Technology Hacks, Especially for Littles: Use Audio, Video, and Pictures

A few teachers have mentioned a stumbling block for using powerful formative assessment tools are that their learners need more supports. Lots of written directions won't help emerging readers. Having to type a lot won't work for students still learning keyboarding. 

But oftentimes, these roadblocks can be overcome! The benefits of using the technology are great, and with a few tricks or hacks, teachers can speed up the process and reap those benefits. Here are a few, designed especially for younger learners or other students who might need more supports:

Issue: You want to use an online tool to assess students, but students don't have the reading (or perhaps typing) skills needed to complete the online assessment/activity quickly.

Idea #1: Flip

Flip, formerly known as Flipgrid, is a free tool that allows students to respond to prompts--either written or video--with audio or video. It also allows for students to give responses to the recordings of their peers, if the teacher chooses, and for teachers to give recorded feedback. Flip includes quiz tools as well as many other ways to engage students in learning. 

Flip has Immersive Reader built in, which can read text out loud, and Flip has enabled more supports to help younger learners record their voice and/or video response. According to these PreK-2 tips, teachers can use QR codes to support student sign-in to topics. If this sounds like something you are interested in, TLI would love to help you realize your vision!

Idea #2: Google Forms

Google Forms are one example of a powerful tool for formative assessment. Google forms allows you to insert video, which is great for sharing audio and visuals. It also allows you to use pictures as answer choices, which is especially powerful if you just need students to give a prompt a Thumbs Up or Thumbs Down. You can also use the MOTE chrome extension to easily add audio to quickly record yourself OR to have students record themselves giving a longer answer.

Idea #3: Mote

Note that you can also use MOTE to allow students to record themselves in other Google documents, like slides, as in this example of a See-Think-Wonder activity (click to access the demonstration and slide template). Although GPS currently only has the free version of MOTE, which limits recording, the tool has a lot of possibilities for quick and easy audio recording.

BONUS: You can use the MOTE extension to create guided reading experiences (which might be faster and easier than creating audio with media creation tools like Screencastify). The video below shows how this audio tool can be used in 4 different ways to support learners, with the focus on upper elementary or secondary learners who might need more supports:

 

What tools do you use to make assessment more accessible and flexible for your learners? What challenges do you foresee having to work through that others might have solutions for? Let us know in the comments.