Starting points are key. I really like the post it notes of what you think/hope to achieve in the session as a starting activity. Obviously there is a risk the responses might not be as you anticipated and a back up plan is needed (I wish I heeded my own advice!) But how do we make the post it note activity more robust?
Robustness is worth delving into a bit. We don't live in a perfect world (gasp!) We can't always do what we want to do. Take the ultimate dream of a self marking free text assignment, the technology just isn't there yet. I have some products on trial that are close and am excited to see when these are launched! We have to make what we do have available as robust as possible. A multiple choice quiz can be viewed and treated like a cop out, an easy way to assess. Yet I am a huge advocate of the reduced marking of a self marking quiz. So what we need to do is make the quiz as robust as possible. We can use it as an opportunity to address and diagnose misconceptions. For example, a quiz on angles in triangles may use 360 or 90 as misconceptions in the multiple choice quiz. From here we can try to diagnose of the student knows the rules but is confused, the 360 option or if they are lost completely, the 90 option. A crude example but I hope that you get my point. If you are restricted by technology or circumstances in pursuit of your assessment aims try to add some robustness.
So to make our post it note activity more robust, why don't we get participants to sign their notes so we can track who said what? Or even better why don't we make it digital? Slido or Pear Deck, you choose! I like Pear Deck but for adult CPD sessions I prefer Slido. Staff that I work with tend to prefer Slido as we don't have premium Pear Deck. I see merits on both systems. Old schoolers like Mentimeter and Nearpod. Point is make it as robust as you can.
I'm going to talk about Slido as on reflection it probably is my go to tool. I like to ask a question at the start and end on Slido to track and record though processes and changes in a session. It works well as a checkpoint too. But Slido becomes really robust and powerful for me when I add in a word cloud feature. We create a word cloud based on responses at the start and the same again at the end. I love it when different words come to the fore, I love it when the main word is one I really wanted to drive home!!!
I stand by start and end points being key combined with a skipping forward and looping back approach. Slido will give you the evidence to inform that planning. So will post it notes but who likes paper? SJ
