ShowMe PD - EdTech Showcase

Presenting: ShowMe

Myself and my teacher twin presented a professional development workshop in the EdTech Showcase on the iPad app called ShowMe. We began this presentation by reviewing the function of the features the app has available while inviting our participants to explore as we went along to become more familiar. Once we covered the basics of the program we went in to explain the benefits of this program for teachers and their students. We also went over the different uses for this program in the classroom including assessment, differentiated instruction, assistance for student’s learning, reviewing student work, and to provide students and parents help with homework instruction. We gave examples of personal experiences of how we have used this app in our classrooms and how it helped boost the level of learning and engagement of students. Then we introduced our participants to the ShowMe community where they can access pre-made videos or they could create and share their own.

For the second part of our workshop we asked our participants to work in pairs to complete a task which they were asked to pretend to be a grade 3s and use the ShowMe app to peer assess the student work in front of them. At this point our participants broke up into pairs and began to use the features of the program to complete the task. We addressed questions as they arose and brainstormed ways with some individuals to meet the specific needs in their current classes. After a few minutes we gathered everyone back to demonstrate how to share their assessments to the group and answered any last-standing questions.  

Presenting at this workshop was both an honour and a learning experience. I learned to step away from my notes and present on what I know without having to refer to the paper in front of me. This added to my level of confidence which allowed my expertise show through. I think it also made the presentation more personable which made it easier for the participants to ask questions. Once I saw the participants able to use the app to complete the task I knew the presentation was successful and that they would now feel more comfortable to try this out with their classes. I think that it was beneficial to have small groups and work on a rotation system as it gave us the chance to work one on one with the participants who needed the assistance. One challenge that I came across was when a set of teachers asked how to adapt the use of this program to meet the needs of their high school students. Since I am a P/J teacher I had a hard time coming up with examples of how they could use the app in their classes. I asked them if they could come up with any ways it would be useful but it was clear that their personal biases of this app was already clouding their judgement. I continued to show them community section where tons of high school teachers have posted videos but I could see it on their faces that they had already made up their mind that this was of no use to them. From this experience I learned that teachers who want to learn will make find a way to make the program work and teachers who don’t want to learn will always find a way for why the program wouldn’t work. I believe that the only way i could have addressed this better is with time and experience in the field in order to learn how to convince those who are skeptical the ongoing benefits of using EdTech resources and specifically the app ShowMe. Overall, I believe this experience has taught me who I am as a presenter, highlighting the skills I excel at those that need some fine tuning.