Wixie (Twitter @Tech4Learning) is an online publishing platform designed for elementary schools. It enables students to work on projects at school or at home, and then privately publish their work to share with their class and families. Teachers build project frameworks using existing templates or from scratch, assign it to the class, and then the students complete the assignment and publish their work. Students can also create their own projects from scratch using the text, paint, and audio recording tools, as well as embedded or uploaded backgrounds, clip art, and photos. Wixie tracks student progress in portfolios, which teachers can view and comment on. Wixie also provides standards alignment per project, assessment rubrics, templates for curriculum activities, and built in training modules for teachers. Teachers can download their Wixie templates to share directly with others, and can also participate in the online Trading Post where teachers share the templates they have created.
The example shown above is an embed of an Wixie project template that I have made public. I used a Frayer graphic organizer template and created a cover page with relevant images and a question to frame group discussions. The template has three Frayer organizers, one for each type of resource the students must study to meet Virginia Standards of Learning requirement VS 4.e (Virginia Department of Education, 2015). Students open the template in the app and then work with partners to complete the Frayer vocabulary exercise for fourth grade Virginia Studies. After each student makes their own project, they submit it to the teacher and publish when ready. The entire activity is completed in the Wixie platform.
Wixie has a base subscription fee of $5 per student for the school year, which includes the teacher account. Teachers can try out the Wixie web interface for free before purchasing a license. Wixie works on Windows, Mac, Chromebooks, iOS, Android, and Kindle Fire HD. This makes it very flexible for BYOT/BYOD classrooms and for student differentiation. The company also provides information on specific system requirements.
References
Virginia Department of Education. (2015). History and Social Science Standards of Learning for Virginia Public Schools. Retrieved from http://www.doe.virginia.gov/testing/sol/standards_docs/history_socialscience/2015/index.shtml
[Disclosure: All blog posts are written by Andrea. Blog posts are neither sponsored nor endorsed by the respective companies of any service, hardware, or software mentioned. This blog earns a small commission through display ads.]
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