Jott: A Powerful New Tool for Learning

Our most successful students are those who understand how they learn and who have identified, refined and adapted strategies that promote their own learning. Conversely, our least successful learners typically are not aware of how to promote their own learning and understanding. For example, when studying for a test or quiz, they may not understand the need to review the most salient points and they may have a difficult time even identifying what is salient. To them, everything is salient which makes studying overwhelming.

The ability to monitor the progress of your learning and make changes when the strategies are not working is called metacognition. It is essential for effective learning. Expert learners are intuitive in their use of metacogniton.

We know that our students with learning challenges struggle in this area. They are not strategic in their learning, in either planning, organizing or adapting for learning success. Therefore, it is imperative that we provide explicit instruction in metacognitive strategies.

One 21st century method is highlighted here which combines the ubiquity of cell phones in the pockets of our students with universal design for learning principles. Grasp the power of the tool that is readily available for our students.

Don't ban cell phones, teach kids how to use them strategically.

How do we accomplish this? Enter Jott, a 21st century tool for learning.

To understand the possibilities, you must first understand what it does:

Jott converts your voice into emails, text messages, reminders, lists and appointments.

Once you register at Jott.com, use your cell phone, call jott, tell jott who you would like to "jott" and record your message. Within minutes, your message is converted to text via email or text message to whomever you jotted.

Simple. Do you grasp the power?

Let's take this beyond the obvious - to create reminders or set up appointments. What are the strategic applications which promote learning for all students?

Jott allows you to add contacts and create lists and groups. Create a list for each academic subject area. Then when you jott, you can jott (input the text) directly into a specific folder for easy retrieval. Jott promotes organization and review of information and allows you to flag information, set up reminders, listen to your recordings at a later time and print out your jotts.

How can this be used in our classrooms? Here are some examples:

• At the end of the class period, have your students jott to that particular academic subject folder (or list) their homework for the day.
  
• At the end of the class period, have your students jott to that particular academic subject folder (or list)the most important things they learned in your class that day.
• At the end of the class period, have your students jott to that particular academic subject folder (or list) any ideas that they would like to explore further.
• At the end of the class period, have your students jott to that particular academic subject folder (or list) have your students record any concepts they are still unclear about.
• At the end of the class period, have your students jott to that particular academic subject folder (or list) a summary of what you taught or they learned that day.
• At the end of the week, encourage your students to review their jotts for your academic subject as another way to review their learning for the week. They are easily retrieved in one area online.
  
• At the end of the week, ask your students to print out their jotts for your subject area for the week for you to review. (Jott keeps track by folder and this is easy to do). This provides a great deal of information - are your students understanding what you are teaching? How effectively are they summarizing what you taught? What are they unclear about? Do you see the potential ways this can help improve your teaching?

Using Jott immediately at the end of the class helps enhance learning and mitigates against memory issues. This is vital point for many of our kids. Can we agree that providing a tool for immediacy, repetition and review promotes learning?

The methods suggested above work well for struggling learners. What makes this a universal design for learning approach is that while they are recommended for struggling learners, all students can potentially benefit from the use of this free online tool. Teach explicit applications to your struggling learners, teach strategy use. You will also teach brevity, because Jott allows only 30 second of recordings. (It is possible to record multiple 30 second messages if necessary).

Do you see the potential? Help promote purposeful, effective and independent learning in your classroom. Think outside the box and share your ideas here.

Additional resources - Jott Videos - don't miss the student videos!
How to Jott

Note: This post is an extension of what my friend and colleague, Beth Lloyd, demonstrated to me about Jott for personal productivity.

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