We’re excited to announce the latest MirrorTalk update, specifically for M2 hardware. This release features improvements that expand the ways you can engage, reflect, and learn across M2, as well as web and mobile. 

Here’s what’s new:

Upgrade engagement with the Whiteboard

Add Multiple Pages to the Whiteboard

Whether you’re solving problems, correcting sentences, or sketching out designs, having more space to do your work helps. Now, you can create multiple Whiteboard pages on your device for multi-step teaching and learning. 

The new Whiteboard experience supports dynamic small group instruction by helping teachers work through multi-step problems or present multiple examples. Students can use multiple pages to sketch out scenes in a skit, iterate on a design, or draw up ideas for a storyboard.

Bonus: Whiteboard Back in Personal Workspace

The Whiteboard is back in the Personal Workspace, offering you a simple and flexible place to sketch out notes during a PD session, map ideas for an upcoming lesson, or organize thoughts before reflecting out loud.

Resume personal activity on any platform

Now, you can pause an activity on M2 and resume later on the MirrorTalk web or mobile app. This means teachers can record a segment of their instruction, then reflect on MirrorTalk later.  With this improved workflow, teachers always get the most out of observational recordings by reflecting on the experience.

Try these updates today

Log in to your M2 to explore these new features and see how they can enhance your reflective practice. Your feedback continues to inspire us, and we’re excited to bring you tools that help you level up your thinking through reflection.

The post Product update: January 6, 2025 appeared first on Swivl.

We’re excited to share the latest updates to MirrorTalk, designed to make reflection more purposeful and personal than ever. Our newest features focus on bringing greater clarity, privacy, and flexibility to your reflective practices—whether you’re an educator, a student, or a professional looking to grow.

Uncover the why behind your work

Inspired by Simon Sinek’s famous “Start with Why”, The One Why Focus is a quick, actionable way to better understand your thinking about your work.

By asking yourself one fundamental question—”Why am I doing this?”—you can uncover the motivations and assumptions behind your efforts, making sure they align with your goals. Whether you’re reflecting on last period’s lesson or the next steps in your professional learning, taking a moment to consider the “why” can help you:

• Clarify your motivations
• Spot priorities that might be misaligned
• Gain insights into the assumptions behind your work

With MirrorTalk, reflection takes just seconds, but the clarity it brings can have a lasting impact on the direction of your learning and thinking.

Privacy controls for adult teams

Professional growth thrives on trust and privacy. To support this, users in Adult Team Groups can now choose when to share their reflections with the Group Owner. This privacy option is perfect for settings like coaching and professional development, allowing educators to:

• Reflect deeply with the comfort of privacy
• Share insights they deem most valuable for collaboration

Share insights in a few clicks

You can now generate a shareable link for your reflections or evidence cards, which is perfect for collaborating with colleagues or presenting evidence of growth to coaches, administrators, or supervisors–no login or account creation required. 

Other updates in this release

• Higher Ed Professor User Type: Create Higher Ed groups and ensure your Higher Ed students’ reflection prompts and feedback are tailored to their level and learning context.
  
• Multi-Channel Video Playback: Support for multi-channel video playback for more dynamic reflection and coaching opportunities.
  

Try the latest features today

Log in to your MirrorTalk dashboard to explore these new features and see how they can transform your reflective practice. 

The post Product update: December 6, 2024 appeared first on Swivl.

Though many schools have returned to a semblance of “normal” activity since the pandemic, teacher retention has become a critical issue facing schools nationwide. With increasing rates of burnout, lack of support, unrealistic expectations, educators are still leaving the profession at alarming rates.

In this article, we will explore the root causes behind teacher attrition and how MirrorTalk, an AI tool that helps teachers (and their students) build reflective routines, can remediate these experiences and help educators rediscover their passion for education.

Why do teachers quit?

Burnout is an extreme result of chronic stress that causes depression, anxiety, and other mental health issues. Teachers experience this more than any other profession in the US.

Teachers who endured the COVID-19 pandemic witnessed the most significant upheaval to their work-life balance than at any other time in their careers.

