Thursday, January 27, 2011
The new PbyP website
A very brief summary of how we have improved PbyP with the launch of the new website for learners and teachers.
1. We have integrated all of the previous websites into one.
Now at www.pbyp.co.uk you can find all of following the previous websites;
- The website for learners to log in to their e-portfolio
- The website for teachers to get an overview of their class.
- The website for school managers and administrators.
- The website for very young learners (previously called PbyP Foundations)
- The website for learners with moderate and severe learning difficulties.
- The website covering other than English, language versions of PbyP.
- The quick upload site.
- New information pages have been provided that replace the ones currently on this newsletter site.
- The newsletter will be moved onto the Cambridge Education website ( www.camb-ed.com ) soon and after we have allowed enough time for change over, this site will be closed.
- The specialist site for smart phones will be completed this Spring.
If you have links on your site to any aspect of PbyP they all now need to point to www.pbyp.co.uk
2. We have improved the peer assessment system.
The core function is still the same in that learners from all over the world continue to be able to automatically send their work for peer assessment to someone who has achieved the next ladder level up from them. This system is anonymous and secure.
To enhance this we have :
- Added multiple languages to enable learners to collaborate directly with those who speak a language not used by the rest of their school.
- Added new automation to provide certificates and recognition for people who assess helpfully and using positive language. We have also recognised those who provide good feedback
- Added work tracking facilities so that you can track where your work is at the moment.
- Implemented a simple but excellent idea to force the oldest piece to be assessed first.
- Allowed peer assessors to control the maximum number of pieces they can receive to assess each week
3. We have added notes and discussion starters to the mentor meetings.
Parents really liked the previous mentor meetings tools in PbyP so we added the extra ones that they asked us for including:
- A panel by each page with a list of suggestions for what you can ask your child in your discussion.
- A section for you to keep notes that you can look at before the next meeting to remind yourself.
- Extra password protection for your mentee so you can only see their work in the meeting and not when showing off to friends at work!
- A separate free account for parents so that they can mentor more than one of their children using the same account.
4. We have improved the sharing of examples.
Being able to see examples of what other learners have tried from all over the world was always the part that children told us they liked best so this was the area that we received lots of helpful suggestions for. We have included all these ideas and some of our own so that now…
- Learners can rate the examples that they found most helpful
- The most helpful examples list first
- There are search facilities so you can look for examples "using video" or from "Science", for example.
- You can see which country the work has come from.
- You can bookmark your favourite examples so you can go back to them easier later.
- For very young learners we have added a signing off process by which at least two teachers from different schools need to recommend work as an example for it to appear in the list.
- Teachers can now add projects as examples to share with other teachers on ladders they have made for themselves.
5. We have improved the ratings and certificates.
In the previous version the five star rating for how well someone was progressing, how well they were mentoring their peers and how well they were assessing their peers was available in the awards page and certificates were automatically generated when you completed a level. In the new version…
- We have added ten times more opportunities for certificates because we now know this is a certificate roughly every eight weeks and so feels about right!
- We have described the ratings more clearly and added graphs and single word descriptions for younger learners.
- We have given teachers access to view these ratings for all of their classes.
6. We have improved the tools for teachers.
We must be honest and say that in the first version of PbyP we prioritised the learners and so the tools available to teachers were quite basic. The new version has addressed this and now allows teachers to:
- Print out or export a whole range of reports including PbyP profiles.
- Get an overview of where their whole class is across all their skills.
- Award certificates.
- See examples of work in a skill they may be planning to teach.
- Do projects and gain feedback and analysis on how well they went.
- Collaborate more easily with other teachers using PbyP.
- Control exactly how many pieces of sample work they are sent to assess.
New Countries and New Schools
The multiple language capability in the new version has allowed us to get back to schools keen to use PbyP in countries other than the UK. We have welcomed schools from over ten countries and will be working over the following year to fully test these features and bring them on board.
The following notes are for the benefit of our new schools and those interested in using PbyP. We hope this summary is useful
The Personalisation by Pieces website has a selection of pre-login pages which describe PbyP, how it was developed and how it has been used by schools, learners and teachers. These are public pages available to anyone who visits the website.
The rest of the PbyP website is only accessible by registered learners and teachers. When a school registers their teachers and learners – they will be given a username and password for every individual to login at www.pbyp.co.uk
The basics.
The PbyP website creates and automatically updates a personal skills profile for each individual user. Each personal profile is created from the skills ladders the school selects for their learners: a personal starting level on the ladders is set for each individual student.
When a learner logs in to PbyP they can access their personal skills profile, all their evidence, their personal targets and goals and to ideas and examples of best work.
Actions. Learners can choose new personal targets, submit evidence for the skills ladders in their profile, peer assess evidence sent to them from other learners, request a meeting with any of their mentors or mentees, ask someone to be their mentor or buddy. Complete any questionnaires sent to them by their teachers about projects they are part of.
Each learner has an inbox and they may have messages from their teachers related to their work and projects in PbyP. The inbox will also have messages sent when their evidence has been assessed and returned, and when they have received work to assess as a peer assessor. The inbox will also store all messages from mentors and mentees, such as requesting a meeting.
When a teacher logs in to PbyP they have access to the personal skills profiles of all their students. Teachers can view the work submitted and the progress made on an individual and group level. Teachers can see which skill areas are developing well with individual learners or a class and which might need more time or planning. If they are the key mentor for a student (each learner has to be allocated a teacher from their own school to be their key mentor.), they can view all their assessments including the comments of peer assessors and run online mentor meetings where their comments are recorded. Teachers can also set up classroom projects.
How to best use Personalisation by Pieces.
PbyP works best when learners and staff login to the website at least once a week.
PbyP works best when learners send evidence for assessment only when they feel sure themselves that they have worked on it for long enough to achieve all parts of the target. Quality over quantity leads to the best success with PbyP.
Each school using PbyP needs to have someone allocated to the role of Administrator. This is someone who will change any learner details on the site, add new staff and learners and change the amount of assessment each member of staff can receive. This is not a large role in terms of time but essential as a point of contact.
Each school using PbyP needs to have someone allocated to the role of PbyP Champion – this is the lead professional co-ordinating the use of PbyP within the school. There are no specific tasks this person needs to undertake on the website but is the lead contact with Cambridge Education. How can the Champion encourage their school do to make best use of PbyP? The key factors which we have identified make the biggest difference in the success of PbyP are:
Frequency of use,
Visibility of use,
Integration with school visions, plans and development.
What can teachers do to make sure PbyP is working well for students?
We recommend that teachers log on to the PbyP website themselves at least once a week to support their students. The role of the teacher is largely supporting learners in selecting targets, working on and selecting appropriate evidence to submit and in being good peer assessors themselves. Each student has to have a key mentor allocated to them – this can be any teacher who is registered on the PbyP site from their school. This role is often given to class teachers/form tutors.
Teachers can support learners in key skills and roles developed in PbyP by considering these core questions with them:
What makes a good Peer assessor?
What makes good evidence?
Self-evaluation – how am I progressing?