As we learned in our face-to-face classes during this semester, we talked about the difference between replacement, transformation, and differentiation when using technology. Thus, throughout the course of the semester I placed my focus on the transformation and differentiation of my instruction when using technology. What I emphasized and focused on was when offering and using resources within the classroom, would the students be replacing the previous types of instruction or were they benefiting from the use of the given technology? This is an important question that I believe ALL teachers should consider when providing instruction to their students. Thus, I realized the importance of even applications that can be used within classroom for my present and future students.
The specific technology piece that I would like to reference within this post is flipgrid (feel free to click on this link to have a "tour" of the website). Students are able to use this to post videos to communicate their reasoning and problem solving skills to a thread that would be posted by a teacher and/or another student. Within flipgrid, the teacher is "in charge" in such a way that they are able to organize and maintain the discussions that are posted. This technology tool is easy and free to use and can be used with any device including computers, iPads, Android devices, and even cell phones. Basically, any piece of equipment in which one is able to take video can be used with flipgrid. regarding gifted students, we see that they are able to take the knowledge that they have obtained from the classroom and are able to apply it in such ways that will not be capped within the classroom. They will have free reign to develop problem solving strategies that they would be able to post outside the classroom to be evaluated by other students and/or the teacher themselves. We can also see that this is a great tool to use for formative assessment as we are able to capture the students knowledge based on their reasoning and skills that they used within the video that they have posted to the thread/topic.
Furthermore, we see that this tool allows for students to work independently but also be able to watch and respond to one another to give their own voice to the specific problem/solution that was proposed. I have seen and plan to see my future gifted students able to respond to students who have posted questions about the topic instead of the teacher simply replying. Also, we are able to grasp multiple means of solutions that the students have created to give differentiation to the instruction (even though it is outside of the classroom). By using this tool, we see that all students have their own voice by posting their own videos without feeling pressured as one possibly would in front of the classroom. We can also think about the lesson extending into the flipgrid tool by proposing different means of obtaining the same results that we had within the classroom and also proposing connections that the students would be able to find after they have been exposed to the material inside of the classroom. Finally, I believe that the gifted students would be able to expand their communication skills by basically taking the "teaching role" by posting videos to responses. Instead of the students having more work thrown at them to "keep them busy," it could be suggested that the students use this tool to broaden their communication skills and their problem solving skills by helping the students who have posted their own videos if they had questions and/or other means of problem solving. Thus, I believe that this technology piece involves all types of learners and would definitely be a use of formative assessment and could possibly be used as a summative assessment tool that I may incorporate within my TILP.
