Our session with Jody Green focused on educational apps and extensions to use in the classroom. It started off with a great icebreaker utilizing the Slides presentation from the previous week: the good ‘ole two truths and a lie.

After the icebreaker, we then collaborated on a Google Doc where a list of useful apps could be found. There were some apps already listed that I didn’t find useful since I was already aware of them or had already been using them. I did see that SeeSaw was mentioned again and I told Jody that I wanted to explore that app during our work time. She took that idea one step further and created a class for me, and a few other interested cohort members, to join as students so we could explore its features from the user-end.

SeeSaw ePortfolio App from the student perspective

I was using SeeSaw on an iPad 2–the same technology my students use and it was intuitive and easy to use. I was able to upload a picture from my camera roll and add a caption with ease. I then was able to comment on another “student’s” post and pressed the like button. I think this would be a fantastic tool to utilize in my classroom. Students can share their work and work on digital citizenship. The only drawback at the moment is that all my students published writing is on Google Docs–there is no way to embed a Doc into SeeSaw, the only way would be to add a link on SeeSaw to their Doc. They could also screenshot their work but I’m not sure on visual clarity.

I was pretty proud of my final product. I came up with a 5th-grade lesson that included some app smashing between PicCollage and SeeSaw. You needed to hunt around Mr. Neilson’s class and take pictures of any quadrilaterals you see, make a collage, and then upload it to SeeSaw. This is something my students would be able to do, have some fun, and share what they found. Win-win-win. I enjoyed the session.

App smashing victory!