Monday, October 23, 2017

Seesaw for Digital Portfolios

If you're looking for an easy, FREE digital portfolio tool to use with your students, I can't recommend Seesaw enough.  It can be used for any grade level and allows students to take ownership in their learning as they reflect on their work.  Teachers can provide feedback to the students and the ability to share the journal with classmates, the teacher, and/or parents creates an authentic audience.

Seesaw works on many different platforms: iOS devices, Android devices, Kindle Fires, Chromebooks, and any computer with Chrome or Firefox.

Here is the basics flow of Seesaw (accessed on their webpage)


Seesaw has several built-in creation tools including taking photos, videos, adding links, entering a note (text or audio), sketching a drawing, or adding labels.  You can also upload a file or a picture from the camera roll.

Here are the tools available on a mobile device:


And here are the tools available on a computer:


Another great feature of Seesaw is the many, many apps that are compatible with it.  For instance, if any other app allows you to create a product and save it to the camera roll, then you can upload it to Seesaw.  Here's a list of compatible apps.

Adding something to a Seesaw journal is very simple.  Check out this video demonstrating how to do so in less than a minute:



As the teacher, all posts from your students come to you for approval before anyone else can see them. 


Before long, you'll want to invite families to view their child's portfolio.  Doing so is quick and easy.  Check out this video below on how to do so.  You can also send announcements and private messages to families.

x


Interested in diving in?  Here's a quick tutorial on how to set up your class.

Seesaw has some free Teacher Courses that can be completed in about 30 minutes and will introduce you to Seesaw, explain why to use it, and give you time to explore its creation tools through the lens of a student.  The four Teacher Courses include PreK-2nd Grade, 3rd-5th Grade, 6th-8th grade, and High School and Beyond.

There are also Getting Started Guides for each grade level (K through High School).  These guides will provide step-by-step, grade-specific lessons to introduce Seesaw to your students, task cards, and badges and certificates.

Want a free month of their premium features in Seesaw Plus?  Scan the following QR code to sign up



2 comments:

  1. This is awesome. Ms. Jackson and I are using SeeSaw with our 6th grade students at NGMS. It's like a mini-social media outlet that teachers can monitor and control by approving posts before they can be seen by others. The kids love interacting with each other online, and we are now pushing to get parents on-line. Thanks for sharing - I picked up a few tricks!
    AG

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for sharing, Ann Grey! So glad to hear you and Ms. Jackson are enjoying implementing it. Seesaw just launched a new feature called Activities. You'll have to try it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkshBgjWJgE

      Delete