Using Social Media - Student Voice and Feedback

 I have been trying Social Media as a method of engaging the students with the work for about a term now and need some student feedback as to how they think it is going. I decided not to send them a Google form as that takes too much nagging to get them to do it, so I have just been talking to them face to face and asking them questions in person.

The links to each of them are on the front of my class site - link here

Student Feedback

Student 1 - Y13

She has followed the TikTok account and is asking me if I have done any new ones. She watched the latest one about rendering. She is one of the students who helped me learn how to do the basics on TikTok so she was quite keen to see how I did with it.

Student 2 - Y13

Not very good at reading his emails so does not get the notifications about new videos being up. He hasn't really engaged with the content because of this. 

Student 3 - Y13

She has watched the videos on TikTok. (especially the cookies one ... they all love the cookie recipe !!). She seems to use a "just in time" method with her watching. When she needed to know something about 3D, she went specifically to that video to watch it and when she wanted to know about rendering, she went to that one. 

Student 4 - Y13

Her attendance has not been great so this is exactly the kind of student I was hoping to help with the trial, but she does not open her emails so knew nothing about it.

Student 5 - Y12 (not taught by me)

He watched the video the first time I sent them round but has not engaged with them since then. He is the type of student who does read his emails but he has not watched any more of the videos. He is unsure if this is to do with him not being taught by me but it is me that is sending the links through.

Student 6 - Y11

Watched the first ones and found one of them useful - the perspective one. Saw the emails for the latest ones but did not look at the videos they were busy and "forgot". They don't use either TikTok or Instagram so can not give an opinion as to whether they are useful on there. They watch on YouTube when they do watch.

Student - 7 - Y11

Has not seen any of them as he does not look at emails that are past the top. He has watched the one I sent last week. He thinks that adding spoken instructions would be more helpful. Watched it on TikTok last week.

Student 8 - Y11

Does not check his emails. If he did watch them, they would watch them on TikTok.

Student 9 - Y13

Does not read her emails.

Thoughts :-

• The HUGE stumbling block with this plan is relying on the emails to notify the students that a new video has been uploaded. How do I get them to follow on one of the three social media that I have been putting the videos on?
• Should I put posters up in the room with the social media logos and the handle of the account? This would only work if they are in the room but at least it isn't relying on them opening their emails!!
• Links directly to the videos on the class site and the workspace as I at least know they are going there. (I tried this with the Y9 food class - class site example here)
• QR codes posted up on the wall - made into stickers etc.

Using Workspaces

 The school has been using Hapara workspaces for a few years now. Our DP in charge of curriculum has been pushing for all staff to have the work for the students to complete on a workspace so there is a consistent approach. Also, when you make the workspace public, you can embed it onto your class website so the planning and set work can be seen publicly.

To be completely honest, I was not the fastest convert to working this way. I already had all my work on my class site where my students made copies of the docs and I kept track via a spreadsheet. I made the workspaces as I had been asked to, put them on my site with some work on them, but didn't really engage after that. Bit of a "box tick", compliance thing.

Since going in and out of lockdowns over the last two and a half years and the students not having a lot of consistency, I decided to give it a better try. 

I am a definite convert now. As I already had all the resources on my class site, it did not take a lot of time to set up the cards on the workspaces for all the activities. Yes, it is putting the same stuff in two different places but this has proved to be a positive thing as it gives the students the ability to start the work from where ever they are accessing it. Blog post here.

I got some students voice last year about how they liked to be presented with the work. A lot of the things that I do came out - like making examples and making step. by steps / how to's - blog post here, so I wanted to make sure the students still had access to these things if the only place they were going to for the work when not in the classroom was the workspace. I have been putting my examples and step by step documents and how to videos all on the workspaces so they are easy to find. There is also a link to where everything is on the class site so they can see it there too. 

Another thing that I wanted to try this year was to use workspaces as the evidence "dump" for the drawn work that the students produce as well as the written work. I have only just started trying this, but it is going ok so I will be continuing this next year. The Year 13 student who has been trying this out for me has been taking here own pictures of the work so it hasn't created extra work for me really. I wrote a blog post about this thinking earlier this year.

Here are links to some of my workspaces embedded on my class site.

• Year 9 Food Tech
• Y11 DVC - Architect Information
• Y11 DVC Design Brief
• Y13 DVC Initiate Design Ideas - This was my first attempts at getting the students to put their drawn work on a workspace.
• Y13 DVC Product Design - This one includes blank templates to add design concepts that the students have drawn and photographed.

Here are a couple of examples of one students design and concepts and concept developments that they put onto the workspace (I have made copies of them so their names do not appear as the owner)

• Concepts
• Concept Development

This has definitely made it easier to have all of the work referenced in one place. This is really useful for marking and moderating. The original drawings will still need to be posted to Wellington for external marking. I actually agree with them seeing the originals to be honest as it is difficult to get a consistently clear image from scanning or photographing and you don't want to risk any details being lost.

I am a definite convert to this, but I still have to make my workspaces look pretty!!! - Blog post here

Using workspaces with Drawn Work

 As part of our hybrid teaching planning, I have been making sure my Workspaces are more supportive in how the students use them.

The main ones I have been working on and are being used at the moment are here ...

• Year 9 Food Tech
• Year 11 Architect Research
• Year 11 Design Brief - not complete, as of time of writing this
• Year 13 Product Design - not complete yet as they are mainly working on the external standard at the moment.

My Year 13 class are working on the external DVC standard first, which means lots of drawing on A3 pieces of paper and making plasticine and card models. I have seen how useful the workspaces are for the students to connect to the work they need to complete, either in the class or at home.

This blog post here explains how I have set up the class site, the workspaces and the calendar to try and get a smooth workflow.

I wanted to have a go at using workspaces for the students drawn work too. I have set up one for my Year 13 class to use and have used the same ideas I have on my other workspaces in terms of links to the class site and worked examples made by me. The evidence column is basically just blank presentations that the students can put photographs of their drawn work onto. What I haven't included on this one is the how to videos that I have made a big part of my other workspaces. 

This workspace is an experiment at the moment so I will no doubt be including some help videos as we go and I make changes in response to how the students find working with it.

This will also be useful as a record of the work as we have had issues with work going missing between home and school in the past which is gutting when it happens as so much effort goes into the work.

Link to workspace

PD - Effective Online Learning Environments

 

Working with Sites, Workspaces and Calendars

 This video is a brief explanation of how I am working with a combination of Google Sites, Hapara Workspaces and Google Calendars with my students. It is using a lot of hybrid teaching styles so they are available both while we are face to face with a "synchronous" learning situation and when the students can't be face to face (either in person or online) in an "asynchronous" learning situation.

The example shown here is focussing on my Year 11s.

Here is the link to the class site 

Here is a link to where the workspace is embedded into the class site so it is viewable and there is a button there so the students can get straight onto their own Workspace dashboard.