Amazing data on discussions.
I have never seen a tool like Equity Maps before. It allows teacher to collect critical data on all aspects of a verbal discussion. I recently took a course on how to improve class discussions and one key piece is to reflect on it after and Equity Maps helps you do that very well.
Elementary Socratic Seminars will never be the same!
This app has been so useful in helping my students develop their skills and proficiency in Socratic Seminars. They find it highly motivational to see the connections as they're made and we’ve started using it in the goal setting and reflection phases as well. My principal came in when we were using it and was blown away by how we were using the data it provides. My students love to look at past feedback frames to see their growth over time. I highly recommend this app to anyone looking to delve deeper into Socratic Seminars and see great progress in the students’ ability to goal set and grow academically.
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Great Research Tool
This app is really mind blowing. If you are interested in the action research in classroom, this is a must-have app.
My favorite app
Equity Maps is my favorite app right now. It does everything I need to keep track of discussions and seminars. My students love to replay seminars and look at the various participation graphs. I love the fact that I can record the audio for our discussions for those times when I write report cards or need some reminders about specific students. A fantastic app that more teachers should use!
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So many possibilities...
I’m looking forward to trialling this app tomorrow with my class! Can not wait to get the custom layout option so I can input my class tables and have the layout on the screen match. Some time soon please.
Great for classroom use
Equity Maps is an ideal tool for tracking and data collection for class discussions. For teachers who are looking for a way to assess and provide feedback to students during discussion, Equity Maps has a host of features to make this job much easier.
Love almost everything, but...
I'm looking forward to using this in the Harkness discussions in my English class this year, however, there are two features I would love to see developed in the future. First, the ability to produce a shareable report from the analytics to include with my students' rubrics so that they know what to work on would be really helpful. Second, I usually take notes on what each individual student contributes; it would be great it that were an option when clicking on the check notes for each participant. Otherwise, this app has some terrific features!
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Best Discussion App!
I have been looking for an app like this for many years!
Equity Maps is an amazing app for mapping conversations and then tracking various points of data. It’s easy to set up and use, which I appreciate as a busy middle school teacher and seminar facilitator. After initially mapping the discussion, there are a number of excellent debriefing tools available. My students love watching a sped-up replay of the discussion!
There are excellent pre-loaded templates for tracking different aspects of participation based on tuning protocols, Socratic seminars, Harkness-style discussions, and many more. By tracking important and relevant data, teachers can focus on specific skills, set clearer individual and group goals, and even write better report cards.
Essentially, this is a perfect app for all class discussions!
As a Socratic seminar expert myself, if I designed an app, it would basically be this one!
Equity Maps is an amazing app for mapping conversations and then tracking various points of data. It’s easy to set up and use, which I appreciate as a busy middle school teacher and seminar facilitator. After initially mapping the discussion, there are a number of excellent debriefing tools available. My students love watching a sped-up replay of the discussion!
There are excellent pre-loaded templates for tracking different aspects of participation based on tuning protocols, Socratic seminars, Harkness-style discussions, and many more. By tracking important and relevant data, teachers can focus on specific skills, set clearer individual and group goals, and even write better report cards.
Essentially, this is a perfect app for all class discussions!
As a Socratic seminar expert myself, if I designed an app, it would basically be this one!
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Great app for teachers!
This is an extremely useful app for teachers. I used the beta version as well, and I am really impressed by the final version. It was clearly designed by a classroom teacher. My Grade 10 English students were surprised by the equity charts, and I noticed a big difference during the follow-up Socratic seminar. I was also impressed by how much this app helped me to grade classroom discussions. The new update is excellent—the ability to comment while recording means that I no longer need to keep written or typed notes. I am able to pay more attention to the class seminar.
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Socratic Seminar rocked - will use for small groups.
I borrowed this app to use with my class - when I projected the stats w/n the feedback frames, the students were glued to the screen. "Koastas, look how much you spoke!" said one student; "I wanted to say more but didn't have a chance," said another. Will add Equity Maps to the other iPads in class and let the students chart their small breakout group discussions and I will be able to listen after. This will free them up to have their own space, but also allow me to see where they are at with their understanding of the text. Looking forward to seeing what you add next. Would be great to be able to share the report frames.
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Added feedback when coaching colleagues.
The new Checknotes function is a great addition for the school year. Tracking types of questions asked in class provides specific feedback to colleagues as we work to improve formative assessment practices.
Excellent addition to my toolbox!
Excellent addition to my toolbox!
Streamlines Harkness Discussions Like No Other
WIth so many educational apps out there trying to capture every piece of the app market by including social media functions that operate like shoddy Facebook or Instagram clones or focusing their products entirely on the teacher/parent relationship, it is so refreshing to see an app like Equity Maps.
The beauty of Equity Maps is that it has a clear purpose, vision, and utility for classroom teachers. I actually went to the Phillips Exeter Humanities Institute this past summer, which is a week of professional development for humanities teachers at Phillips Exeter Academy focused entirely on learning how to apply the Harkness method (from the school that invented it!) to one’s curriculum, and several teachers had just recently discovered Equity Maps and were raving about it. After we tried it out for a few Harkness discussion sections, I was completely hooked and couldn’t wait to take it back to my school.
