iDoceo - A Great Replacement For Your Planbook and Paper Gradebook

Most school districts in Canada and the United States now employ a web based digital recording and reporting system for teachers to collect summative grades and report that information out to parents.  An added bonus is using that platform to create and print reports of student progress.

However, I've noticed over the years that teachers, while comfortable using their online platform, still carry a paper based planner and a paper based grade-book.  It makes sense when you think about it.  While the web-based grade reporting systems are generally very good, they often lack the tools that teachers will use in their planning and assessing.  For example, when I would look at my own paper grade-book from years ago, I had more than just grades in there.  I tracked participation, homework completion, and wrote anecdotal notes (on stick notes, no less!).  This was my private book to write notes and gather my thoughts.  I would then go to the "official" platform and enter achievement results in parent friendly language.

The same was true with my planbook.  While there are some excellent digital planners out there, sometimes I simply need a free form planbook that allows me to gather my resources and doodle notes around what I'm going to do that week in class.

So there I was carrying a 3 pound coiled planbook in my backpack and one of a variety of spreadsheet-like paper gradebooks for recording my checkmarks, notes, smiley faces, etc.  Then two things dawned on me.   First, I realized that I was carrying this stuff back and forth constantly.  It was heavy and sometimes I never even looked at it.  The second was a real "a-ha" moment for me.  We often talk about digital security and privacy breaches.  How insecure is paper??  You could simply leave it out and it can disappear.  While the notes and checks are cryptic, I really am exposing student data should that book fall into the wrong hands.  I decided that I needed something more convenient and secure.

iDoceo

I love my iPad.  I'll spare you the Apple advertising campaign but in the end the form factor of the tablet is excellent.  With a magnetic cover on the front you simply slip it into your book bag and forget about it.  Need a keyboard?  Use a bluetooth one or get a keyboard cover.  Need a stylus to take notes?  It's possible, although the iPad Pro with Apple Pencil experience is far and away the best on this platform.  The best part of the iPad?  It turns on in an instant and is ready to rock and roll.

I do own a Surface Pro 4 (which I love for full computing).  However, it takes longer to turn on than my iPad.  Secondly, it isn't comfortable holding it as a tablet while bouncing from student to student in a classroom.  The iPad (9.7 inch thank you very much) is easier to be mobile with.  I can walk about the room and whip that bad boy out in an instant to record or display for students to see.

About 2 years ago I discovered iDoceo.  I was looking for a grading solution for the iPad.  Again, I was not looking replace my District's grading system.  That has to happen.  I was looking to replace my planbook and paper grade recording sheet.  Idoceo fit the bill perfectly.

It's hard to describe iDoceo simply because it does so much.  The main features that I use are:

• Timetable Scheduler.  I now have access to my class schedule and it does a 6 day rotating schedule.
• The scheduler ties in with my iPad calendar (which transfers info to my iPhone).  I have all important dates syncing up.
• Gradebook which allows for:
• categorical grading (which my District uses so I need this)
• numerical grading
• icon grading - need a checkmark?  It's there!  Need a smiley face?  It's there!
• Yes/No grading - perfect for tracking homework completion
• Student Evidence - THE game changer.  Not only can I grade and write a note about performance, I can photograph, video, record the student and attach it.  This gives me a digital portfolio.  I can send all evidence to my OneNote Portfolios....all by using an iPad.
• The student record section where I can keep information and anecdotal information
• The email section if I need to email a parent on the fly
• The random student picker - great for class discussions
• The Seating Plan - I can actually take student photos (optional) and then move them around on the iPad to formulate a seating plan if I need it
• The Planner - looks like a digital plan book.  The BEST part is that I can attach web links, photos, etc. to the plan and have them at my finger tips.  You can even bring up a pad that allows you to use a stylus the draw or handwrite your notes.
• Backup System - I can backup everything to my Google Drive account.  The file is zipped and scrambled so it cannot be read without Idoceo and your password.  I moved from one iPad to a newer one and it easily restored the backup on the new iPad.
• Digital Security - I password protect iDoceo.  Now, I have long encryption to get into the iPad (I'd love a fingerprint reader) and then I have another password on the Idoceo app.  This is easily more secure than my paper gradebook was.

It's an amazing application.  The price has gone up to $17.00 in the App Store but you get so much for that price.  It's easily worth the price.

My next experiment is to see if I can leave my laptop alone and survive the day with my iPad.  Now that I have an excellent information system onboard, it will be interesting to see how I manage without always using a laptop.

You may read more about iDoceo at www.idoceo.net

Redefining The Assessment Cycle

It's been a busy start to the 2016-2017 school year!  I am the lucky recipient of two grade 7 classes who love using digital technology and area eager to learn about different software products.

