Since the start of the new school year, I learnt about 4 educational resources from my kids. These are Classkick, WeVideo, Padlet and Seesaw.
Introduction
Last summer, I wrote about online resources I used to keep my child occupied during the school holidays. Four months into the new school year, I learnt about three online tools that I had not previously known.
If you are a teacher, you might already have known about these or used even them. For parents who have not been following your child’s remote learning too closely, you might want to catch up.
Classkick
This seems to be the most commonly used tool in my child’s school. I see assignments on this platform for English, Mathematics and Science.
Typically, what happens is that a teacher would create a new assignment on the platform. The assignments I have seen are electronic copies of the paper-based workbook that parents had purchased for the school year. Each assignment can span over multiple pages. Students can navigate the pages from either a drop-down button or a couple of on-screen arrows.
Students work on the assignments as they would on the paper-based ones. They simply need to write their answers on space allowed for in the worksheet. One difference between electronic and paper-based worksheet is that students can type their answers in the former. This makes the work look tidier. I have seen my child writing directly using a stylus on the touch-screen of her Chromebook. I prefer the type-written ones much better.
A shortcoming of the platform is that it does not offer a good interface for typing mathematical notations. For example, it does not even offer a convenient way of entering fractions. The teacher had initially insisted on using a horizontal bar to separate numerator and denominator. This necessarily implies that handwritten entry is the only acceptable solution to her. After she relented and welcome typed solutions, students had to use the “/” with care, especially with mixed fractions. After all, “1 3/4” is very different from “13/4”.
A feature I rather admire is its ability to calculate marks the students scored for each assignment. In a test I had seen, student’s marks for each question or part of a question are clearly indicated. These are then summed up and indicated on the navigation page. From a user perspective, I would like to be able to see this across the header of the assignment, however.
This Chicago company founded by former-teachers and engineers does not seem in a hurry to monetize and dominate the world. Seven years after its founding, it is still on its seed funding stage. The only amount of funding we are aware of is a 2015 Mar seed-round that raised $1.7m from a few VC firms.
WeVideo
One of the summer activities I previously mentioned was creating a YouTube channel for my child. She would post her piano practice videos there. We would even post on the channel her competition videos, and send the links to the organizers.
That turned out to be good practice. Since the start of the new school year, various teachers have required her to make video submissions for school work. In a recent assignment, she had to send in a video to persuade her classmates and teachers on an issue. This was supposed to be an English assignment on persuasive writing. Yet, the teacher also required that this be produced as a video.
This brings us to the second of 4 educational resources I learnt from my child: WeVideo. The teacher specifically requires each student to produce a video 3 minutes long. He also asked students to demonstrate their ability to use various features on the platform.
I must say the interface of the platform look very similar to the video editors I have been using to put together my daughters summer videos. You get the different layers of media inputs, such as video, audio and texts. You also get various templates for the texts that you wish to enter. There are also libraries of themes, music and images that you can use to liven up your videos. Through sheer habit, I naturally prefer the flexibility and customizability of VSDC and OpenShot. However, as an amateur, I can imagine myself migrating to WeVideo if their free account allows more than a 5-minute production.
For the functionality offered, the company is pretty small. The Menlo-Park-based company was recently acquired by Thompson Street Capital Partners for an undisclosed amount. Prior to this, it had raised about $20m over 4 rounds from 3 investors. The number of employees is indicated as 11-50.
Padlet
The usage I had seen of the third of 4 educational resources I learnt from my child, Padlet, is pretty basic. The English teacher typically uses this as a collage to gather student inputs. In a recent unit about famous people, each student writes a short snippet about a famous person she knows, and add it to the board. The student’s post-it style entry can include photographs and texts. Students are also free to choose different colours background and text and fonts.
I have also seen my child using the app to collaborate with her classmates on group work. It works a bit like an electronic whiteboard, where different people can have their inputs reflected.
It transfers well to mobile interface as well.
The Californian company is barely 8 years old and had raised 3 rounds of funding for a total of $13 million. Like WeVideo, its team size remains pretty small at 11-50.
Seesaw
I had only seen one of my child’s teachers use this app. That was the science teacher. She used it to post videos and lesson slides that students can watch in their own time. She also created workspaces where students can submit their own videos and share these with fellow classmates.
Interestingly, the last of 4 educational resources on my list seems to be one of the most popular apps in the USA. Since the start of the school year, the company has seen so much usage growth it is causing bandwidth issues.
Even more interesting, the company shares very similar characteristics of Padlet. It is based in California and 8 years old. It has also raised $13 million over 3 funding rounds.
Conclusion
These are the 4 educational resources I got to know of from my daughter. I must say the present-day educational technology is miles away from the chalk-and-board I had grown up with. If we had a pandemic when I was in school, remote learning would be based on TV and snail-mail worksheets.
