Spinndle – Personal Response
Our Ed-tech class was given the chance to explore a new piece of technology that is the brain child of two former teachers through Spinndle. So what is Spinndle you may ask, and why is this important? Well I will do my best to answer that. Spinndle, is a new way for students to share their learning with each other and with their teacher. It allows the students to actually be part of the assessment journey that they are on with their teachers rather than them just ending up with a grade and not knowing where it came from. The idea of Spinndle (the way I understand it) is to have communication and connection back and forth between the teacher and the student in the learning journey so that the learning the student is taking part in is visible, not only to their teacher, but to them.
The students are encouraged to self report where they are at, which given great insight into the ‘starting point’ for their learning and allows the teacher to have a better idea where the ‘holes’ in their learning might be at this time and where the students want their learning to go!
The part about the student self-reflection and reporting that I felt was the most valuable, is the fact that these reflections are stored, allowing the students to go back and see where they were at and where they have gone in their learning journey. And why does this matter you may ask? Well just as we may not see growth and change in our own lives in any number of areas, so too may our students fall into the idea that growth and change are not taking place at the speed that they would want. However, by being able to revisit their own thoughts and words, our students can better ‘see’ and celebrate the changes in their learning that has taken place.