Digital instruction and assessment tools are plentiful, but distinguishing one from another can be difficult. Some stand out more than others depending on your goals. This page is a resource for those looking for some help and recommendations.
ShowMe
ShowMe is a digital tool accessible across platforms and devices that classrooms can use for assessment and instruction. At its core, ShowMe is a digital whiteboard. Once you add all the additional layers, it is so much more. After you open and register for the app, you are ready to go. Click “Create a new ShowMe”, and up pops your digital whiteboard. From here you can do a multitude of things. You can draw or write using your finger or a stylus, add photos, add images from the web, upload from Dropbox or Google Drive, and change backgrounds. If you want to add more content, you simply create a new page within the same video. What I love about ShowMe most is the ability to incorporate audio. For teachers and students, this is game-changing. It provides the user with an opportunity to support their work, add additional details that cannot be written, drawn or captured in a photograph, and explain processes and thinking.
How then do you use ShowMe as an assessment tool? There are a variety of ways you can incorporate this digital tool into your toolbox. I teach a science lesson on hotspots using the 5E method. For my evaluation, I want students to fill-in a graphic organizer using vocabulary words and concepts that are covered in the lesson. One option is to provide students with a worksheet they can either turn-in to me or glue into their science notebooks. Alternatively, using ShowMe provides students with the opportunity to convey their understanding in a deeper way. I can upload the same worksheet template into ShowMe that students would normally fill-out using a pencil. Using ShowMe, students can use their fingers or a stylus to fill-in the blanks.
What elevates ShowMe in this case is the recording option. I don’t want students to simply complete the worksheet in ShowMe. Instead, I want them to record their work and dictate their thoughts as they fill-out the worksheet. This allows them to do more than write predetermined answers. They can elaborate on the concepts as they do their work. Students can talk about how this particular system works, they can expand on words and connect them to one another, and they can express questions or concerns they still have. When I watch their recording back, I can get a better sense of where my students are in their comprehension than I can by simply looking at a worksheet. I think students demonstrate deeper understanding if can talk about what they have learned by weaving it into a narrative. If you click the above picture, it will launch my ShowMe for this particular assessment to provide you with an example. Alternatively, click here: Link.
Once students are finished recording their response, they will save it. As all of the students in my science class are in my group, I can access all their responses by going to the group tab. I can see who has and has not completed the assessment from this screen. This is simply one way to use ShowMe for this particular assessment. I could ask students to draw the system and talk about it, I could ask them to insert pictures from the internet that illustrate the Hawaiian hotspot and talk about it, or I could have them write a narrative and talk about their thought process. ShowMe would be a great tool for any of these assessment options.
I really like how easy ShowMe is to navigate and use. Essentially, ShowMe offers the option to write, type, add pictures, record, erase, change font sizes, and change colors. I view the limited option set as a positive because I do not want to over-complicate the process for my students by providing them with too many choices. ShowMe also makes it easy for me as the teacher to setup an assessment. I can create one assessment, share it with all my students, and then easily track their progress. What is great is that students can share their work to the wider world if they would like. They can share on social media, or send their videos via email. ShowMe provides a URL allowing anyone to watch the video on an internet browser. This means you do not have to ask parents to download an app. They can see what their children are doing by simply clicking the link that ShowMe provides.
Assessment is only one application for ShowMe. I think this tool offers more than science assessments. As a digital whiteboard, students could use it in a variety of subjects including reading, writing, math, and social studies. Students could make multimedia presentations to showcase their writing, they could demonstrate understanding of math concepts, or they could jot down notes and thoughts for a text we are reading. As a teacher, another great use for ShowMe is at-home instructional support. If you are covering a difficult math concept, you can create a ShowMe that students can access at-home for additional help. Alternatively, they could access your ShowMe during small group work for added support if you are working with other students. You could create a ShowMe that previews upcoming lessons, provides scaffolding, or offers feedback on student work.
No matter what you are teaching, I think there is a way to leverage ShowMe. I do not believe in adding technology to the classroom simply for the sake of doing so. I think it needs to add something to the classroom experience that would otherwise be missing for it to be valuable. After using ShowMe, I think it meets this expectation. It is a tool that would support a diverse level of learners by allowing them to expand upon their understanding, express questions or concerns, and access additional support as necessary. I think it is a way for teachers and students to do more than they might otherwise be able to given our limited classroom resources.