Reflection

I became a subscriber to Verso after attending an IB workshop for English Language and Literature. The workshop leader shared a routine she used to prep her class for one of the exams in the course. She would present a visual non-fiction text and give her students 10 minutes to write an introduction to an essay on that text on Verso. Then she would give them 5 minutes to read and peer evaluate 2 other student responses. I liked the idea of the routine, and I was sold by the fact that she said that Verso was one of the few apps she was willing to spend her own money on. I believe it's very important for students to see what other students are writing in the class. I believe it's important for students to be able to critique each other's work, and Verso enables exactly that. I have never used the check-in tool with Verso, and before this assignment had never read any of the provided articles. Now I can see how integrated it is. I can learn new teaching strategies to try in Verso, and I can also easily get feedback from students on my lessons, so that I can make improvements.

Verso encompasses many aspects that are integral to education nowadays: teacher professional growth, formative assessment, peer feedback, student voice and agency, data, and machine learning. The company has evolved and progressed over the years. By looking at Verso's press releases, one can observe how they have disowned their previous definitions and embraced new ways of defining themselves. In the 2017 press release announcing the raised funding, they did not mention anonymous class discussion, seemingly avoiding pigeonholing themselves into any one thing. It simply stated that Verso was "Initially launched as a free app to promote deeper learning in K-12 classrooms" (Verso Learning, 2017, para. 5).

Verso also promotes itself as something that the whole school can use as a system, which has intriguing possibilities. A number of the toolkit articles are about how the data can be analyzed with colleagues or in Professional Learning Communities (PLCs). Verso encourages professional sharing, which is yet another way it aligns with the current educational zeitgeist, as opposed to the outdated model of teachers working in isolation. While Verso is undoubtedly useful for an individual teacher, its functionality is further enhanced when data can be compared with other colleagues.