Overnight they became technology experts, quasi-school counselors for emotionally dysregulated students, struggled to balance work and home lives teaching remotely, and threw themselves even more into their work because of their devotion to students’ success. 

Teachers, like healthcare and frontline workers, are naturally pre-disposed to put their students’ oxygen masks on before their own. So too often, they burnout. Hard.

Educators have begun to feel increasingly isolated, neglected, and unsupported due to myriad factors that have been exacerbated since the pandemic. While they once relished being considered experts in their field, more and more teachers report feeling undervalued by administrators, parents, and students. 

The ending of pandemic-era-related federal funding and budget cuts are hurting everyone and everything in education, but the shortages of key personnel such as mental health counselors, paraprofessionals, and coaches affect teachers worse than anyone else.

Without adequate support personnel, teachers increasingly must manage dysregulated students who disrupt their learning environment while keeping up with their increasing workload (see the next section). Worse, some administrators turn a blind eye and only step in after repeated or escalated events occur involving the same students.

Community is so important in education because teachers need a strong support network to help navigate the complexities of their profession, but there is simply not enough time built into a teacher’s already hectic schedule to seek regular support from their peers. And the once-in-a-while networking that happens only during school or district PD is not frequent enough to help struggling teachers connect, collaborate, and grow, despite these events’ promises to deliver on all of these things and more.

Without proper resources and support, dedicated educators inevitably say ‘enough is enough’ and seek alternative career paths.

The nationwide obsession with K12 testing means teachers are constantly under pressure to help their students achieve higher scores year over year.

This is a hefty challenge of its own, but it’s not the only pressure teachers are under. Teachers must also execute differentiated instruction based on student data and native languages, manage IEPs, support behavioral intervention plans, attend department meetings and PD, communicate often with parents, and guide extracurricular programs. 

And while many teachers are often glad to put in extra hours to help students succeed, the endless workload that comes with being an educator means teachers often have virtually no work-life balance. Teachers have kids of their own, get master’s degrees at night school, and trot around the country attending conferences to further their professional development, often on their dime. 

Combine this with burnout and feeling unsupported in their work, even the most seasoned teachers can feel like it’s hard to keep their heads above water.

Reflection is not just another tool

We’ve all heard the collective groan of teachers when you offer “another tool” to fix all their problems. Reflection isn’t just a tool to implement, use it once or twice, and replace it with newer, shinier tools later.

 Hear us out – with the help of AI, MirrorTalk builds empowering reflective routines for teachers (and their students) to help them think deeper about their challenges, call out and regulate their emotions, take ownership over things that are within their control to change and build the mental resiliency to face whatever new challenges come next (because, let’s face it – in education, there will always be new challenges).

MirrorTalk will change the game for teachers

MirrorTalk reduces teachers’ workloads

MirrorTalk’s reflective prompts are generated automatically for teachers, eliminating the need to craft time-consuming formative assessments. All teachers need to enter is their learning objective and MirrorTalk takes care of the rest.

MirrorTalk then instantly aggregates well-rounded insights about the whole child, so teachers don’t have to Macgyver a billion strategies together to find out how to help each student succeed.

MirrorTalk offers SEL support for teachers

MirrorTalk directly supports emotional regulation by having participants reflect out loud privately on topics that are stressful and difficult to share with others

Each reflection offers stress relief with mental and physical recharge activities that are built right in to the experience.

MirrorTalk helps teachers regain some control in their never-ending chaos

MirrorTalk empowers teachers and gives them the autonomy to reflect freely on topics that matter to them. This opens up space for them to wrap their heads around what they’re struggling with and MirrorTalk provides actionable feedback to help them prioritize what’s in their control and what isn’t.

What school leaders are saying

MirrorTalk is a low-impact way for teachers to use AI that also has a high-impact yield for students. MirrorTalk pushes students to go deeper which takes a lot of pressure off teachers.

Ashley Jackson, Principal, Metro Nashville Public Schools, TN

MirrorTalk functions as a supportive coach, offering balanced feedback that highlights strengths while suggesting improvements without judgment. Its personalized, actionable recommendations align with our PLC goals for teacher development.

Patricia Venegas-Weber, Researcher, University of Washington – College of Education, WA

The feedback teachers received from their very first reflection hooked them and made them feel like someone was really listening to their concerns.

