used as a reflective tool to
build 21st century skills.
… it actually has helped students by
getting and giving constructive
feedback especially from and to their
friends and colleagues
Primary and Secondary Teachers Comments
© Sherston Software 2012
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What did you like or dislike about using
LiveAssess?
•
Easy to use
•
What I like is that LiveAssess is very interesting
•
What I like about using LiveAsses is that I can work with my group without meeting
them and I can just use the LiveAsses to complete my work or project...
•
I like the microblog
•
I get to use the computer, using LiveAssess is a lot more fun
than the normal lessons.
•
I like Live assess because the teacher follow through with
us the following...
•
I like sharing things that i have done with my partners
© Sherston Software 2012
What did you think about commenting on each others work.
What do you think was good and /or bad about the experience?
•
Easy to improve the on the work, as other classmates are working on the same thing, they might discover or find a way to improve that I
have not.
•
It was good as it is better to work this way than in class.
•
I think by commenting on each other work is very useful because their work can be an example for me to look at and improve on my
work. And also, I can advice them about what they can add on or in other word, to improve on.
•
It was fun, we get to improve our work easily. Our teammates help me out.
•
It is good, because our friends will give their comment and we will get better in our work.
•
•
The good thing is that they will know on what they need to improve on and the bad one is they will think that I am saying bad things about
their work
It is a good experience because you can help improve your partner's work.
•
I think commenting on each others work was great as we all had positive comments.
© Sherston Software 2012
Teacher’s
view
Teacher can intervene in the
Microblog or Facebook at
anytime and delete posts if
they wish
Teacher can see which boxes
have been completed and
which box each student is
accessing
Teacher not only can see the
individual portfolios, but also
the class contents of individual
boxes
© Sherston Software 2012
Assessing
When marking Web 2.0 posts,
students work is highlighted in
main posts to show context.
Using tools like Red Pen Tool
the teacher can write, audio
record comment, underline
and tag text and
pictures.
Teachers
can look
at students
Teacher
can trackself
when the
assessment. The
work
be marked,
work
wascan
submitted.
graded or handed back.
© Sherston Software 2012
Next steps …
If you would like further details of how to join this project please contact –
Contact Matt Wingfield at
matt.wingfield@sherston.com
© Sherston Software 2012
Speaker :
Mr Jeffrey Yen
Yusof Ishak Secondary School
© Sherston Software 2012
Social Media
Assessment in the
Classroom
Jeffrey Yen
Yusof Ishak Secondary School
What students did
• Extension of CoL tools project allow
students to go to facebook.com (a FB
app)
• Attempted task (reviewing friends’
work) by typing their thoughts into
discussion threads
Observations
• Students were familiar with the user
interface of Facebook
• Interested in completing the tasks
• They don’t feel that it’s ‘work’
However...Issues
faced
• You are competing with the rest of the
Internet: Facebook, Twitter, websites
etc.
• Students were tempted to go off-task
OR
• They did the task successfully but were
engaged at the same time with the
‘other windows’
Dealing with this...
•
•
•
•
‘House rules’: only one window allowed
(Then again, maybe teachers shouldn’t be
too hung up about this: re-examine ‘rules’)
Ensure that activities are relevant and
instructions are specific
A ‘privilege’ to use aircon comp labs: If
students are not on task, no more
interesting ICT lessons!
Benefits of assessment
using social media
•
•
•
•
Students are on Facebook all the time;
There is potential to let Facebook be a platform
for communications and homework at all times
too!
Mobility of social networking may increase
authenticity of task
for eg, doing a concert review while walking out
of the concert hall v.s. finishing a piece of work
at home
Facebook as
assessment platform
possibilities of assessment
• Students are already familiar with
Facebook
•
•
•
They use it without need for coercion
Formative assessment can be integrated in
such a way that it becomes a regular
Facebook experience
If you have a hundred ‘likes’ for your
Facebook task, it’s going to change
perception of ‘tests’ in general
What you can do
today
• Create a Facebook group each class, or join
a group already created by the Form
Teacher
•
•
•
•
Use this as a channel to communicate
But, can you really run ‘assessment tasks’
using Facebook?
Yes, formative assessment. eg. students
respond to a topic by typing into a thread
The space issue: the class group can be
‘school space’
What you can do
today
• Twitter
•
•
•
•
Students can tweet using #hashtags to
label conversations
Eg. Write a proposal to school
management to suggest improvements at
the canteen.
Students go to canteen at recess time, and
post short Facebook responses
Very authentic, contextualised task
Thank you
• Questions?