Kevin has been using Floop since January 2020. He currently works as an Associate Professor at Dakota State University in Madison, SD where he teaches math education, STEM, and educational technology courses. He is also the Program Coordinator for the Master of Science in Educational Technology (MSET) degree. Prior to being a faculty member at DSU, he was a Learning Technologist/Instructional for the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis and the Council for Economic Education. He began his career as a high school math teacher in Columbus, Nebraska.
Kevin has a doctorate in Instructional Design & Technology from the University of Memphis, a master’s degree in Instructional Technology from the University of Nebraska, and a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics Education from Dakota State University.
Twitter: @KevinSmithSD
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I teach pre-service teachers and I was trying to get my students to do more reflections in class. I wanted my students to take time to pause and reflect on their own learning in order to model how to bring self-reflection into their future classrooms. I find that teachers feel pressured to plow through content and don’t feel they have time for students to reflect, but there is so much value to embedding it into your classes.
I had used Google Docs for reflections and was able to comment and create a back and forth dialogue with my students. This was easy as every student has a laptop. But, I wanted to offer my students some off-screen time; to close their laptops and focus on the lesson. So, I had my students bring in journals. There’s an advantage to writing versus typing, and doing handwritten reflections would allow them to use visual notetaking, sketching, etc. My biggest concern with this pivot is how would I be able to give meaningful feedback on physical journals in a timely manner?
I was listening to the Cult of Pedagogy podcast and heard about Floop. I looked it up and decided to give it a try! I love how efficient it is with the comment banks, and I also get into a flow of reading and find myself typing new comments, making all of my feedback personalized. I am still able to have that back and forth dialogue that I had in Google Docs, but I’m much more efficient using Floop.
One struggle I always had with Google Docs was wondering if my students were reading my comments. With Floop’s student engagement metrics, I can easily see if they are engaging with my comments. I love having access to the percentage of comments read. I have noticed that students who read more tend to do better in class than individuals who are not reading the feedback. The metrics allow me to pinpoint those students who are not engaging with my feedback and talk to them about it early in the semester.
At the beginning of each semester, I walk through Floop with class and teach how to engage with my feedback. My students quickly understand how to use it and enjoy how quickly they receive my personalized feedback.
Below is a screenshot from one of my students’ journals. I love being able to comment on specific things my students are reflecting on. It helps me remind them of important concepts we’ve talked about in class, give them a preview of what is to come and ask them questions to extend their thinking.
One of the most important things we do as teachers is to provide feedback to our students. Floop has helped me provide better feedback in a timely manner. I feel like I’m a better teacher because of tools like Floop.