This chapter looks at how tablets can help make children’s learning more visible by capturing learning activities through film, photos, screencasts and spoken explanations, and by creating contexts for talk, making it easier to review learning and to provide assessment opportunities. Tablets have given us a whole new range of possibilities when it comes to children demonstrating their progress and understanding of a topic. No longer are they restrained by the challenge of putting pen to paper; instead, they can type, record their voice, use voice to text or simply make a screencast video. We will use the term ‘visible learning’ to describe the idea of using tablets to capture learning as it happens in the classroom. Visible learning coexists alongside everyday classroom activities to ensure that the teacher gets a greater insight into the learning that is happening within the classroom.
The following case study from Caroline Haslett School, Milton Keynes, models simple and practical ways to capture learning as, and when, it happens. It focuses on the different stages within the learning cycle at which children’s learning can be recorded, and considers the depth necessary to inform teaching and learning throughout a topic of work. A range of apps is explored, along with open-ended examples of how to use them and a rationale explaining the pedagogical choices made.
We will go on to discuss how using tablets to allow insight into children’s learning can enhance the learning experience by facilitating independent learning skills such as self-efficacy, learning about learning and self-assessment. We will also explore the impact for children when their learning is frequently shared with others, including their peers and their teacher, as well as further assessment opportunities that would not be possible without tablets. Capturing and sharing children’s learning using tablets opens a wealth of possibilities for Assessment for Learning strategies (AfL), personalised learning and self-regulated learning.