Kacy Carter, Principal, Jackson Local School District, OH

MirrorTalk promotes intentional reflection among educators through brief daily moments that build over time. These reflections help prevent burnout by reconnecting teachers with their purpose in the best profession in the world: teaching.

Samantha Fecich, Ph.D, Professor, Grove City College, PA

Give teachers the individualized support they need with MirrorTalk + M2

MirrorTalk + M2 (hardware) is the ultimate support system for teachers, helping them manage workloads, enhance classroom engagement, and create sustainable teaching practices. With real-time feedback on instruction and small-group learning management, M2 lightens the load—so educators can focus on what matters most.

Schedule a live demo today to see it in action!

The post The teacher retention epidemic and how AI can reverse it appeared first on Swivl.

MirrorTalk makes it so easy for students to verbalize what they have actually learned and communicate how they feel about it.

Ashlyn Sutton | Park County School District #16

USE CASE

SEL and small group learning

Ashlyn Sutton

Teacher

School/District:

Meeteetse SchoolPark County School District #16

Grade Level 3-5

In rural Wyoming, Ashlyn Sutton is redefining education at Meeteetse School. Unlike their urban counterparts, rural schools like Meeteetse often struggle with limited resources, smaller staff, and the need for teachers to wear multiple hats. As a first-year math and science teacher for 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders, Ashlyn faces unique challenges. She juggles multiple curriculums and age groups and teaches in small, isolated community. She was also grappling with engaging her students in meaningful reflection and communication. Before MirrorTalk, finding efficient ways to meet all students’ needs was a constant struggle.

Taking rural students further with SEL

MirrorTalk motivated Ashlyn to embrace her challenges. She set a vision for her classroom that goes beyond traditional academic instruction. Ashlyn explains, “I tell my students it’s not just about knowing how to multiple, divide, and read passages, you also have to communicate, respect others, and work as a team. My goal is to teach them responsibility and soft skills they will need in life.” Her holistic approach is crucial in a rural setting, where students may have limited exposure to diverse perspectives before entering the real world.

MirrorTalk’s efficiency in guiding student reflections and providing immediate data on each student has been a game-changer in Ashlyn’s multi-grade class. “It’s been so easy for students to verbalize to MirrorTalk what they have actually learned and communicate how they feel about it,” she notes. And students love talking to MirrorTalk, which has transformed Ashlyn’s ability to foster deeper connections with them. “My goal has always been to get my kids comfortable enough to tell me, ‘Hey, I’m feeling this way because something happened at home, or I’m feeling this way, because of something in the lesson.’” When Ashlyn spoke with us she admitted, “students feel more comfortable talking to MirrorTalk than they do to me,” but these higher quality responses combined with MirrorTalk’s ability to rapidly analyze the students’ reflections have allowed her to gain deeper insights into their understanding, motivation, and mindset.

Even small class sizes need small group support

For new teachers – especially those supporting as many subjects and grades Ashlyn does – small group lesson planning can be an impossible task. The process is incredibly time-consuming for Ashlyn, and requires to prepare extensive, differentiated resources to cater to each of her student groups effectively and appropriately. Moreover, managing multiple small groups often led to classroom chaos, with some students disengaging or going off-task while Ashlyn’s attention was divided.

With M2, Ashlyn can create Workspaces for each subject and grade level in just two minutes. These step-by-step activity workflows allow Ashlyn to place M2 at different stations in her classroom to guide small group instruction. When students are finished with an activity, they reflect on their experience together, guided by prompts MirrorTalk automatically creates when the activity is set up. This not only saves valuable time and enhances classroom management, but increases Ashlyn’s autonomy to provide more targeted support to students who need it most.

From the automatic reflection prompts to facilitation of small group instruction, Ashlyn is leveraging MirrorTalk’s myriad capabilities to navigate her first year of teaching in a rural environment with confidence. For Meeteetse’s students, Ashlyn and MirrorTalk are nurturing them into well-rounded individuals who can thrive in any environment.

Learn more!

Ready to transform your reflective practice with our reflection station? Schedule a live demo with the Swivl team to learn more.

