Peergrade

While I can see this technology being more useful for classroom teachers, I can see peergrade being a great tool for learning!

Image result for Peergrade logo

In its essence, peergrade allows teachers to create an assignment, upload a rubric and offer students a platform to upload their work to. Students submit their work and once the submission period is closed, student work is anonymously given to other students to look over and offer feedback.

As a librarian, I love this idea as a way to help students understand what peer reviewed journals actually mean versus non-peer reviewed. As a teacher, I love the idea of students being able to learn through feedback. I can see students taking this seriously and doing their best to offer their peers honest and effective feedback. Peergrade could be a great way to begin a conversation about effective feedback--what is helpful, what is hurtful, what is meaningless. I firmly believe that the collaborative programs of today will mean an increase in collaborative work in the future. Students who learn how to positively work in a group will have an edge over those who are unable to communicate their thoughts and feelings in a useful way.

Unfortunately, when I went to sign up for peergrade, I was placed on a waiting list.

However, I hope to look into it further (after August 21st!) to figure out how to use it most effectively in the library setting. 

One concern I have is with anonymity. The school I work in is a very small school, with only one class per grade level. If I were to do this, it may be challenging for students to not know whose work they are grading. Since they have all been together since pre-k, they know each other extremely well. The small size of the class also means research topics will be overheard and discussed among friends and everyone will know what everyone else is researching. 

Still, I feel that peergrade is worth pursuing. I almost wonder about working with a neighboring small school and creating an assignment together with that librarian so we could pool all our students and they could honestly offer anonymous feedback. Since the student work is anonymous, I am not sure if that would be counter to privacy safekeeping or not. Will have to look into it!  

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