Student-Created Digital Breakouts...

Student-Created Digital Breakouts...


Education is not one size fits all. To meet the needs of today's learners teachers need to use a wide variety of ways to assess students' knowledge. In my opinion, traditional testing truly only measures a student's ability to memorize, regurgitate, and discard. Why hold onto that information if you do not truly understand it, apply it, or even have the desire to use the information. For example, I once had to memorize dates for certain battles for a class. To this day I cannot recall those dates, I could for the test though but not now. Those dates are not important to me, I cannot use them in any way in my current life. Now the reasons for those battles, that information could be important, but I spent so much time trying to memories those dates I have also forgotten the reason for the battles.

As a teacher, we need to truly understand what students know and teach them how to apply their knowledge. We also need to instill a desire to continue to learn and grow. Just memorizing data to pass a test is not good enough in today's society. We also need to teach our student to think, troubleshoot, problem-solve, and to realize their first attempt is not their last one. Having students create, explain, demonstrate, design, explore, develop, etc... will allow teachers to truly assess not test but assess a student's understanding.

We need to rethink what an assessment looks like. We also need to embrace that each student is different and not all assessments will work. Having students create Digital Breakouts is a way we as teachers can personalize learning for each student and truly assess their knowledge and abilities.

So what is a Digital Breakout?

A digital breakout uses the same concept of solving a series of clues to unlock locks as the physical breakout does. A Google Form is used as the locks. Using a Google Form you can create a wide variety of locks. A digital breakout has no need for any additional equipment. All that is necessary is a device connected to the Internet.

Students can create Digital Breakouts to demonstrate their knowledge on any topic. Once the Digital Breakout has been created then other students can apply their learned knowledge of the topic to solve the clues and breakout.

I will be speaking at ISTE19 over how students can create Digital Breakouts and how teachers can use these student-created breakouts as an assessment tool. So join me on June 26th at 1:00pm room 120A to learn more. If you cannot make it below is a link to the resources I will be sharing.


Resources:












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