Quickly-made card sorts in OneNote

I don't use card sorts in my teaching as often as I'd like to, mostly because of the faff of handing them out and the lost time for cutting (either my time if I pre-prepare them, or learning time if the pupils do).

Our introduction of iPads to KS3 offers an opportunity to use card sorts without this lost time, plus with a number of advantages over the traditional physical version.

We can quickly see how pupils have arranged their cards, plus we can project their arrangement and discuss it as a group. In terms of the SAMR model, I'd say this fits into the "augumentation" level. 

During lockdown, I made frequent — and I think effective — use of Desmos card sorts. I loved that I can see each pupil's arrangement of cards, and that Desmos will highlight whether or not cards are matched correctly. I hated that it took me hours to make each one.

This week I've been experimenting with a quick way to take an exiting card sort (eg from the PDFs in the standards unit) and make a card sort using a tool that pupils are increasingly familiar with: OneNote. It's by no means perfect, but considering it took me no more than 5 minutes to set up, I think it's a quick win. Whilst it doesn't self-mark, you are able to see each pupils' arrangement and project/discuss as a group. It's also Covid risk-assessment friendly: we don't need to worry about having the windows open in case a gust of wind blows the cards out of position! One minor frustration is that sometimes the on-screen keyboard pops up. 

It's noteworthy that in my first lesson using this OneNote card sort idea, my iPad totally stopped working. I wasn't able to demo it to them, but gave just a short verbal explanation as to how to find the card sort and what to do; pupils had no difficulty in doing so. Technology going wrong on me was almost a given: I was being observed!

Below you should see an embedded video that demonstrates step-by-step how I made this card sort. This is only visible to trust staff, so if you're not logged in use this link to watch the video. 

I'm going to try a larger card sort next to see how well this scales. Because pupils can zoom in/out by pinching, I think this has the potential to work well. It's likely to be one from the standards unit. Gone are the days when we run out of desk space or time. Card sorts can now easily span across lessons!