SeeSaw
Instagram for student learning! If you introduce SeeSaw as the Instagram for learning, the students will be all over this app! It is a digital student and class portfolio. Students are able to post pictures, videos, documents, drawings, voice memos, and much more. The best part is that you can set up your account where you can share devices easily within your classroom. This will give every student an account, but they only have to log into your class account in order to post. It also makes it easy to stay logged in with each device. SeeSaw can be used through almost any smart device, tablet, or computer. When they are ready to post something, they can choose their name as the author. Parents are also able to join in with your class portfolio. Another great thing with this app is that when the parent signs up, they are linked to their student and can only see the teacher’s posts to the whole class and their child’s posts. This keeps children confidentiality in place. When you have multiple posts on the app, it will appear like Instagram with a rolling account of all the posts. A major part of this app is that students are able to comment and “like” their classmate’s posts. There is a feature that allows you to preview the comments and posts before they get put up on the feed to ensure that the post or comment is relevant and appropriate. SeeSaw has two newer features called Skills and Blog. With the Skills section, you can sign up for a free 60-day trial and you can assign stars to each post that students post on the journal. This gives the students immediate feedback and it also links to see if they have mastered specific skills. The Blog links your class online portfolio to an online resource for other classrooms around the world to see. I have never seen students get that excited for completing work and then posting what they did online. This app is definitely one I would recommend over and over again.
Negatives: From my point of view, there are not many negatives to this app. All of my students were always excited to use SeeSaw to showcase their work. One thing that I would like more information on is the Skills section of this app because I think it could be beneficial, but I was unable to sign up for a free trial and get all of the information about it.
Lesson Ideas: Introduce the app by having the students work in groups to complete an assignment. Make the students post their completed task to the class journal. This will get the students used to the app and all that is available to do. As students get used to using the app, assign homework using SeeSaw. For example, if you have a daily reading assignment for homework, have the students choose one day to read the book aloud and post the video or photo (with a voice memo) to the class journal. Another example is to have the students show their math skills by using the drawing section to show their work on how to solve a math problem using one of the strategies taught.
Another thing to note is that there are two different apps that SeeSaw uses. SeeSaw Class is the app that you need to download if you are the teacher or a student using the app. There is a separate app called SeeSaw Parent if you are a family member that wants to link to their student's portfolio. The apps on a smart device look different than the computer. Below I have a few pictures of the mobile class app just as examples. Most of the features on the computer are the same on the app especially on posting new posts to the class journal.