The post M2 brings small group and SEL support to rural classrooms appeared first on Swivl.

Today, we’re excited to officially announce MirrorTalk.ai the mobile and web version of the Mirror, which we launched earlier this year. MirrorTalk has free and premium plans to cover everyone’s needs.

MirrorTalk is a tool for reflecting out loud that can be customized and focused for assessment, creative thinking, motivation, development, and more. Each reflection brings AI-powered insights on how you are thinking, and how to improve.

Modernity has made us less reflective than we’ve ever been. While engagement gets the overwhelming priority in education and life, we already know learning comes from reflection. Our aim is to restore the balance in our minds between engagement and reflection by leveraging AI to open up unique opportunities that aid how we reflect. 

Reflecting with MirrorTalk is as simple as talking about what you’re working on. Start by stating your learning objective, and you’ll immediately get a set of customized reflection prompts, which can be tailored to the language, length, or focus that fits your needs. From there, MirrorTalk helps you talk it out in the comfort of an objective and impartial listener. When you’re done, you get instant feedback, insights, and scores to help you understand and improve your thinking. You can use it yourself or assign reflections to students, teachers, leaders, and more. 

The reflective foundations

MirrorTalk automates reflection so you can talk it out with the frequency and personalization you’ve always wanted, but didn’t think you had the time for. And MirrorTalk’s Dashboard shows you insights about your thinking you may never have realized you needed, until now.

The lesson

Based on your reflection, we identify the Lesson – a learning gap or adaptive lesson that you may be struggling with. It’s like having developmental psychologists Jean Piaget or Robert Kegan consult you on any one of your reflections. 

Understanding

By reporting on how well you construct knowledge and derive meaning, Understanding identifies how you’re generating insights or coming to new realizations.

Zone

Based on Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), Zone identifies the optimal stress levels for your learning activities and helps you fine-tune the challenges you take on. 

Mindset

Expanding on Carol Dweck’s work, Mirror analyzes your thinking for evidence of a fixed or growth Mindset, then goes even deeper, analyzing the tone of your self-talk and the level of motivation represented in your thinking.

We even present data on developmental stages, cognitive and social skills, and cognitive biases. We also have more unique and powerful insights in the works.

MirrorTalk for everyone

MirrorTalk’s reflections can be customized for PK-12, higher education, and adults, and both the content and language of dashboard insights are developmentally appropriate for the participant.

• K12 classrooms: Set up reflections on any learning objective, for any grade, with the ability to focus on depth of knowledge, retrieval, creativity, problem solving, and more. Get feedback on how students are understanding what they need to learn and use our reflective foundations to guide curriculum, assessments, and PD.

• Professional Development: Most PD and coaching initiatives are slow and create dependence on institutions to make progress. MirrorTalk gets teachers thinking in motion automatically and prepares them to take on curriculum changes, formal coaching, certifications, and more. Also, we believe using MirrorTalk with students – to peer inside the minds of learners – is the next great leap forward beyond feedback from video coaching.

• Higher Ed: Help students across the whole university stay engaged in their academic growth, and help specific departments create better outcomes. Aid student teachers in their field work and even get them instant feedback on their lesson plans from reflection data of the students they are teaching.

New possibilities

We believe MirrorTalk opens up new possibilities in education and for humanity itself. Not only does it help restore balance in our minds with time spent over-engaging, it could help us reflect more. By helping people learn foundational life lessons with less difficulty and suffering, our vision is to help everyone learn and grow better than ever before. 

Get started

Ready to experience MirrorTalk? Sign up on the web or download the mobile app today and get a 60-day trial of our Pro plan, absolutely free. After that, you can continue using the free version, or invest in a plan that fits your needs. Plus, don’t miss the chance to demo the Mirror hardware device, and experience its power as a 3-in-1 reflection station, recording tool, and interactive small group guide. 

In a constantly accelerating world, the ability to adapt is more important than ever. Investing in building students’ and teachers’ reflective foundations will make it possible for everyone to thrive.

The post Introducing MirrorTalk.ai appeared first on Swivl.

