Why You Will Love InsertLearning
What is InsertLearning
InsertLearning is a Google Chrome Extension that allows teachers to insert instructional content on any web page. It is a Tech tool that when assigned allows your students to engage with the web page – answering questions, posting in chats, and following along with your annotations on the web page.
The video above is a short video from 2018 when I won the Demo Slam at the EdTechTeam Summit in Sydney (made with Screencastify)
5 Reasons why You will love InsertLearning
Insertlearning is a fantastic tool for so many reasons. But here are just a few.
1. It provides insight into what the students are thinking and learning
As students engage with the webpage, we are given a clear vision of what is happening in their brains as they read and think through the content. You see this as they answer questions and engage in any chat/forums that you create for them to participate in.
2. It helps students who struggle with reading
This tool also allows you to pre-highlight the text, insert comments as well as inserting videos that can all be used to further explain a concept or to help guide students to identify the key pieces of information that they need to put together to fully understand what sits within the content.
3. Students have a voice
I love to insert a chat/discussion within the web page. This allows the students to have their own voice and adds a social dimension to the learning. Not only this, but if the stimulus and instructions for the discussion are done well, this feature can also bring in collaborative elements and begin to have students working together to build their understanding, which helps to reduce the cognitive load and improve student learning (click here for my article on collaboration and cognitive load)
4. Student learning can be viewed in real-time, or before a lesson
if the web page is read in class time, as the teacher you can watch as your students complete the assigned tasks within the page. You can see their answers to questions and contributions to discussions quickly and easily.
If like me, you like to flip your classroom and have students complete something like this at home before they come to the class, you can gain insights into their learning before the lesson begins and adjust the lesson to build on where they are at with their knowledge and understanding.
5. The Library of lessons
Like EdPuzzle, Insertlearning comes with a library of already made lessons that others have shared that you can easily take and use or adjust for your own class before assigning it to them. This can help to reduce the time you spend creating the interactions, while at the same time providing you with all the benefits of InsertLearning