When I went into the Common Sense website, the list of tools was completely overwhelming. To prevent myself from really going down the rabbit hole, I went to the listed recommended formative assessment tools. I was actually familiar with quite a few of them, so I decided to select one that I had never heard of before.
Of the listed tools, I narrowed it down to two that I was interested in: PlayPosit and Formative. After taking a quick look at both, I liked them both, but I decided to look more into PlayPosit for the purposes of this assignment.
PlayPosit is a tool that allows the user to create and publish "bulbs" in which different types of questions (only multiple choice, if using the free version) are added into a video. Users are able to create their own bulbs or use previously created ones. While researching this tool, I watched and answered a couple of bulbs to understand what it looks like. When reflecting on this selection, I think it interested me for a few reasons. First, because videos are a common tool that I use to quickly learn or refresh my knowledge on a subject. Second, with the outbreak of the SARS-CoV-2 (which causes COVID-19), I have been reflecting on what a difficult situation this could be for teachers if these school closures continue.
After looking at everything though, I would not actually give this one a perfect rating, but, I would still give it a 4/5 rating, which turns out to be in line with both what Common Sense gave it and what the teachers rating on the site gave it.
I think it is a worthwhile tool to look at. This tool would be great in a flipped classroom setup or as a station during station teaching for students to learn independently. It would definitely be a great option for a substitution to direct teaching during these school closures. The questions throughout the video forces students to be actively watching the videos and can be used to highlight the information that students need to know. The management dashboard has students listed and the teacher can quickly see what information students are understanding and what they are not from the selected video. Probably the most interesting feature of the tool is that you can add discussions into the video and students can pose questions or comments and respond to each other asynchronously. It would still allow for some level of discussion and cooperation even though everyone needs to stay apart for now. Even after the closures are lifted, this would still be a great option for flipped classroom. The discussion can begin as homework and the teacher can have better input on where to begin in-class discussions.
I wish there were more tutorials on creating the videos, but being able to preview the pre-made bulbs really helped to understand the tool better than the tutorials and the descriptions on the site and other sites that I explored. On one of the videos, one of the features I liked was that, at points in the video, rather than asking a basic question, it gave a prompt for students to write something in their journal or do something else. That creates active learning that moves beyond just simple questions. I considered creating a bulb, and still might for my unit in another class, but I just ran out of time this week.
Update: Since I am stuck at home, I went ahead and created a video. This is about the Coronavirus outbreak and is the best, short video I have found on the subject. I actually watched a few Osmosis videos while doing this and they seem like a great resource. At the end of this video I also have links to a video that teaches the basics of viruses and a podcast that is an interview with a virologist which has a lot of really great information.
In doing this I found out that in order to assign this video and collect the data/metrics on it, I have to do it through a Google classroom. The link I am sharing is only the preview video. It still has all the interactions that I created, but it doesn't send me any feedback. So, I think that lowers my rating to 3 out of 5 stars. Having an option for people to sign in through the link and collecting data that way (like in Google forms) would be much better.
COVID-19/SARS-CoV-2 PlayPosit Video
Of the listed tools, I narrowed it down to two that I was interested in: PlayPosit and Formative. After taking a quick look at both, I liked them both, but I decided to look more into PlayPosit for the purposes of this assignment.
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| Now, I'm not saying that I chose this tool because of the logo, but I'm also not saying that I didn't |
PlayPosit is a tool that allows the user to create and publish "bulbs" in which different types of questions (only multiple choice, if using the free version) are added into a video. Users are able to create their own bulbs or use previously created ones. While researching this tool, I watched and answered a couple of bulbs to understand what it looks like. When reflecting on this selection, I think it interested me for a few reasons. First, because videos are a common tool that I use to quickly learn or refresh my knowledge on a subject. Second, with the outbreak of the SARS-CoV-2 (which causes COVID-19), I have been reflecting on what a difficult situation this could be for teachers if these school closures continue.
After looking at everything though, I would not actually give this one a perfect rating, but, I would still give it a 4/5 rating, which turns out to be in line with both what Common Sense gave it and what the teachers rating on the site gave it.I think it is a worthwhile tool to look at. This tool would be great in a flipped classroom setup or as a station during station teaching for students to learn independently. It would definitely be a great option for a substitution to direct teaching during these school closures. The questions throughout the video forces students to be actively watching the videos and can be used to highlight the information that students need to know. The management dashboard has students listed and the teacher can quickly see what information students are understanding and what they are not from the selected video. Probably the most interesting feature of the tool is that you can add discussions into the video and students can pose questions or comments and respond to each other asynchronously. It would still allow for some level of discussion and cooperation even though everyone needs to stay apart for now. Even after the closures are lifted, this would still be a great option for flipped classroom. The discussion can begin as homework and the teacher can have better input on where to begin in-class discussions.
I wish there were more tutorials on creating the videos, but being able to preview the pre-made bulbs really helped to understand the tool better than the tutorials and the descriptions on the site and other sites that I explored. On one of the videos, one of the features I liked was that, at points in the video, rather than asking a basic question, it gave a prompt for students to write something in their journal or do something else. That creates active learning that moves beyond just simple questions. I considered creating a bulb, and still might for my unit in another class, but I just ran out of time this week.
Update: Since I am stuck at home, I went ahead and created a video. This is about the Coronavirus outbreak and is the best, short video I have found on the subject. I actually watched a few Osmosis videos while doing this and they seem like a great resource. At the end of this video I also have links to a video that teaches the basics of viruses and a podcast that is an interview with a virologist which has a lot of really great information.
In doing this I found out that in order to assign this video and collect the data/metrics on it, I have to do it through a Google classroom. The link I am sharing is only the preview video. It still has all the interactions that I created, but it doesn't send me any feedback. So, I think that lowers my rating to 3 out of 5 stars. Having an option for people to sign in through the link and collecting data that way (like in Google forms) would be much better.COVID-19/SARS-CoV-2 PlayPosit Video
I now have a much better understanding of PlayPosit. Your post also made me curious to know more. If you created a Bulb, please share it so we can see what you have learned.
ReplyDeleteI ended up creating a video tonight after submitting this assignment. I updated my blog to include some additional information I found out from doing it as well as the link to the video.
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