In our latest MirrorTalk release, we’ve listened to your feedback and are excited to bring you improved workflows, enhanced visibility for reflection feedback, and more. These updates make reflecting with MirrorTalk more insightful and accessible for educators and students.

Faster student and teacher workflows

Logging in and exiting group mode is now more seamless with email and pin code access. This provides a smoother and more secure log-in experience and takes another thing off a teacher’s plate.

After unlocking student mode, teachers are now brought directly to the Dashboard. This helps teachers gain insights about their students’ learning gaps even faster. 

Immediate feedback on the dashboard

Immediate feedback is now surfaced on the dashboard. This provides a better experience for both teachers and students, allowing them another opportunity to learn from feedback and improve their reflective skills faster.

Other improvements

In addition to these features, we’ve made several other improvements and updates:

• Reflections will continue uploading even after you logout or shutdown your MirrorTalk before the upload has finished.
• The Coach role now allows instructional coaches to view all reflections within a Group.

Next steps

As always, your feedback drives our improvements, and we’re committed to making MirrorTalk better for everyone.

Learn more about your AI classroom companion

MirrorTalk + M2 is the unique classroom assistant that captures the best data for observation and daily feedback for teachers, turns small group station dreams into a reality, and prioritizes reflection for everyone in class.

The post Product update: May 23, 2024 appeared first on Swivl.

¡MirrorTalk ahora admite estudiantes de inglés que hablan español! (MirrorTalk now supports Spanish speaking English language learners!) In our constant pursuit to make reflection a priority for every learner and every classroom activity, this week’s release expands our commitment toward transparency and inclusivity – and not just for students. In addition to Spanish support, we’ve created a more immediate path to notifying teachers when student reflections contain dangerous or harmful speech and also improved how adults reflect with MirrorTalk.

Spanish support for reflections

MirrorTalk helps build the reflective skills of every student, regardless of age, ability, and language barrier. This week’s focus on the language barrier supports native Spanish speakers (more languages will be coming soon!) delivering prompts generated in Spanish and encouraging feedback provided in Spanish as well, instantly surfacing feel-good advice for students on their thinking and ways to improve for next time.

We’ve heard from so many users in our demo program about the need to emphasize reflection with their ELLs. While many students struggle with expressing their thoughts about their learning, this is especially true for non-native speakers who struggle forming connections with teachers and classmates due to their language barrier. One Principal in Tennessee told us:

“ELL support is huge for us. We have 5th grade ELLs who are completely new to the country and our school. Getting them to reflect on their experiences with MirrorTalk is an excellent opportunity to get them speaking in general and we’re able to gain lots of insights of where they need the most academic support.”

Promoting safety

We recently emphasized that reflection is the key to learning and that in order for students to be successful with it, they need to integrate learning and social-emotional development. Sometimes when students are asked about their feelings – and they aren’t limited by social pressure they might feel with another student or adult – it may open them up to discussing traumatic experiences. That’s why with our latest update, you’ll receive an email alert the moment a student has shared any dangerous or harmful information so you can take swift steps to support them when they need you most. 

Adults are reflective learners too

Reflection is not just a powerful tool for students and whether you’re in a higher-ed environment, professional learning community, or you’re just trying to find ways to improve classroom instruction, reflection can be the key to understanding your own blindspots and misconceptions about your approaches. And like last week when we made improvements to grade level appropriateness for assessing student reflections, with the new Adult group type, personal reflection and feedback will now be more age appropriate for people like you, too! Additionally, the changes bring more authentic participation to reflection communities you build with colleagues; you can reflect in the group while still maintaining autonomy to set up prompts that are unique to your reflective journey.

¿Listo para empezar?/Ready to get started?

Learn more about your AI classroom companion

MirrorTalk + M2 is the unique classroom assistant that captures the best data for observation and daily feedback for teachers, turns small group station dreams into a reality, and prioritizes reflection for everyone in class.

The post Product update: April 29, 2024 appeared first on Swivl.

A new way forward

April 26, 2024

Facts: What’s been going on?

• On Wednesday, we released an update to Mirror software that improved audio recording and uploading, and added an “Adult” group type, useful for higher-ed, PD groups and any situation where adults are reflecting. Be sure to update your Mirror next time you turn it on.

