San Francisco, CA, January 26, 2015 - Every day, millions of school children come home and tell their parents that they did “nothing” in school today. Of course this isn’t ever true, but it’s often difficult for young children to share what they’ve learned at school, or for parents to know a more specific question to ask. See the bottom of this post for the new app updates!
Available today for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, SeesawTM is a learning journal that empowers students as young as five to independently capture what they are learning at school with photos, videos, and their voice. Parents are notified (via text message, email, or the Seesaw Parent app) when new items are added, and can immediately see and hear what their child did at school that day.
Available today for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, SeesawTM is a learning journal that empowers students as young as five to independently capture what they are learning at school with photos, videos, and their voice. Parents are notified (via text message, email, or the Seesaw Parent app) when new items are added, and can immediately see and hear what their child did at school that day.
Seesaw was developed in collaboration with teachers around the country that have been piloting the app in their classrooms. In just a few short months, teachers have already seen their students taking more ownership of what they are learning at school as well as a closer collaboration with parents. “We use Seesaw daily in my classroom.
We are loving it and I am amazed at how much my kindergartners have started to reflect on what they are learning. Getting a kindergartner to reflect for one second is a big task, so the fact that they are able to do that and document their learning INDEPENDENTLY is amazing,” said Angela Gadtke, a kindergarten teacher from Minnesota who participated in the Seesaw pilot program.
We are loving it and I am amazed at how much my kindergartners have started to reflect on what they are learning. Getting a kindergartner to reflect for one second is a big task, so the fact that they are able to do that and document their learning INDEPENDENTLY is amazing,” said Angela Gadtke, a kindergarten teacher from Minnesota who participated in the Seesaw pilot program.
Seesaw was developed by Shadow Puppet, the creators of the Common Sense Media “Best of 2014” award winning classroom video app, Shadow Puppet Edu. “Our experience with Shadow Puppet made us realize that with a well-designed app, students are capable of creating amazing things using iPads. We really wanted to empower students with Seesaw to take ownership of what they are learning and create a safe place for them to share,” said Adrian Graham, cofounder of Seesaw.
In addition to letting students capture photos and videos of their physical creations, Seesaw integrates with over 20 other popular classroom content creation tools such as Shadow Puppet, Pic Collage, and Explain Everything, making it an easy way to collect and organize digital creations of all forms. Students can add any kind of multimedia content to their journal, and teachers have the opportunity to approve all items before they are shared with parents.
“We really wanted to build something that students could use independently so this wasn’t just “one more thing” that took time away from teaching in the classroom but still kept teachers totally in control,” said Carl Sjogreen, cofounder of Seesaw.
Now available in version 1.5:
Resources
● Seesaw Website
● Download Seesaw in the App Store
About Seesaw
Seesaw is the latest product from Shadow Puppet. Founded in 2012 by Adrian Graham, Charles Lin, and Carl Sjogreen, Shadow Puppet makes an awardwinning video creation app that’s been featured on the Today Show and named by both Common Sense Media and the American Library Association a “Best App for 2014”. Shadow Puppet has an experienced team that has created products like Google Calendar and Picasa which are used daily by millions of people. Shadow Puppet has received funding from Greylock and other prominent angel investors.
“We really wanted to build something that students could use independently so this wasn’t just “one more thing” that took time away from teaching in the classroom but still kept teachers totally in control,” said Carl Sjogreen, cofounder of Seesaw.
Now available in version 1.5:
- Folders: Now you can organize student work in to folders. You can set up colored folders for subject areas or learning objectives, and choose whether students self select folders when adding items or teachers do it as part of item approval. Folders are visible to teachers, students and parents. You can browse work by folder across your class or for a particular student.
- Teacher Flags: Teachers (and co-teachers) can flag items to review later -- at a parent teacher conference, with a student, or however you'd like. Which items have been flagged are only visible to class teachers and co-teachers.
- PDF Documents: Now you can add PDFs to Seesaw journals. You can import PDFs from many other iOS apps (like Pages, Numbers, Keynote, Google Drive, Book Creator) using the iOS share extension / open in feature. Just tap share in those apps and select Seesaw.
- Tag Everyone: Want to add a class photo to Seesaw journals, or send a quick note to all parents in your class? Now you can add an item to all student journals with a single tap.
Resources
● Seesaw Website
● Download Seesaw in the App Store
About Seesaw
Seesaw is the latest product from Shadow Puppet. Founded in 2012 by Adrian Graham, Charles Lin, and Carl Sjogreen, Shadow Puppet makes an awardwinning video creation app that’s been featured on the Today Show and named by both Common Sense Media and the American Library Association a “Best App for 2014”. Shadow Puppet has an experienced team that has created products like Google Calendar and Picasa which are used daily by millions of people. Shadow Puppet has received funding from Greylock and other prominent angel investors.
