Review: Equity Maps - Chart Dialogue

I've been using Harkness Discussions in my classroom for a number of years, ever since Harkness tables were donated to the Buffalo Seminary when I worked there (see picture below).  I had used full-class discussions before, but had not been effective at getting all students to participate evenly or to at getting them to refer to the text as thoroughly as I would like.  I appreciate the Harkness method not only for how effective it is at - over time - helping shy students come out of their shells and helping more vocal students become better at listening to their peers, but also for an aspect that I did not expect; frequently, my students' discussions end up taking us in directions I had not anticipated and I often learn something new that I had not already planned.

The Harkness Table surrounded by students working diligently in my former classroom at Sem.

I typically track these discussions with a paper template, where I connect who is talking and try to note as quickly as possible who says what with my own shorthand symbols.  It's not the fastest way of doing things and, while I've gotten to the point where it works pretty well, it's not pretty to look at.

Sample Harkness Discussion Diagram

 You can see that I had trouble keeping track of all the notes and fitting them in (I write pretty tiny, but this is ridiculous).   I've been looking for a software to perform this same function for years, but haven't yet found anything satisfactory.  Until now. Enter Equity Maps - Chart Dialogue.

Overall, I'm very pleased with this software, though it could use a few adjustments over time.  My main complaint is that it's currently only available as an iOS app for the iPad. I'm mostly a Windows girl and my iPad is old and slow so, while it still worked well for this app, it wasn't an ideal scenario.  It's a relatively straightforward program to use.  First, you have to enter your participants, which you can do one-by-one or in a batch mode.  You can save a configuration so you can use it multiple times.  While you can add details for each student, I haven't found a use for this yet.  In the future, I may make notes about what each does well and/or needs to improve on.

When you first log on to the app, you can select which set up you would like to use and/or which previously saved grouping you would like to use.  Once selected, your display looks something like this:

Starting to record a discussion.

Once you press the "play" button, it starts recording your conversation in the sense that you can note who is speaking when.  If you click the microphone, you can also record the actual discussion, but I don't usually go back and listen to them, so I just stick with taking note of who is talking.  As students discuss, you can tap each one at the table and they will blink until you tap another student.  You also have the option to pause, not if there is chaos and everyone is talking, if there is a small group talking, if there is silence, or if the teacher chooses to participate.  There is a notes button, but I found it too hard to keep up with adding notes for each student during the discussion.  I am intrigued by the "Checknotes" option and have displayed one of the possible settings below, but have not had much opportunity to explore their full potential:

Sample "Checknotes"

You can add your own version of the checknotes, but it doesn't allow you to include your own fancy icon next to them like the defaults have.  You also have to select each student individually and then add the checknote; it would be much easier to be able to just click on a student and click the checknote symbol rather than have to have an entire menu open up each time.  

When finished, you can end the discussion and it will take you to a display screen with all of the analytical information for the discussion.  From here, you can play back the discussion, look at equity factors based on a variety of options, and see who participated when and in what manner.

First, here is an example of the “spiderweb” version of the discussion I had with my senior class:

Discussion Diagram

This is a much cleaner version compared to my traditional method and, as you can see, the sidebar allows you to see the order of the conversation.

You can also look at the balance of the discussion in light of either how many times a person speaks or many minutes they speak:

Number of Times Each Student Spoke

Number of Minutes Each Student Spoke

One option that I really love is the ability to see how equal or balanced the discussion is with a color-coded rating of what the group should strive for.

Balance of the Discussion

There is also a “Gender Equity” analysis.  This would not have come in handy when I worked at an all-girls’ school (not to mention my issue with the terminology, but that’s another blog post entirely), but I do find it helpful to look at in my current school where I find that the male voices tend to dominate the female ones at the lower grade levels until I help to train the girls to be a little more confident.  I don’t, however, usually show this result to the class; I use it for my own benefit to help encourage the more quiet individuals to speak up more.

Gender Equity Analysis

Overall, this was very helpful for me to better track and gauge how well class discussions went and to share that with my students.  That being said, there are a few things I would love to see added or adjusted in the future:

• Adding the ability to export the analytics of the discussion in pdf or other format.  At the moment, I've only been able to take screenshots of each element of the discussion and then paste them into a document to share compile and share with my students which is time-consuming and not ideal.
• Making the "Checknotes" function more smoothly integrate with the discussion interface and allow users to add their own icons when they personalize their checknotes.
• Creating a version of the software for other platforms.  Most schools with 1:1 programs are PC heavy on the teacher side and having to use my personal iPad (because I purchased the premium version) wasn't working well and many teachers don't have that option available.

I do find the program helpful, though, and will continue to use it instead of my more traditional method.  If you're a Harkness fan, I highly recommend checking at least the free version out.