Why a lesson voting platform to engage students?
Brazen Learning often hears from those outside of education, “Why can’t classrooms just ask students what they want, in class? Why have a platform?” It’s a great question, and of course they can and often do, but there are a couple of downsides to this approach and several advantages to a platform.
First, put yourself in the students' shoes. The pressures students face from peers, to fit in and to be successful, can change their behavior. It can affect a student’s true interests and educational desires, and make them want to hide it in order to alleviate those pressures. Over their time in the school system, students may try out many personas, but they may not always have the opportunity to truly express themselves. Sometimes what’s cool to learn for one student may not be for the majority of the class. When asking for real-time responses from kids, no matter how old, students will always be curious and sneak a peek at who’s voting for what. Curiosity may have killed the cat, and it might have also suppressed academic pursuits. By allowing a digital vote, rather than an in-class poll, students have the option of voting for their most-desired topic without the pressures of students watching their every move.
Next, what really drives success is consistency. If we want students to feel that they are drivers of their own education, by hearing their opinions and interests, then we should provide a way that students can do so, in any classroom, in any grade, in any school they go to. Teachers are unique and different, as they should be, and they can implement various ways of voting for students. This inconsistent approach won’t be able to be a standard tool for students to increase their engagement in learning, as they might not know how a teacher rolls out a way to vote, if at all. By creating a system that is easily accessible but also standardized in format and process, it allows students to rely on a system that they can count on for their educational opinions, across their class, grade, and schools.
With a platform, you also get some real advantages:
It’s fun and easy for students to use - to review their choices and vote on any device at their convenience.
A platform provides access to a lesson plan library with a broad range of plans, as more and more teachers contribute, constantly grows and gets better and better.
Important trend data is captured for analysis continuous improvements
Yes, students can vote by a show of hands in the classroom. But in order to make a positive, lasting impact on education as a whole, we have to think big. We have to think of ways to start now, that can be rolled out to as many schools, classes, and grades as we can. Students can be exposed to Student Soapbox from Kindergarten, and as they grow, they’ll understand that their voice, no matter what interest or idea they have, has a place. They’ll continue to be drivers of their own education through high school, and build the seeds for life-long learning and success. These students, after all, will be the future leaders of our world. If we don’t encourage them when they start learning, we may miss out on the solutions they come up with.
We want our students to be empowered, to be bold, to be Brazen.