Evolution of Learning Environments – How Educationists would build Indian School of Future Part 1

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We were keen to feature views of School Leaders and Educators on 'The Evolution of Learning Environments: Building the Indian School of the Future'. The excitement was palpable. Educationists across the country were preparing to gather at the ScooNews EdBrainstorm with Professor Sugata Mitra on April 2 in Mumbai. In preparation for this exercise to discuss the building the Indian School of the Future, ScooNews invited key delegates at the EdBrainstorm to share their vision on the Evolution of Learning Environments. The result was a smorgasbord of ideas and beliefs, a melange of thoughts and concepts, lively agreements and livelier arguments!

The complete story featured in our April 2018 issue, we are reproducing this online as a series of articles to make it comfortable and easier for our online readers, read on for amazing insights into the vision of building the school of the future…

Why digital assessment is better than paper testing…

There are lots of reasons to use educational technologies for student assessments, such as saving time, making the learning process more comprehensive and friendly, offering fast feedback, etc. Digital assessment tools ease the lives of both teachers and learners: Due to modern technologies, students can get answers to their questions without needing to interrupt each other. All their activity can be tracked by a teacher on the spot. Finally, digital testing is fun for students, which creates a better learning environment: Working with an interested audience makes teaching easier and more desirable for learners.

4 Ways of Using Digital Assessment Tools

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1. Gamifying the Answers: Two most popular tools for digital assessments are Kahoot! and AnswerGarden.
   1. Kahoot: This gamification platform helps teachers build the learning process in a form of a game by creating multiple choice questions or using already existing games. The teacher can upload media files and images to create a unique game or download ready-made stuff.
   2. AnswerGarden. This simple online tool is focused on the (quick) question-answer interaction between learners and their teacher. After the teacher has shared a question in the class, students can either start forming an answer or choose the right one from a multiple choice provided by the teacher.
2. Giving Instant Feedback: A great tool for free stuff lovers is Socrative. This software is equipped with various features that can be used by educators for many different purposes. It also includes activities like quizzes, quick questions, exit tickets, etc. Socrative has an intuitive colourful and easy interface and apps for both students and teachers. The tool allows educators to get immediate insight into their student understanding in real-time, as they can create quizzes in seconds and also share them with other teachers.
3. Tracking Progress: Plickers is another real-time educational software allowing to get data for an assessment. It is a comprehensive tool that helps teachers understand exactly where their students are in terms of progress. The results may be seen in two modes: Students mode and Graph mode. The Graph mode allows a teacher to explore how learners make their decisions, while the Students mode helps learners track their correct and incorrect answers.
4. Creating Survey-Based Assessments: A widely-used tool for student assessments is Google Forms. Google Forms allows teachers to create multiple choice questions in the form of a survey and enhance it with images and videos in a few minutes. They can also add collaborators to their Google Forms and work on a survey together.

To Sum Up: 

There are many digital assessment tools that serve different purposes in the educational environment. Teachers will have to search the tool which is most suitable for them, as these tools will help them track their students' progress and provide them with more objective feedback and grades.

About the author:

Sanjay Datta is Principal, Maharana Mewar Public School, Udaipur.

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