This app makes all of those discussion mapping worksheets and the difficulty of then copying, distributing, and breaking down the information in said worksheets a thing of the past. The fact that the app also includes data points for looking at the distribution of participation between men and women is also incredibly helpful for aiding with those difficult conversations one should have with male students about not dominating the discussion in a room (even though society teaches to do it). Hopefully, Equity Maps plan to expand the gender choices to include trans and genderqueer students who my be uncomfortable with being labeled as either male or female (at this point, I just have a conversation with my classes about using this app with chosen pronouns in mind until that update comes around).
My students LOVE seeing the replay of the discussion happen in real time and figuring out how many minutes they talked vs their peers. The ability to show the various checknotes (which are tags you can apply to certain students who make certain types of comments) is also incredibly helpful for making students aware of their trends and notifying the class of ways that the group as a whole could improve or focus next time.
If you’re a teacher whose classes are largely discussion-based (I teach English and Creative Writing at the high school level, so it is a must!), this app will change your teaching experience and save you ridiculous amounts of time and energy. The kids think it’s cool too!
The beauty of Equity Maps is that it has a clear purpose, vision, and utility for classroom teachers. I actually went to the Phillips Exeter Humanities Institute this past summer, which is a week of professional development for humanities teachers at Phillips Exeter Academy focused entirely on learning how to apply the Harkness method (from the school that invented it!) to one’s curriculum, and several teachers had just recently discovered Equity Maps and were raving about it. After we tried it out for a few Harkness discussion sections, I was completely hooked and couldn’t wait to take it back to my school.
This app makes all of those discussion mapping worksheets and the difficulty of then copying, distributing, and breaking down the information in said worksheets a thing of the past. The fact that the app also includes data points for looking at the distribution of participation between men and women is also incredibly helpful for aiding with those difficult conversations one should have with male students about not dominating the discussion in a room (even though society teaches to do it). Hopefully, Equity Maps plan to expand the gender choices to include trans and genderqueer students who my be uncomfortable with being labeled as either male or female (at this point, I just have a conversation with my classes about using this app with chosen pronouns in mind until that update comes around).
My students LOVE seeing the replay of the discussion happen in real time and figuring out how many minutes they talked vs their peers. The ability to show the various checknotes (which are tags you can apply to certain students who make certain types of comments) is also incredibly helpful for making students aware of their trends and notifying the class of ways that the group as a whole could improve or focus next time.
If you’re a teacher whose classes are largely discussion-based (I teach English and Creative Writing at the high school level, so it is a must!), this app will change your teaching experience and save you ridiculous amounts of time and energy. The kids think it’s cool too!
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Principal
This Checknote feature will be perfect for our intermediate teachers as their students work in literature circles. Can't wait to share it when school starts. Thanks for hearing our suggestions.
Response from developer
We're continuing to make improvements with the Checknotes to help improve your lit circles even more. Here's to the school year!
Good enough so far...
I really like the easy way that this helps me track who is talking and how much. I also love that I can record so that if a student challenges me later, I have a record. However, I would like more options for organizing my recordings/sessions for later so that there isn't just a large scroll screen. I would also like to see the ability for me to share these recordings/post them to my classes discussion boards so that students can replay them without me and begin to hear what I hear so that they can self-assess (since so many of them only listen to respond in the context of the discussion, yet they listen to really evaluate themselves later on). Last, I NEED a tool that I can select 3-5 indicators that I am looking for so that when I click on a student that is talking, I can just tap one of the 3-5 indicators of what I am looking for so that my data is more informative than just how long they spoke for (because we all know plenty of people that say a lot without actually saying anything of substance). I will continue to use this to see how to better incorporate it into my classroom- however, I am still having to use a paper and pencil tracking system for the reasons stated above, and would love an app that would take all of those needs off of my plate.
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Response from developer
Thanks for your suggestions... many are in the works. Hope that the new Checknote function is helping you to indicate the nature of what your students are sharing. You can choose from among the 17 templates that we've added AND you can easily edit the templates or create your own. As each student speaks you can indicate the nature of what they share. Finally you can quickly access the information within the feedback frames for each participant to share with them individually or project on the screen. Lots more features coming to you in v3 in the new year! Thanks for joining the hundreds of early adopters who are using Equity Maps to improve dialogue in their classrooms and to boost reflection!
Exactly what I've been looking for, but...
This is exactly what I have been looking for as a classroom teacher and instructional coach. My only issue with it is there is not a way to delete or organize groups and there is a bug when you try to delete a student. Otherwise I really like all of the features (small group, pair share, silence, etc.).
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Response from developer
We've made lots of improvements with the functionality -- easy to add, delete or rename participants or groups. Stay tuned for more features with v3!
Educator
Great app for classroom discussions. Projected the playback and stats through "AirPlay" for all to see and followed with more discussion. Looking forward to seeing what else they add to this app. Very helpful for reviewing class participation and for assessing performance. + students want to see the results.
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