Using Seesaw and Microsoft Teams
For our course prototype, Arkin and I are focusing on Drama 7, a subject that can be difficult to teach in a new and engaging way while also creating an environment where students can feel confident in leaving their comfort zone and expressing themselves. We decided that the blended model is a great approach, because it balances small group and face-to-face instruction with engaging technology. Students will have the opportunity to produce, mix, create, and edit radio plays, while also creating sound effects and soundscapes, and starring as the voice actors.
When building community in online and blended learning environments, establishing a plan for communication, feedback, and assessment are very important. Developing social presence where students can meaningfully interact in a trusting environment is also key in designing online community. We are using two programs, Seesaw and Microsoft Teams, to achieve this.
Seesaw will be used for formative assessment. We see many benefits of Seesaw, including:
- Instructors are able to provide immediate feedback via comments, teacher edits, ‘reaction’ stickers, or using the stylus tool (much like writing comments on paper assignments!). Students receive this feedback immediately, and can make the edits without deleting original work.
- There is an option to add ‘pages’ to assignments – this is a great feature, as it is another way to show progress and learning. It is similar to submitting multiple written drafts, where each draft shows improvement!
- Seesaw allows for a meaningful home/school connection. Parents and caregivers are able to interact, comment, and ‘like’ assignments, provide support, and stay up to date with their child’s assignment and progress.
- Instructors are able to send large group messages, which is especially helpful for due date reminders, communicating trends, or ensuring students are using the platform appropriately (i.e. “remember to save as draft so you don’t lose progress”)
- It is accessible at school or at home, and can be accessed either via browser or through an app.
Check out this short video to learn more about Seesaw
Microsoft Teams will be used for our summative assessment, and will be used as a communication tool. Like Seesaw, there are numerous benefits of Microsoft Teams in the blended learning model:
- Teachers can create chats for each group, which are monitored by the teacher. Students can communicate, plan, and share their files in these groups. They can also interact when absent or if they need to work in different areas of the school!
- Students can also private message the instructor, which is extremely helpful if students are absent or working around the school to record or edit. It is another way teachers can provide individual feedback or instruction throughout the day.
- We can create a class, where resources, links, and calendars are shared. In this class, we can create assignments and include rubrics and due dates. Teachers can grade and submit feedback right in Teams.
Watch this video to learn more about Microsoft Teams
Are you familiar with these platforms? What do you see as the benefits or shortfalls? Let me know!
After reading this description, I think I want to take your class! Sounds very interesting and interactive. You’ve put a lot of thought into how you can build online community, which would be especially important for this type of class. I have no experience with SeeSaw (other than as a parent, which I think is great!). No real experience with Teams either, other than using it for occasional work meetings. I’m not familiar with the features, but it looks like it has everything you might need. Well done!
Thanks Lauren! Seesaw used to be moreso for the grades k-6 in our division, but licenses have expanded to cover all elementary grades. As an upper middle years teacher, I’m really glad for that – the things we can do on it as educators is great. Would love to hear your thoughts on Seesaw from a parent’s perspective? Do you see the benefits to it or are their more cons than pros?
I absolutely LOVED it when my kids were on SeeSaw. It was so fun to see everything that they were working on, and easy for the kids stay on track with homework and deadlines. It was so easy to communicate with the teachers as well. It also prompted really good discussions at home. Normally we would ask what they did at school, and the answer would be “nothing”. With SeeSaw, we KNEW what they were working on, so we could bring up specific activities and talk a lot about those. Family bonding time! We were introduced to it during COVID, and it has continued afterwards. At one point during COVID, the grandparents were given accounts as well for my youngest daughter (I doubt that’s a regular thing?) – she loved getting feedback from all of us.
Out of curiosity I was wondering how well Microsoft Teams compares to other pseudo LMS options like Google Classroom? Do you find it more intuitive on the backend for teachers? Do students enjoy using it compared to classroom. My school division seems caught between two worlds right now due to an increased focus on security. On one hand we are using Microsoft 365 to log into our cloud storage, but on the other hand we are still handing out emails that allow them to access Google Drive and classroom. I am sure at some point we are going to fully transition, but it is a bit frustrating being beholden to two almost incompatible platforms.
We do not use Google Classroom in our division, so I can’t answer your question. We are strictly Office 365 users! I am a big fan of Microsoft Teams, however, and used it extensively when teaching online for the 2020-2021 school year and fell in love with everything it can offer – it’s only improved since then. I can’t imagine balancing Office 365 and Google – I hope things resolve soon!
I never thought of using SeeSaw for older grades! I have only seen it used for primary grades. What a great way for students to share their work with home, especially for Drama.