Page 21 - FIS World June 2021

Owl, the Poly Studio, and the Swivl are all camera and microphone setups that allow a teacher to roam the classroom and teach in a more “normal” way, but at the same time include students who are not actually in the classroom.. No longer does a teacher need to be in front of a laptop or stationary camera to be heard or seen. They can let the Artificial Intelligence of this new technology do the work for them.
Jamboard: Digital Interactive Whiteboard
One of my main concerns this year with distance learning and a socially distanced classroom was that students would become less active in their learning. I could see they were finding it much harder to collaborate and communicate in the classroom due to social distancing. I also knew that I wanted something in place that worked both in the classroom and online, so straight away I went looking for tech solutions.
My big discovery was Jamboard, an interactive whiteboard app from Google. It makes it easy to share a picture or a complex problem and have students work together on a solution, no matter where they are. They can write/type/draw or add pictures to share their work. I can see their pages remotely so am able to see how students are progressing and intervene when appropriate.
We know that immediate feedback has a big impact on student learning, Jamboard has facilitated this. When students work on individual pages, I can write in corrections or hints while we are in a Zoom class together. You can see straight away from the students' faces and their next steps if they understand.
Jamboard has also allowed all students to add to our class notes in a way that
wasn’t really possible before.
Students can add a photo of
their work, which is quick and a
really good way of showing multiple ways of solving a problem. Jamboard has been a huge help in keeping students engaged and learning
Using new devices like the Owl (below) and software like Kunstmatrix (above), teachers and students are able to share their classroom work and experiences with others, regardless of where they might be.
this year, and it will continue to play a major role in my classroom when we return to normality.
Anne Flaherty
Upper School Mathematics Teacher
Virtual Exhibition Spaces
Two important exhibitions take place each year in the world of IB students at FIS. One is the IBDP Art Exhibit, showcasing the portfolio of work that IB Diploma Art students have created as part of their final art portfolio. The other is the IBPYP Grade 5 Exhibition, the first major IB milestone in which students in their culminating year of the PYP share the understandings and actions they have developed during an 8-10 week inquiry of their own. In a previous lifetime, both exhibitions would have been held face to face and held in built-up spaces at the FISO/FISW campuses. As this was not an option for either group for the past two years, a new virtual solution was needed to provide an environment for sharing the learning and creativity on both ends of the IB spectrum.
Upper School art teacher Darren Trebel first identified and developed the use of “Kunstmatrix” to showcase the artwork of his IB Diploma Art students. The exhibit was launched to coincide with the timing an Art Exhibit opening would have normally occurred and reinforced important takeaways that keep occurring throughout our experiences during the pandemic: you can reach a larger audience using a digital element, than when only shared ‘physically;’ and an environment that is used to bring the audience to the “work” can also enhance the experience using multimedia and interactive elements.
As a result of this development, Angi Jochum, ICT Integration Coordinator at the FIS Wiesbaden campus, collaborated with Darren to create a parallel virtual exhibition space for the FISW Grade 5 students, to share both artwork they’d created in conjunction with their PYP Exhibition topics, as well as images and videos of their built-up display spaces that they’d intended to share ‘in person’ with visitors during their Exhibition presentations this month.
Darren Trebel, IB Art Teacher and Angi Jochum, ICT Coordinator at FISW
Visit the virtual IB Art Exhibition here and the PYP Exhibition here.
June 2021 FIS World 19