Teaching Tool: Smore
by Sheri Okland, Asst. Professor, SEGS
Fall 2014
The 21st century has brought about several changes in how individuals acquire and use knowledge for personal,
professional, and educational use. Siemens (2004) contended in the past twenty years, technology has
“reorganized how we live, how we communicate, and how we learn” (p. 1). While, McLoughlin (2007)
suggested current trends in the use of technology have an impact on learning and therefore, teachers need to
expand their vision of pedagogy. An expanded vision of pedagogy includes providing learners with an active
role as participants in learning environments. One new 21st century tool that has the potential to connect with
colleagues, friends, parents, and teachers arrived the summer of 2014. This tool has the potential to create a
learning environment that provides students an opportunity to synthesize their learning through individuality,
creativity, and research—all in one document. The tool is Smore.
TOOL:
Smore is an online flyer and newsletter creator. Smore allows the user to customize and individualize content in
an online newsletter, which can then be shared through email, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, online through the
smore website, or printed. The Smore flyer online will automatically adjusts visually for those individuals using
cellular phones or tablets.
LOCATION:
https://www.smore.com
COST
Several plans are available. The two most applicable for classroom use are: 1) The “Free” plan, which limits
users to 5 public flyers, and 2) The educator’s plan, a $39.00 per year plan that allows users to create unlimited
public or private flyers with open reports and customized backgrounds.
HOW TO USE:
Smore does require its users to sign-up for an account. I have noticed that I do not get spam from Smore.
The following two pages provide a short tutorial on the basic components of creating a Smore newsletter.
PEDAGOGICAL USES FOR SMORE:
1. Faculty can flip their classroom using Smore. Smore provides an easy way to access links, video
lectures, tutorial, articles, and audio/images on the topic that you are presenting. The education version
allows faculty to track the analytics of who has viewed the Smore. Students can pose questions and take
part in discussions at the bottom on the Smore. Faculty might utilize this feature to begin class periods
with discussion.
2. Smore provides a paper free way to showcase what is happening in the classroom. Preservice teachers
could use Smore as a venue for writing and publishing parent letters or keeping in touch with their
students.
3. Smore is a 21st century tool that offers opportunities for demonstrating student creativity and
showcasing student knowledge knowledge. Students could research a topic, then publish their synthesis
through Smore instead of writing a traditional research paper.
4. University clubs and sports could use Smore to keep their members informed on what is happening.
Teaching Tool: Smore
by Sheri Okland, Asst. Professor, SEGS
Fall 2014
CONCLUSION:
Prensky (2010) contended that the nouns (pedagogy and content) do not change, but the verbs (tools) are in
constant flux and should never remain constant (personal discussion). In conclusion, Smore is a web-based tool
that allows 21st century students the ability to be creative while providing faculty a means of easily
differentiating instruction or flipping the classroom.
REFERENCES
Siemens, G. (2004). Connectivism: A learning theory for the digital age. Elearnspace: Everything elearning.
Retrieved from http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/connectivism.htm
McLoughlin, C. & Lee, M. J. W. (2007). Social software and participatory learning: Pedagogical choices with
technology affordances in the web 2.0 era. In ICT: Providing choices for learners and learning.
Proceedings ascilite Singapore 2007. Retrieved from
http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/singapore07/procs/mcloughlin.pdf
Prensky, M. (2010) Adult learning Conference. Minneapolis, MN.
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