Knowledge Constructor

Students plan and employ effective research strategies to locate information and other resources for their intellectual or creative pursuits.

Students evaluate the accuracy, perspective, credibility and relevance of information, media, data or other resources.

Students curate information from digital resources using a variety of tools and methods to create collections of artifacts that demonstrate meaningful connections or conclusions.

Students build knowledge by actively exploring real-world issues and problems, developing ideas and theories and pursuing answers and solutions.

Standard 3

Students critically curate a variety of resources using digital tools to construct knowledge, produce creative artifacts and make meaningful learning experiences for themselves and others.

Tool: Wordwall

Description

Overview: Wordwall is a tool for teachers to create interactive and printable activities.
Key Features: There are 18 free templates available for you to choose from. You can edit an existing activity OR create your own. Once you create one template, you can “transfer” content to another template. You can create assignments and see student work.
Costs: Free unless you upgrade to standard/pro
Grade Level: elementary - very early middle school

Opportunities

The activities give students immediate feedback on their responses. For example, if they get answer the problem incorrectly, the activity presents to them a checkmark or X.
The activities are very engaging and fun because they are in the form of games!
The ISTE standards state that students should "create collections of artifacts that demonstrate meaningful connections or conclusions". Using this tool, I can imagine asking students to create their OWN activities so that they can be the ones to consider what content is important and what the answers are. That would help them form connections between what material is key to the unit and then also think metacognitively.
It's useful for (formative) assessment, and this is something that is present in all subjects. So, this tool could be applied in many different content-areas.
The tool is accessible -- it can be used from many kinds of electronics, in-person or in-class.

Limitations

This tool is not entirely free for educators. With the free subscription, teachers can make 5 resources. To make unlimited activities, they must upgrade to the plan that either costs $6/month or $9/month.
The activities are not always engaging. They are games, but they don't necessarily allow for in-depth assessments that fully dive into what students know and don't know. It really only allows for right/wrong answers, so that doesn't necessarily tell students what they need to work on.
There are a specific set of templates to choose from, so teachers may want to assess in a specific way that doesn't exist.
The ISTE standards state that students should "build knowledge by actively exploring real-world issues and problems, developing ideas and theories and pursuing answers and solutions". I'm not sure that this tool can quite allow them to really dive into real-world issues. I argue this because real-world issues call for discussion and discourse with others. The activities are very engaging, but they don't promote conversations that could lead to deeper thinking.

Wordwall

This button above will take you to the Wordwall site where you can create your own account (as an instructor or student).

The button below will take you to the presentation we had in class about the tool. The presentation will walk you through a description of the tool, a demonstration from the teacher perspective, an activity from the student perspective, and some reflections.

Have fun exploring!!

Presentation of Tool

Reflection

Overall, I can see how this Wordwall could be useful for creating assessment activities in classrooms. It has many options in terms of templates, so different teachers from various content-areas can still apply it to their curriculum. From the teacher perspective, it's useful because they can also create assignments for students to work on at home. With the upgraded version, teachers can print out the activities, so it's accessible for students who don't have access to the internet at home.

The tool itself isn't necessarily geared towards the ISTE standard that asks students to "build knowledge by actively exploring real-world issues and problems, developing ideas and theories and pursuing answers and solutions". As I mentioned above, the activities generally ask multiple-choice questions. This implies there are right/wrong answers, and that doesn't push for deeper critical thinking that is required for diving into real-world issues or problems and developing ideas. However, on the positive side, the tool can be manipulated to push for creativity in students. By asking students to create their own activities, they can "create collections of artifacts that demonstrate meaningful connections or conclusions". This requires students to not only know which material is relevant or important, but it also requires them to construct meaningful and thoughtful questions. Then, they have to consider what answers are correct/incorrect, thus further demonstrating their knowledge of the subject. Personally, that is one way I could see myself using this tool as a future math educator! Instead of asking my students to solve quick math problems, they will create their own!