• What if there was a new way forward through the divide over SEL? One that integrates social and emotional development as part of academic learning. One that softens the lines and finds common ground between sides. We explain how Mirror makes this possible in our latest blog, a partnership with Illinois Digital Educators Alliance.

Feedback: What are we hearing?

This week, a Mirror user leading a teacher preparation program in the Midwest said:

“As I give feedback, I see related changes in Mirror quickly. Sometimes, with other programs, it can feel like the feedback’s going nowhere. I appreciate that feedback to the Mirror team is considered and implemented where appropriate.”

He’s right! We love hearing your feedback, and consider it carefully as we plan the Mirror roadmap. Have your own feedback to share? Reply to this email and let us know.

Future: What’s up next?

• Much-anticipated Spanish-language support is coming in the next 1-2 weeks, along with other heavily-requested updates, including a new pin-based login option, downloadable reflection transcripts, and more customization options for reflections.

• There’s still time to register for the Week of AI! Swivl is proud to be sponsoring this timely, super-practical event, filled with speakers like Holly Clark sharing their experiences with and tips for using AI for teaching and learning. Register today.

Findings: What are we thinking about?

This week, we’re thinking about paradoxes, and the role they play in hidden intelligence. So often, the limiting factor in learning something new is a paradox that we struggle to resolve.

These can be simple, like understanding that a fraction is both a part of a whole and its own entity. Or they can be complex, like a teacher trying to balance their own creativity with the bureaucracy of a large organization.

How does this relate to reflection? Reflective skills help us see what’s holding us back and set goals to move past those blockers. Feedback powered by reflective technology can even identify the paradoxes we may be facing, and by presenting them, reveal a path towards resolving them.

The importance of learning together

March 7, 2024

Facts: What’s been going on?

We’re hitting as many events as possible in 2024, and our travels continued this week with a stop at the Michigan Science Teachers Association Conference.

Swivl CEO Brian Lamb and Account Manager Julieann Derra were there to spread the word about reflection’s potential and share Mirror with as many educators as possible. They were joined by Mirror user, Science teacher, and Swivl community member Keith Piccard (@KeithPiccard), who helped attendees see Mirror’s potential for their work. One takeaway is that Science teachers see Mirror as a support for group work like labs and experiments.

Findings: What are we thinking about?

A study came out this week that demonstrated again the importance of writing and physical interaction towards learning. This has us thinking even deeper about how we support small group work with Mirror.

Our original vision was based on realizing there was no technology dedicated to supporting small group work, and nothing built for AI interaction through cameras and voice. We were inspired by the idea of technology moving to the side, so students can engage with each other in physical space.

We are starting to wonder if this is why so many of our demo users and teachers we’ve met at conferences are asking for small group support tools. Perhaps they see the need to make learning physical and social again. Perhaps they see Mirror’s potential in making that happen.

We’ve been prioritizing individual reflections in our development work, but now we’re pushing extra hard to get our small group support tools out.

Feedback: What are we hearing?

(1)  Illinois-based history and government teacher Chris Johnson recently shared how he is using Mirror to have students reflect on final projects.

(2) Teachers are telling us that they wish all of their students could reflect during one class period. We know that class time is scarce, and we’re working on a few solutions to make this a reality. Read more about those below.

Future: What’s up next?

• Shorter question sets are coming soon. When needed, shorter questions help more students to reflect in the same amount of time. Mirror experiences for phone, tablet, and web are coming soon. This means teachers and students can reflect with more flexibility, both in school and at home.

• In about a week or two, demo users will have a chance to try new, more powerful group work features. Our design and development teams are putting the finishing touches on a new experience that allows teachers to create plans with guided steps, paired tools, audio instructions–and a reflection at the end, of course.

A step forward in customization

February 29, 2024

Findings: What are we thinking about?

What if every reflection experience in your class perfectly fit the learner, the activity, and your objective?

How much more could you learn about student progress? Most importantly, how much more could students learn about themselves?

Until now, customizing the reflection experience for every learning scenario and need was simply too time-consuming. 

That experience is now possible with Mirror.

Facts: What’s been going on?

