I have been digging a little deeper into Hapara during this lockdown time.
What are the 3 biggest advantages of using Hapara?
Teachers can give formative feedback immediately.
Students can be assisted through Guided Browsing.
The lesson plan can be created in Workspace
I was particularly interested in Workspace. I've had a play on it a year or so ago but didn't have the opportunity to use it yet as the time was not right.
Here are a few reasons why I really like Hapara Workspace:
You can create lesson plans that are unique and cater to individual learners' needs, therefore easy to differentiate.
It also allows for collaboration between students.
Parents are able to follow their children's progress.
You can embed all the applications you use such as Seesaw, Studyladder, StepsWeb, etc into the Workspace and therefore limiting the number of usernames and passwords that need to be memorized. A bit of an all your eggs in one basket feel.
There is a public curriculum-aligned lessons library where you can draw lesson ideas from.
It's paperless - but does not exclude the use of paper/books.
Lessons created on Woskpace stay with the teacher who owns it so can be used in different years.
If future lockdowns happen, students will be able to continue with their learning as they will already be working online.
Workspace can be synced with e.g. Google Classroom, even though we don't use it, it is a cool feature.
Workspace creates opportunities for students to learn in a cohesive way through visible learning.
If we did use Workspace, students would log into it in the morning and be able to get straight into their work. There would be no need to tell them what to do as they will continue where they stopped the day before. Students will know exactly where to find their work and can work at their own pace.
Lesson Layout on Workspace include:
Goals: Clear objectives for each lesson.
Resources: You can provide as many online resources as you want to, to help students understand the new concepts. It could be video clips, articles websites, images, etc. (LEARN)
Evidence: Students get the opportunity to share their learning and understanding. (CREATE) (Informative assessment) These can have a scheduled start and end date.
Rubrics: This is the opportunity for students to self-evaluate whether they have achieved the performance criteria.
Comparing Seesaw to Workspace
Similarities:
Life Reporting to Parents
Immediate Feedback
Individual lessons or activities can be created to each student's needs
Seesaw:
Does not allow for online collaborative work. Posts can only be worked on by one child at a time.
Has a Blog Page
Students can create directly on Seesaw when creating a post.
Students can leave comments on each other's work.
Teachers can be creative when creating an activity.
American-owned - so activities are not always in line with the NZ curriculum.
It's easy to add voice recordings on the activities for students struggling to read.
Workspace:
A little harder to add recorded instructions but not impossible.
Lessons can be created easily with a clear structure for learning opportunities. (Learn, Create, Share)
Teachers can set assignments or tasks for assessment including due dates.
It's really easy to link resources and create lesson plans.
Lessons from the library are linked with the NZ curriculum and LI's are in kids' speak.
Keeping track of the student's progress is a little easier than on Seesaw. There is an activity summary page where students and teachers can clearly see how they are tracking on with their work.
These are just a few of the pros and cons I can think of. Am I excited about the possibility to use Workspace in the future? yes, very much so. Because I think it even cuts out a class site. The only class site that might be used for is general announcements or extracurricular activities. Students will then most probably use more Google platforms such as Google Docs/Slides. Seesaw could still be used to collect students' voices.
Teachers can have workshops with mixed groups or with all students that need help in a specific area while the rest of the class continues with the work on Workspace.
Any thoughts or comments will be appreciated.
