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InThinking Revision Sites

INTHINKING REVISION SITES

Own your learning

Why not also try our independent learning self-study & revision websites for students?

We currenly offer the following DP Sites: Biology, Chemistry, English A Lang & Lit, Maths A&A, Maths A&I, Physics, Spanish B

"The site is great for revising the basic understandings of each topic quickly. Especially since you are able to test yourself at the end of each page and easily see where yo need to improve."

"It is life saving... I am passing IB because of this site!"

Basic (limited access) subscriptions are FREE. Check them out at:

www.StudyIB.net

Using Technology to Support Student Learning

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  • The old course /
  • Assessment (2020 exams)/
  • Individual oral commentary/
  • Tips/
  • Using Technology to Support Student Learning

When having to prepare for and conduct upwards of twenty, thirty, forty or more Independent Oral Commentaries, the old educator adage that the teacher should not work harder than her students can feel like a false narrative. IOCs take time and energy. They can be exhausting. If you follow the advice on the InThinking tips page and conduct full mock IOCs as well, they seem never ending.

How then, when faced with this predicament, can you lessen your workload while also handing over autonomy to your students? More importantly, how can you support student learning and skill development?

SoundCloud may be the answer to those questions.

A caveat though: one should be wary of anyone proselytizing the newest and latest technological advancement that will supposedly transform education – and by extension, the work you do in your classroom. SoundCloud will not change you as an educator. It is, however, worth investigating. It has the potential to aid you and your students, especially in their preparation for the IOC.

If you find this overwhelming, unnecessary, time-consuming or over-the-top, by all means, reject it. This is what educators do; they make daily decisions about their classroom practice. On the other hand, if you find this effectively supports student learning and helps them move forward in their ability to conduct an independent oral commentary, then use it and adapt it to fit your needs.

By discussing one particular technological tool, it may appear as an implicit endorsement of a certain product or company. That is not the case here. Instead, this post uses one example of one product to help illuminate a potential benefit of technology. It is not exclusive nor should it be. The same principles you use in planning your lessons apply here: take risks, experiment, and find what works for you and your students in your specific context. Educators should not feel tied to a company.

Finally, if you have a technology tip or tool you find effective in preparing for the independent oral commentary, please share it below in the comments section. The InThinking community would love to hear from you!

What is SoundCloud and How Can I Use It?

According to their website, “SoundCloud is the world’s leading social sound platform where anyone can create sounds and share them everywhere” (About SoundCloud). SoundCloud is geared towards the music industry, for the production and distribution of songs and albums. However, students can use it for practicing and preparing for the IOC.

Steps for Setting Up a Sound Cloud Account

Use this incredibly helpful and eye-catching infographic created by Andrew McCarthy, a Digital Literacy Coach at United World College of South East Asia, to help you set-up an account. Thank you to Andrew for generously sharing his work with a wider community of educators!

Using SoundCloud Formative Feedback (Andrew McCarthy)

Possible Uses and Activities

Record a practice IOC or a portion of an IOC – like an introduction, a conclusion, or a body point – and upload it to SoundCloud.

At this point, you can decide how to give feedback. You can provide direct teacher feedback. You may also want students to provide feedback to each other. Perhaps you will want to do a combination of the two. A neat feature is the ability to timestamp comments. In other words, you can create written comments at specific moments in time while listening to the IOC. (i.e. at 1:32, 5:47 and 9:12).

There are numerous ways to use this and a variety of pairings and groupings that may perhaps lessen your workload and help students in their learning journey.

Some Final Thoughts

A series of questions arise: Is this an effective use of your time? Do all of your students have access to this type of technology? Is it readily available where you work? There are not easy answers to these questions, but they are worth pondering before embarking upon using SoundCloud.