Mirror 3.1

Mirror 3.1, released February 28, 2024, allows you to customize reflections and unlock new potential for reflection’s place in the classroom. 

You can customize reflections by choosing a focus like Mindfulness, Gratitude or Depth of Knowledge. You can also customize reflections based on the teacher’s stated learning goal.

Combining a focus like Depth of Knowledge with a stated learning goal unlocks new potential for reflection, turning the experience into a classic assessment of student learning. When you consider all the ways Mirror’s focus options can be customized by teacher goals, the options are endless.

Current users: Update your Mirror today to take advantage of these exciting new customization features!

AACTE

In other news, our colleagues Mike and Edward recently attended the higher education conference AACTE. There, they explored use cases for Mirror with higher ed professionals, and discussed the growing demand for using Mirror with student  teachers to create a multi-layered reflection program. 

#IDEACon

A few states over, our colleagues Adam, Julieann, Rachel, and Sara attended #IDEACon this past weekend. Dozens of educators had a chance to try Mirror, and heard Rachel speak about the Potential of Reflection. Here’s conference attendees and speakers Tisha Richmond (@tishrich), and Andrew Easton (@EastonA1) with Sara and Adam (right). 

Feedback: What are we hearing?

Elementary and early childhood education (ECE) teachers tell us they are happy that Mirror is “AI lite.” 

In other words, we bring the power of AI to automate reflection, without the data and privacy concerns that come with other AI tools. Students don’t have direct interaction with AI through Mirror, and we don’t share any student data with AI.

Even though we’re using AI, we’re doing it in a way where teachers have full control. It’s a teacher AI tool, not a student AI tool.

You can generate questions, but then preview them and edit them, before students ever see them. And that’s something that nearly everyone can get on board with.

Future: What’s up next?

• Speaking of elementary and ECE, we’re hard at work to make Mirror a better reflection experience for our youngest learners. We’re putting the finishing touches on several features that make Mirror more accessible and effective for Pre-K and early elementary students.

• Swivl CEO Brian Lamb will join our colleague Julieann at the Michigan Science Teachers Association conference this week with user and community member Keith Piccard (@KeithPiccard). If you plan to attend, come hear them speak about the Potential of Reflection with Mirror.

The post Swivl’s reflections appeared first on Swivl.

In this week’s release, we’re bringing more delight, more motivation, and more learning to the student experience. How are we doing that? Instant feedback on student reflections!

This update also includes: the new Summative Focus for end of year reflections, flexible response times for adults and older students, and better insights.

Now, students get personalized feedback read aloud to them just seconds after they complete a reflection. We’ve heard from many users that reflection feedback is the most powerful part of the experience. But until now, there was no easy, immediate way for students to access their feedback. With this update, we’re excited to see how students can become even more invested in building their reflective skills, as they instantly read and hear about the insights they’ve shared, and how they can reflect even more deeply next time.

There’s no better way to experience the new instant feedback feature than with the new Summative focus. This reflection focus works perfectly for end-of-year student reflections, and can help you simplify your summer planning, amplify your productivity, and even deepen connectivity with students one last time before they advance grade levels. Use this focus with Workspace to automate and add reflection to end-of-year group projects. 

To make reflecting with MirrorTalk more flexible across ages and grade levels, we’ve updated the way response times work. Users now have 15 seconds to reflect on each question as a default. For younger students, 15 seconds is the limit. However, older students and adult users have unlimited time to respond, with the option to move on to the next question when they’re ready.

In addition to these updates, we’ve also improved insights across all reflections, making them more grade-level appropriate.

Learn more about your AI classroom companion

MirrorTalk + M2 is the unique classroom assistant that captures the best data for observation and daily feedback for teachers, turns small group station dreams into a reality, and prioritizes reflection for everyone in class.

The post Product update: April 18, 2024 appeared first on Swivl.

This article was written in partnership with IDEA Illinois. To explore partnership opportunities with Swivl, email Swivl Community Engagement Manager, Sara Candela.

For centuries we’ve known there are two requirements for learning: engagement and reflection. Yet, in recent years we’ve greatly emphasized engagement, often at the expense of reflection. It’s enough of a shift to wonder, is that the right direction?

