Friday 11 August 2017

Using the Innovative Tool


Student's were finding it hard to adapt to the idea of using 'voice typing' for their assessment. When a new task is introduced, they tend to stick to what is comfortable instead of branching out of their comfort zone. This relates back to one of my initial problems I identified with my class, a lack of self-efficacy. Students had a lack of faith in their ability to use the tool to help them with their assessment. The irony here is that 'voice typing' was identified as a tool that was going to help those students who were reluctant writers. I believed that this was the right tool but students just needed a helping hand to get them started. At the start of the unit I had one-on-one conversations with students prompting them with questions that would help them gather evidence for their assessment. While I was having this conversation with each student, the 'voice typing' tool would capture our conversation.



Once the conversation was finished, students would edit any errors to make complete sentences. After doing this exercise a couple of times, students started to feel comfortable using the tool. They then started using the tool by themselves and found it relatively straight forward to use.



Those students who adapted to using the tool, often gave others help which made it a lot easier for me as the classroom teacher.

5 comments:

  1. How interesting Troy. You appear to be talking about a much deeper issue than the writing you have identified. I am thinking about the rich goals of our curriculum - from the vision statement 'confident, connected, lifelong learners' - to the Key Competencies, to values and characteristics such as resilience. Learners who are reluctant to take risks or have their way of doing things challenged.... this raises more questions.

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    1. I'm glad that you have recognised there are deeper issues Dorothy. As a teacher who witnesses these 'deeper issues' on a daily basis is disheartening. We all know as teachers the values at the front of the curriculum are enormously important to helping a student become well rounded individuals. However, are these important values slipping through the cracks of some students like other areas of the curriculum...Food for thought.

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  2. Nice one Troy! I'm curious to know if any of these students have taken their knowledge and competence of this tool and used it to help with any of their other work outside of PE?

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    1. This question has been raised on a few occasions already. This is one of my key points in my inquiry...whether the competence can be transferred to other subject areas. But I'm unsure of how to measure or gauge this (word of mouth?). I'm hoping that the knowledge gained from this tool is able to give students another option when they see necessary.

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  3. Thanks for sharing Troy I have been following this with great interest. I have noticed a significant increase in the capability of voice to txt especially the Google offering.
    There is a huge opportunity for inquiry here. You have raised the idea of confidence and the need to still build skills as a voice typer. The learners still have to be able to recognise what they have written by voice and check it for sense. Here is a video of learners talk https://vimeo.com/15832747 and action research on this from back in the day :-) . http://www.vln.school.nz/resources/view/53929/assistive-technology-meeting-a-literacy-challenge
    Really enjoying this inquiry looking forward to the next installments.

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