RESOURCE DESCRIPTION
WHAT IS Seesaw?
Seesaw is a comprehensive platform for elementary classrooms, empowering students and educators alike. Students can showcase their knowledge and ideas using various multimedia tools, while educators can easily collect and share student work with families. Seesaw combines engaging instruction, assessment, and family engagement in one platform, providing insights into students' growth.
Educators benefit from flexible activities and supplemental curriculum, tracking student progress over time, and fostering communication through messages and family accounts. Seesaw's Community Library enables educators to share lessons and activities, thereby creating a collaborative learning environment. With Seesaw, elementary classrooms can foster student empowerment and bring ideas to life.
HOW IS Seesaw IMPLEMENTED?
Seesaw is implemented as an in-classroom digital platform that helps elementary educators meet the unique needs of learners. It offers high-quality instruction, learning insights, and communication features designed to enhance the learning experience. Educators can create engaging instructional content and utilize multimedia tools for active student participation and expression. Seesaw's assessment and progress-tracking capabilities provide valuable insights for personalized instruction. Effective communication is facilitated through messaging and commenting features, fostering collaboration among students and enabling seamless communication with families. By implementing Seesaw, educators can address the specific needs of elementary learners, deliver quality instruction, leverage data-driven insights, and foster a vibrant and engaging learning environment.
ISTE SEAL REVIEW
Product: Seesaw
Product Type: Curriculum
Organization: Seesaw
Date of Award: June 2023, Updated June 2025
REVIEW METHODOLOGY
ISTE Seal reviews are conducted by a distinguished panel of experts in education, instruction and technology These experts utilize the most up-to-date data provided by the organization to conduct thorough evaluations of each solution. The evaluations focus on assessing the solution's performance in addressing specific elements outlined in the technical and pedagogical usability framework and the ISTE Standards.
To complete their rigorous evaluations, the reviewers utilize a comprehensive rating system, categorizing each solution as either "meets expectations" or "does not meet expectations." This assessment covers both the required and optional "Look Fors" outlined in the application. To ensure the validity and reliability of their results, the reviewers regularly engage in calibrations. Final review findings are then analyzed and combined, providing an overall score for alignment with each indicator.
At ISTE, we take great pride in our unwavering commitment to delivering results that schools and districts can have full confidence in. To be deemed education-ready learning solutions, products must meet the high standards in learning sciences, user experience and interface, accessibility, and content quality.
SCOPE OF REVIEW
Seesawwas reviewed against the technical, pedagogical usability framework and the ISTE Standards to determine whether the solution is education-ready. ISTE reviewers examined all evidence provided by the organization and interacted directly with the product.
REVIEW FINDINGS
ISTE STANDARDS: The ISTE Standards provide the competencies for learning, teaching, and leading in the digital age, providing a comprehensive roadmap for the effective use of technology in schools worldwide. Grounded in learning science research and based on practitioner experience, the ISTE Standards ensure that using technology for learning can create high-impact, sustainable, scalable, and equitable learning experiences for all learners
1.1.c Empowered Learner
Use technology to seek feedback that informs and improves their practice and to demonstrate their learning in a variety of ways.
2.2.a Digital Citizen
Cultivate and manage their digital identity and reputation and are aware of the permanence of their actions in the digital world
1.6.a Creative Communicator
Choose the appropriate platforms and tools for meeting the desired objectives of their creation or communication
1.6.b Creative Communicator
Create original works or responsibly repurpose or remix digital resources into new creations
FEEDBACK OUTCOME
● Multiple tools and media options provide students with experience in receiving feedback, commenting, and collaborating, offering a variety of options to demonstrate learning, including audio, video, photos, drawings, and text responses
● The platform scaffolds content appropriately for grade levels and builds students' awareness and skills Digital citizenship lessons for K-3 and 4-5 follow a consistent format of introduction, practice, connect, and show what you know,
allowing students to learn about and explore real-world digital choices.
● Students communicate their ideas through multiple modes and tools. These include photo, audio, video, screencasting, drawing tools, shapes, and text boxes, which enable students to demonstrate their learning effectively.
● The platform empowers students with a wide range of tools and options to create original work through their selected medium or by remixing and repurposing existing artifacts
DIMENSION 1: USER INTERFACE AND AGENCY
Definition: The design of the product interface and user experience helps teachers quickly and reliably achieve instructional goals. This dimension includes features related to interface design, learnability, navigation, maximizing time on task, control over actions, and general usability.
FEEDBACK OUTCOME
● The platform offers intuitive navigation, organized into consistent categories of information and tasks, with clear menu titles that enable users to quickly access core functions and move seamlessly between sections
● The platform presents a well-organized, visually intuitive interface with prominent action buttons, like the green "+ Add" button, teacher shortcuts for essential tools, and consistently styled interactive elements that support an efficient and streamlined user experience
● Educators can access customization tools for the student experience at every level, including class, folders, and activities.
● Teachers can access comprehensive support through the in-platform Help button, which connects them to the Seesaw Help Center, featuring organized support articles, search functionality, a virtual assistant called “Bean,” and direct technical support requests.
● The product clearly communicates the platforms it integrates with on its public-facing website, as well as how these integrations support account syncing, rostering, and data sharing.
