As I mentioned in a previous post, I was looking for an additional conversation piece for Socratic seminars and discussions. I often feel that a few students tend to lead discussions, but the majority of kids like to shrink into the background. I wanted a way to keep everyone as involved and engaged as possible. In order to keep this high level of engagement, I tried Socrative and really liked it, but it didn't fulfill what I was looking for. My ideal plan was that an inner circle of students would be talking/discussing/debating while the outer circle of students commented/participated on their own devices.
I decided to try WallWisher. This website allowed me to create blank message boards/walls that students could visit and post comments on by simply double clicking anywhere and typing. I created a different wall for each of my five classes and modified each of the addresses to be something simple to remember (see below).
http://wallwisher.com/wall/Pfeffer2nd
http://wallwisher.com/wall/Pfeffer3rd
http://wallwisher.com/wall/Pfeffer4th
http://wallwisher.com/wall/Pfeffer5th
http://wallwisher.com/wall/Pfeffer7th
My hope was that students in the outside circle could post comments tied into the live oral conversation. As the day progressed, I constantly tweaked the procedures I used to get students with devices to comment. The three consistent procedures were that students orally discussing used their homework assignment and their book Night to generate conversation. Also, half way through discussion, the inside and outside circles swapped roles. Finally, each student was required to comment at least twice both orally and with a device.
2nd Hour I had students with devices comment a minimum of two times. I gave suggestions and some sentence starters to get them thinking. I had a few students with technological difficulties, but the one issue I realized most was that the smaller devices (i.e. phones and iPods) placed all the students' comments in one location. They overlapped a lot and created kind of a mess. I later learned that you can scroll within the window and expand the area of the wall.
Later, I tried assigning partners: an inside and an outside circle person together. Students were responsbile for responding to what their inside circle partner said. That made it easier for students to focus on a task, but I think it made them less focused on the conversation as a whole.
I also realized that I didn't always know what the Wallwisher comments referred to. As a class, we decided that students could use tags like Twitter or Facebook and say "@ Sarah" before a response to Sarah's comment.
Overall, I think Wallwisher kept students engaged and interested in the discussion--which was my main goal for students in the outer circle with devices. However, the disorganized manner in which comments posted made me think that there was not a fluid outside circle conversation. However, students enjoyed seeing their own comments appear on screen, and inside circle students enjoyed seeing the comments their discussion generated.
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