Technology to Demonstrate Competencies

Competency-based learning refers to activities that allow students to demonstrate their knowledge and skills outside of the typical multiple choice standardized assessments and the instruction that goes along with them. Technology is a great way to formatively assess students. One technology-based activity that could be used to show competency is a collaborative or individual graphic organizer that students can build using websites such as Canva, Mindomo, or graphicorganizer.net. Another activity that allows students to show competency is an educational audio or video submission to be used to teach others about the content using Flipgrid, VoiceThread, or the camera on their smartphone or tablet. Group discussions can happen over Zoom, Google Meet, or another video conferencing app. For a Google-based classroom, the Google Workspace applications are great tools for long-term projects. Sheets can be used to gather data during scientific studies. Docs can be used to submit reports and critique other students’ work using the “suggest” feature. Drawings can be used to make infographics and diagrams. Slides can be used for presentation purposes by the students and teacher. Summative assessments using technology are a little more difficult; however, utilizing a thoughtfully developed rubric can make scoring competency-based activities easier.

I have been given a lot of grief from other teachers within my building about not giving tests. I absolutely do not like tests that show me nothing other than can the kid guess on a multiple choice question. This has bugged me and always will bug me. I like for students to show me how what they actually know about the skills we have been working on in class for the week. We work on skills throughout the week and build up to a task for them to create something either with technology or with an activity in class that is not a sit down and take a test. A few examples of what I like to count as tests in my classroom are having kids cut out newspapers, magazines, and other materials to show me different text features. This is something that I could look at easily and it was a concrete real life material the kids know. If the students didn't know what a text feature was then this would be easily portrayed. Another example of the students creating something is creating a comic on Google Slides. The students were working on theme all week and their test was for them to create a comic and have the character portray a theme from beginning to end. This allows the students to be creative and express themselves along with showing me if they understood theme. These are not your normal tests but the students respond so much better, are engaged fully, and give their best efforts which might not be the case on a old fashion test.

There are a million ways were students can showcase their proficient in the material without actually having to take a test to prove it. One example that I was really fond of in my high school tech class was that we had a journal, and were allowed to use anything we found in the scrap pile. If we finished our work early, or came in during lunch or for any other reason, we could use the tools and craft whatever we could- with the only exception that every thought or technique we tried would be documented in our class journal. It allowed students to experiment certain techniques with saws, lasers, chisels, sanders, etc, and by experimenting, allowed us get better and better. The journal was there just to document the process and we could do it differently or repeat the outcome. However, that's just my specific personal example. Students can do a variety of things, like creating infographics, pamphlets, or brochures, or, in specifics, use Scratch to create a fun game using certain functions discussed in class. 

Overall, Edpuzzle is a way to make video interactive and student-centered. Rather than a teacher playing a video, clicking pause, and then trying to get students to discuss or take notes or interrogate the film based on what the teacher deems reasonable, Edpuzzle puts the student in control.  Edpuzzle truly takes the viewing experience and slows it down for students and allows them to engage with it individually. In Quizizz, I like that you can check for understanding in classes. You can use the create a lesson option and make daily, short warm-ups. You can see how many in the class understand a concept and if you need to review that topic again. Next, you can also use Quizizz as a weekly quiz. It grades it automatically and can be inputted into a Google Classroom. Teachers can use Quizizz as daily homework assignments sometimes too. The students can play Quizzes during the week as many times as they want to get proficient in a topic area. I don't like that I have to pay for an upgrade to add some of the cool extra features. I also dislike that the homework/ quiz codes expire without usage! If you pay for a membership you want them to always be active. With Kahoot you are able to be very interactive, engage your students, and offer a great review. This fun review site makes students excited to learn. This helps keep your students motivated. 

Competency-based learning emphasizes students demonstrating their learning in some format rather than taking an exam. One way that students could deliver a competency-based learning project in a Nutrition and Wellness class would be by making their own sort of recipe website. For a final project, they could write about a recipe that they chose to make, why they chose to make it and they can talk about what is in the recipe. They will then write in the recipe and show that they know how to write a recipe correctly as well as the instructions for the recipe. At the end of the recipe, they will put in the nutrition information that they can create from software on their own. 

I've learned the differences in the types of assessment and how to incorporate them in my classroom. students can further their thinking in these types of assessments. it is a good tool to track your student's progress and performance throughout the lesson. students can create things in seesaw or flipgrid and so many other sources that can integrate students' achievement. students can do games like Kahoot to make it more fun. teachers can see if students are grasping the ideas when assessing through Kahoot. 

There are a number of ways that students can demonstrate their competencies with technology. Students could create a blog for the semester, and continue to add new information that they feel they have learned and understood. Students can also make commercials/advertisements to show competencies in communication and knowing their audience. I could go on about how many different things students could create, but it is important that students have options when it comes to turning in assignments. Students may thrive by making a video or audio recording, while others would better interpret their understanding through a song or a dance. Each one of these examples incorporates technology and provides new ways for students to demonstrate their competencies.

Competency-based learning refers to “systems of instruction, assessment, grading, and academic reporting that are based on students demonstrating that they have learned the knowledge and skills they are expected to learn as they progress through their education.” Each article and video had a different focus, but they all stemmed around the idea of competency-based learning. I also learned that there are many different ways and resources that can help show students competency within a classroom.

The article “100 Things Students Can Create to Demonstrate What They Know” helps to show and provide many different ideas on how students can show their competencies. I believe my Kindergarten students can students can demonstrate competencies using the technology listed below.

• Audio/Video recording:  They can use Flipgrid or VoiceThread to record their thoughts and ideas rather than typing them out. This is a great tool for younger students to use that do not know how to read, spell and type yet. They may need some strong guidance when first learning about Flipgrid and VoiceThread but with lots of practice, I believe my kindergarten students could successfully use this.
• Virtual Class discussion: You could have a graded class discussion that everyone needs to participate. Having each student sharing their own thoughts and ideas allows the teacher to gain students understandings.
• Digital Drawing or Collage: Many young students enjoy the arts, especially creating things using their imagination. My kindergarten students enjoy using their iPads to create drawings and picture collages during free time, so I believe it will be a fun and engaging way to show their competencies.
• Kahoot!: This is a fun and engaging way to learn students’ competencies. Kahoot! is a virtual assessment tool that allows teachers to search and/or create quizzes. This is completed as a whole class or in small groups but displays all student’s knowledge for teachers to record.

Competency based learning emphasizes students demonstrating their understanding of what they have learned, and what they are expected to learn as they progress through their schooling. Each article or video had its own focus of competency-based learning. I learned that there are many different ways for the students to show competency in a normal classroom. My classroom is not normal however. In my classroom, my kids are little and we are a physical education class. So, most of our time is spent running around and doing movement activities. When I was going through the list of activities that my kiddos can use specifically in my class, there wasn’t much. They can do games, Kahoot! (first grade only), and possibly show & tell! Most of the time they show competency to me by demonstrating what they know through partner work or I pull them aside and have them show me the specific skill. I have found there are a couple ways I can include technology to do assessment, however I would most likely have to go over it with the students in some way especially with Kindergarten. 1st grade has a better understanding of technology and we could get around that and test using their iPads. From this I have learned that I do have some options to be able to use both formative and summative assessments in my class.

I learned what the difference is between formative and summative assessments and how I have used both types in my first grade classroom. My students can further their thinking in both forms. I can focus on summative assessments when I would like to see how my students progress day to day while I can use formative assessments to check my student's competency within a skill or area. My students can create things within Seesaw with being virtual so that I can check what they know, and I can also have my students create for their own projects when we are back in person.