Last year I was given 30 Chromebooks for daily use in my classroom.  Thus far, my new group of students has truly enjoyed these machines.  They have used the Google suite of applications (Classroom, Docs, and Slides) in all of their core subject areas.  What I have noticed is that while they are more than proficient using these apps, they do not appear to utilize other apps in their learning or self-reflection.  Watching them on Apple iPads, however, the story is a bit different and certainly one to explore in the coming months.

We have redefined our workflow in my science and math classes.  The workflow is as follows:

• The assignment is posted in Google Classroom
• Students use the Google Apps for Education or another app (such as Prezi) to complete the work.
• The work is submitted in Google Classroom

Where the process changes is on my side.  While there are many great add-ons for Google Docs (JoeZoo is perhaps my favourite in that you can create effective rubrics and comments for feedback purposes), I prefer to use OneNote for the feedback cycle for nothing more than the ability to add audio notes to the feedback that students are getting.

I'm using OneNote Class Notebook creator from Microsoft.  It's an amazing piece of technology.  Like Google Classroom, it allows me to take templates and "push" them out to my students.  You use it on a Windows machine or a Mac.  These are the only two devices that allow you to run the scrip that you add to OneNote.  This is the teacher end the program and most teachers have a laptop or desktop computer so it will work fine.  The students do not work with OneNote Class Notebook Create but rather are the recipients of the digital binder that you create with it.  Students can view their binder in OneNote on any device.

The differences between OneNote and Google Classroom are that:

• I can differentiate which students receive which sheets.  Yes, you can differentiate in Google Classroom but all students receive all sheets.  In OneNote, you select which students receive a sheet that you're sending out.
• OneNote is a binder metaphor.  You have a notebook (binder); sections of the binder; tabs within the sections; and then the sheets.  The metaphor not only is the most like what students have previously used but it also translates very well to the iPad, Android devices, and iPhone (OneNote is free and available on all of these platforms).  My students love this binder metaphor - it makes sense and it's not a long stream scroll like there is in Google Classroom.
• I can leave audio notes or (PC only) leave a video right next to the student's work.

My workflow is such that I open up the student's work in Classroom and transfer it to OneNote.  If you are using a Microsoft Windows PC (I use a Surface Pro 4) then you can simply "print" the student's work to their section of the notebook.  If you're using an iPad, simply use your "share" button (the box with the arrow) and move it to OneNote and the section of the binder that you're using.  I've done it on both devices.  It takes a couple more steps on the iPad, but it works just fine!

I then have a copy of the student work in OneNote.  Whether on my Surface or on my iPad, I pull out a stylus and begin to highlight or mark up the student's work.  I can easily leave an audio note beside all of this to explain why I marked it up.  I have used video feedback before but found the render time slowed me down.  This just moves along.

At the end of the student work, I paste a rubric that I designed in my planning section of the OneNote notebook.  I created the rubric exactly the same way as I would in Word or Google Docs.  The difference is that OneNote allows for "clickable" boxes.  I put these clickable checkboxes in each cell of the rubric.  I then copy it and paste it on each student's feedback page.  When it's time to grade, I simply click the appropriate box and then I'm done.

OneNote allows me to "export" all of my notes into PDF files or save the file on my own computer.  I do this just to have a backup of all of my work and ensure that students don't accidentally erase my feedback.  The downside of OneNote (at least for now although Microsoft has created a fix) is that you own the feedback page with the student so they have editing rights.  This is not different from Google Classroom.  Rather than monitor my students, we have the discussion about digital citizenship in that they are "co-collaborators" in the feedback cycle with me.  I've never had them change my feedback.

Another fabulous aspect of OneNote is in the ability to push out a template to each student.  During the feedback cycle, I first add a feedback tab to each student's notebook and then add each feedback page that I need to.  Their work gets copied there and I put in my remarks.  However, below where I have commented, students have a template to guide them through the self-assessment process.  Sometimes they fill out their own rubric.  For my non-writers,  I will have them use the audio tool to talk to me.  Some students make videos and then embed the video (PC only) into their feedback page.

OneNote has become the ultimate portfolio of work for my students.  

But....

The Chromebook experience has been good.  Microsoft Office 365 does have a web version of OneNote and this is what my students use on the Chromebook.  It's not as pretty as the PC, Mac, or tablet versions of the app.  It works but in mathematics, it produces a challenge.  Because math is usually done on paper we will often photograph our work and place it into the OneNote feedback page.  This is brilliant when using a tablet as tablets all have cameras on the back.  Our solution right now is that students use either their phones or their iPads to put their math work into their feedback page.  Trying this with only the Chromebook, while possible, is a pain.

My wish?  I'd love iPad Pros (9.7 inch) with the Apple Pencil.  THAT would be an amazing combination.  I do have a student with a Surface Pro 4 and he loves it for this activity.  In fact, that student is using OneNote as a virtual binder.  How cool is that?