Jean Piaget argued that we reflect on our experiences to move through specific life stages. Similarly, Robert Kegan argued that we advance to the next stage of development when we’ve reflected on issues from the previous stage, a process of mental transformation.

They, and others, came to the same conclusion about learning: we engage with people, activities, and information, then we reflect. As a result, we make new realizations that become a part of us. That’s how learning and growth occur.

However, modern students experience a massive imbalance of these two requirements. Students’ lives are filled with more engagement than they can handle, and arguably less reflection than they need. The reflection that is part of their school experience is too limited.

Teachers are increasingly feeling that they have to work harder than ever to reach students whose test scores and behavior often seem to be getting worse.

We believe a new path forward that addresses these challenges is possible by seeing reflection for what it is: a necessary tool for learning. 

Over-engaged

Many students are over-engaged before they even enter school. 

Addictive social apps, immersive video games, and, now, powerful generative AI present kids with people, places, and experiences far more interesting than the four walls of a classroom. 

How can a math worksheet compare to viral videos? More and more, we’re seeing that it doesn’t. 

It seems that classroom learning has become just another experience for students, albeit not a very engaging one, and one that currently doesn’t help students develop the ability to see themselves as learners.

As many report, if learning doesn’t capture students’ attention, they see no reason to pursue the challenge. Take for example, the recent post on X, in which a student reflection included the response “I don’t really see school as a place to learn. I see it as doing work to achieve a grade.”

Ironically, pursuing student engagement as a standalone goal is a common response to these challenges of modernity. If teachers made class as interesting, relevant, and entertaining as students’ digital lives, the thinking goes, they might sit down and do the work. 

But school will never be as engaging as consumer technology, nor is it obvious that it should be. For one, the precise relationship between learning and engagement is still surprisingly unclear. As renowned education thinker Alfie Kohn said, “Engagement is insufficient because we need to consider whether a task demands mental effort.” Emphasizing engagement overlooks the other required piece of the learning process, reflection.

Reflection is the antidote

We believe students need more reflection than ever to integrate their daily learning experiences.

This can happen by recognizing that reflection is actually a skill students can develop. Through a significant increase in both the quantity and quality of reflection, students will have the opportunity to integrate their subjective learning experiences as objective lessons and to start seeing themselves as learners again.

When students are presented with quality, relevant reflection prompts on a regular basis, and they receive feedback to help build their reflective skills, they gain the ability to:

• Narrate their learning experiences with increasing levels of detail and accuracy
• Identify feelings they’ve experienced about or during their learning
• Think through new realizations that arise from experiences, and 
• Plan goals or next steps to make use of new learnings

The sequence above describes the process of transformation of the mind – where subjective learning is turned into objective lessons, and students gain the ability to see themselves as learners. Yet reflection’s place in school as a required tool for learning has been limited or often even removed, especially amidst recent educational trends.

Where reflection is most common today is in SEL programs. While reflection for SEL is indeed valuable, we need to remember its important place in the learning process, so students can reap its full benefits. 

Perhaps most importantly, we should recognize that reflection is the integration of learning and social-emotional development into one process, and that reflection is a skill that can be developed with practice. Seeing this opens up possibilities for new approaches in both areas.

Transforming minds

There are a few different perspectives on how to handle education’s challenges of modernity. Some advocate for a reversion to tradition, with a focus on academic rigor and emotional resilience. Others make a more progressive case, leaning into student engagement and social-emotional needs above all else. 

We’re realizing that the best path forward is a new, third way that integrates the best of both sides. One that is both uniquely possible and uniquely needed today.

This new path we’re forging is where teachers pair every opportunity for student engagement with high-quality student reflection, and personalized, immediate feedback in response to those reflections. Now, with the power of AI, we can make the development of reflective skill a reality. This approach builds students’ social and emotional skills in the context of supporting their academic learning.

Most importantly, when we finally restore reflection’s rightful place in our over-engaged world, we give students the skills and opportunity needed to integrate all their subjective experiences into objective lessons, transforming their minds for the better. 

Let’s go beyond giving students more to think about. Let’s help them build a better mind to think with.

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