But How Do We Know They're Thinking?
Snorkl: Instant Feedback On 
Authentic Student Thinking

@LisaBerghoff

With all of the new technology swirling around our learning spaces, it's easy to get lost. They each promise great things, especially the AI tools. Most claim that they will save teachers so much time. They also say that students will be thoroughly engaged, and that student learning will improve. These are all things we want. One of the issues is that these are variables that are very hard to measure. While it's easy to get caught up in the new shiny tools that are promising big things, it's most important to keep our compass pointed at student learning, specifically higher level thinking. That's why I'm so excited to share about Snorkl, which uses AI to help give feedback on student thinking. 

What Is Snorkl?

Snorkl is a platform that allows students to record and share their reasoning, then they receive instant AI powered feedback to push deep and meaningful learning. 

How Does Snorkl Work?

You create a problem, question, or prompt for your students. You can also select one that has already been created. Students then record themselves solving the problem or answering the question while explaining their reasoning. They have access to a white board where they can draw, type, or write as they speak, The AI reviews the student's explanation based on the guidance you have provided and provides the student with personalized feedback. 

How Do I Get Started With Snorkl?

Start off by navigating to snorkl.app and use your school Google account to log in. 

If this is your first time using Snorkl, I suggest you choose an activity to experience as a student. Choose "Try A Sample Activity".

When you're ready, you can find an activity that has already been created or you can create your own. Here are the steps:

1. Click on "Create An Activity"

2. Give it a title and then choose the student response type. You have 4 options: Whiteboard recording, whiteboard only, audio only, and writing. 

3. Add your activity. This can be an upload of a file like a pdf, or you can type the instructions. 

4. Click "AI Feedback Settings" to tell the AI how to give feedback on student responses. You can use the "Generate from Question" feature or you can enter it manually. 

You now have the option to try your activity as a student or to go ahead and assign it.

When you are ready to assign, you will add it to a class that you have created. You have some settings you can adjust such as whether or not to allow the whiteboard to translate to other languages. You can also limit the number of attempts and allow students to see each other's anonymous responses after they have submitted.

Once assigned, you will get a link to share with your students via Schoology. 

Here is a short video overview:

After your students complete the assignment, you will be able to see their responses in your Snorkl dashboard. You can see their scores, how many attempts they made, and review their responses. You can also click on "Insights" to get general information about how the class did.

From here, you can edit the activity if you want to give more practice or provide more scaffolds.

You have the ability to see all of your activities. You can see class progress as well as looking at individual students.

Why Should I Try Snorkl?

We know that students can sometimes fall through the cracks. With a tool like Snorkl, none of your students can hide in the back and phone it in. This really requires students to use their voice and show their thinking in a way that many other tools do not. Also, Snorkl lends itself to content areas that other AI tools don't do so well. If you are working with math and science, I really think this is where Snorkl shines. 

If you want to see how it works and get some help getting started, please reach out to me. I'm happy to help!