DIMENSION 2: LEARNING DESIGN
Definition: The product has features that exhibit and promote design and customization of learning episodes in ways that align with research-based best practices, including those rooted in the learning sciences.
FEEDBACK OUTCOME
● Outcomes, standards, and objectives are included in lessons with “I will statements” for students to understand their learning goals.
● The combination and variety of media types used in lessons reinforce targeted skills, model routines, and support student engagement
● Seesaw enables educators to copy, paste, and reorganize content across activities, save modified activities to their personal library, and share them via links, demonstrating a modular content structure that supports flexible planning and targeted instruction
● Lessons and activities include embedded "Frames & Templates" that prompt students to reflect on their learning through writing, voice recordings, and multimedia
responses, encouraging connections between new content and prior knowledge while promoting metacognition and deeper understanding
DIMENSION 3: DIGITAL PEDAGOGY
Definition: The product is designed to support the development of digital age learning skills, capacities and knowledge. This dimension focuses on how technology can help students and teachers experience the best possible learning experiences, including the social and learning affordances that digital educational products uniquely offer.
FEEDBACK
● The platform presents lessons in real-world contexts with opportunities to create or remix artifacts that demonstrate learning.
● Open-ended problem-solving challenges guide students through the design process and offer opportunities to curate information into a final product and reflect on it
● The content organizational structure reflects the deconstruction of problems or concepts
● The platform enables teachers to provide specific feedback through comments on individual submissions, allows students to leave voice or text comments on each other's work, and supports real-time collaborative interaction through partner activities, group tasks, and easy sharing via links or library features.
DIMENSION 4: INCLUSIVITY
OUTCOME
Definition: The product helps teachers provide learning experiences that are relevant to students of many cultures, backgrounds, and abilities, and support learner motivation and
agency in the learning process. The product meets current guidelines around accessibility, and supports a positive classroom culture.
FEEDBACK OUTCOME
● The platform represents diverse communities throughout, including through narration, images, and avatars
● The recurring theme of "I Am A " enables students to adopt different roles and tasks from various perspectives
● The platform offers closed captioning for support and instructional videos, audio/video speed controls, user-controlled zoom features, high-contrast design elements, and multilingual instructions, demonstrating a strong commitment to accessibility through VPAT publication, CAST UDL Product Certification, and WCAG compliance
● Many lessons address inclusivity through the lens of Social Emotional Learning (SEL)
DIMENSION 5: ASSESSMENT AND DATA
Definition: The product uses formative assessments – learning experiences that help make visible what students know and don’t yet know – to generate data that inform teachers about student knowledge and skill gaps, and provide students assessment feedback that is specific, actionable, and constructive As such, it guides teachers’ instructional decisions and students’ learning journeys.
FEEDBACK OUTCOME
● Diverse assessment formats include open-ended responses, voice recordings, video submissions, drawing tools, reading fluency tasks, and formative activities like drag-and-drop, enabling teachers to differentiate
assessment approaches and capture a range of learning evidence.
● The platform provides clear instructions with success criteria, automatically organizes submitted work in folders for student progress tracking, and offers tools like “Highlights” folders for teachers to curate key submissions for ongoing review and reflection
● Robust feedback tools enable teachers to provide actionable written and audio feedback, featuring a "Send Back" option for revisions Practice Mode offers immediate feedback, connecting it to specific skills through targeted comments and allowing family members to participate in the feedback loop
● The platform provides teachers with a Gradebook view and Learning Insights dashboard that displays assessment results, standards mastery, and student progress through visual indicators and configurable filters by school, grade level, or group, enabling informed instructional decisions at individual, classroom, and district levels
CONCLUSION
Seesaw offers a comprehensive platform that supports student learning through multimodal tools, formative assessment options, and flexible content customization features. Teachers benefit from intuitive tools that facilitate giving feedback, monitoring student progress, and accessing data to support instructional decision-making.
The platform delivers intuitive navigation and streamlined user experience through a well-organized interface and comprehensive support resources. Educators can customize student experiences at every level and access modular content structures that enable flexible planning and targeted instruction. By incorporating clear learning goals, diverse media types that reinforce skills, and embedded reflection prompts, Seesaw actively promotes student engagement and supports personalized learning journeys. The platform immerses students in real-world contexts through lessons that encourage artifact creation, facilitate open-ended problem-solving challenges, and foster collaborative interaction.
With a strong commitment to diversity and inclusivity, the platform represents diverse communities and offers opportunities for students to explore roles and tasks from different perspectives. Robust accessibility features demonstrate compliance with established guidelines, while many lessons address inclusivity through Social Emotional Learning (SEL) approaches. The platform offers diverse assessment formats that enable teachers to differentiate assessment approaches and capture varied learning evidence. Clear instructions, accompanied by success criteria, support organized work systems that track student progress. Comprehensive feedback tools enable actionable communication among students, educators, and families.
Seesaw delivers a comprehensive, accessible platform that seamlessly integrates intuitive user design with research-based pedagogical practices, empowering students to take ownership of their learning through multimodal expression while providing educators with robust tools for personalized instruction, meaningful assessment, and data-driven decision-making in an inclusive elementary learning environment.
