By adding a success criteria to student work artifacts can be peer assessed constructively.

rcast is an excellent way of collecting quick peer feedback. In my own teaching I used a great bit of web 2.0 called goanimate this allows users to create animations quickly online without having to be a good artist. I wanted students to model what a good learning conversation looks like and this was easier and more engaging for most students than role play. We agreed on what success would look like and shared this in the top post of our cast. Each student then created their animation and shared it with the group by embeding it in a post on the rcast. Peer feedback was then given using the comments function against the agreed success criteria.

Have a look at this tutorial on embeding items within a webcell.

Embedding HTML in realsmart web cells from realsmart on Vimeo.

In collaboration with Frogtrade we have created a widget that allows your users to sign in to realsmart from their Frog VLE without the need to enter an additional user name and password.

If you would like a widget made for your Frog platform then please send a request to support@smartassess.com

Take a look at this video to find out how to install the SSO widget on your FROG box.

realsmart frog single sign on

We would like to share this document with all of our users. Every now and then we get calls saying realsmart isn’t working properly for us. This is usually to do with the way things are set up at your end, this non technical document will talk you through everything you need to know in order to be up and running again in no time. Read on….

Sharing is a fundemental part of harnessing best practice in teaching and learning and realsmart is set up to make this as easy is possible.

With our new MIS integration you can now have dynamically updated class lists within realsmart.  This means you can easily share the right resources with the right students.

If you look at “my content” there are 4 areas;

• My items – items created by you

• My Site – items created in your school that others have shared

• rcommunity – items created by realsmart users nationally

• realsmart items – items created by realsmart (these are pretty good!)

Once you have created an item you can choose how to share it.  If its just for you and your students just go through the sharing system in the following way.

How to add a new share;

1. Share with groups, individuals, or  yourself – click next

2. Choose mentors – by default this is you but you could add additional mentors, perhaps someone you team teach with, share a class with a teaching assisstant or your head of department.

3. Acitivity – I think of these as subject areas or activities i.e. Maths, English, Science, but activities could include Student Voice, Key Skills, PLTS, etc.

From here you can select “Finished! Create My Share”, which will place your item in the “My Learning” Activities area of yours and your selected learners accounts.

Click here to see the sharing tutorial video

The realsmart team are proud to announce that we have appointed Simon Brown to head our training and support team.

Simon comes to us from Cramlington Learning Village, one of the best and most forward thinking schools in the UK. He’ll be joining realsmart next month and can’t wait to get stuck in.
At Cramlington, Simon was responsible for their online learning environment and championed the use of realsmart across the school since it was launched at Cramlington 5 years ago. His role within our team is to develop our proactive customer implementation, support and training, and to build an active online community of users.
Schools are able to book Simon for training and implementation sessions now by contacting him on simon@smartassess.com
Simon says ‘the use of realsmart in Cramlington has been pivotal in the development of our pedagogy and I can’t wait to share my experience of its uses with as many schools as possible’.
We can’t wait either Si!

De Bono’s Thinking Hats allow us to examine a concept or problem through a variety of lenses or ‘Hats’.

Each ‘Hat’ in turn helps us think about the problems, benefits, ideas, emotions, suggestions and negative.
Using an rmap will allow you to share your thinking with your peers through the ‘Hats’. Get it from the community.

We now offer an automated integration link, that allows you to populate realsmart with your member data as often as you want from two of the most popular MIS systems, Serco Facility and Capita SIMS. This means that any changes to classes will automatically be picked up. You can set the data transfer for once a day, once a week, once a term…you get the idea.

This service will automate the collection of users and groups to administrate your realsmart account. You won’t have to bother your network manager or administrator again once this is done! This service is normally charged out at £300, but for our existing customers we are offering this service for free. All you need to do is contact us before the end of July 2010 to book a time slot.
Click here to contact the realsmart support team now

The realsmart community regularly share their best work for all to use in their own schools. Take a look and see what you can find for your own teaching.

Go to ‘my content’ and click the ‘Community items’ tab. Choose an item from the list and click on it to view, share and duplicate.

We love finding out why people love realsmart, and how they are using it effectively in their schools.

Hirst Park Middle School 

Hirst Park Middle School took the initiative and found realsmart easy to roll out across the whole school with very little support. Recently they told us how they’re using realsmart to deliver everything from lesson plans to field trip blogs.
‘It literally took me about 15 minutes to plan a unit of work – using the resources that we already have in school – and uploading them into realsmart. It was just so easy to use, so intuitive.’

Charlene Larter Literacy Teacher

Click here to watch the video

Hornsea School and Language College

Hornsea School and Language College have embedded realsmart into the schools way of life, whether it’s using rcast to keep Media Diploma production diary’s, or rcast to engage difficult to reach students. With little training, they have seen how realsmart can have a massive impact on both students and teachers.

‘We’re using realsmart quite a lot in our particuliar area because the students are responding to it really well, and it’s making life quite a bit easier in terms of collecting assessment evidence and things like that.’

John Hart e-learning coordinator (Music & Diploma)

Click here to watch the video

Aston Manor, Bartley Green and Wheelers Lane

These three Birmingham schools have used realsmart to reduce their workload. By writing their OCR Nationals ICT units in realsmart using rafl, and then setting them to the community area, they were able to share the work they had created and duplicate units the other schools had built.
‘realsmart’s just been a great tool to share ideas, share resources and just to get our message across – to save us re-inventing the wheel.’

James Gough Head of ICT – Aston Manor School & Technology College

Click here to watch the video

37signals  – the Chicago based makers of Basecamp and other great web-based software – recently wrote an article on smartassess for their Signal vs. Noise weblog.

The article, ‘Bootstrapped, Profitable, & Proud: smartassess‘, covers how realsmart came about, why it came about, and looks at the fundamental philosophy at the heart of realsmart – the learner!

It would be fair to say that since the article was published twitter has gone through the roof!

“realsmart is based on self assessment rather than the teacher telling you what to do. Students own their portfolios and can build them at their own pace. It’s based on the idea that we learn as we reflect and record our learning, not when a teacher tells us we’re a B- and could do better. It tries to help us learn like we do in the real world i.e. on our own, with our friends to help us, and occasionally some feedback from an expert.” Gwyn ap Harri

To read more about why we do what we do, click here.

P.S. You’ll also get have a look around the office and try and guess who’s who!