1. What are the benefits of recording students' academic conversations?
   She is able to assess the students' progress and growth not only in speaking, but also in how they respond to each other, who is dominating conversations, who is asking questions, etc...  This gives her a better understanding of each student in the class and where they are at.
2. What are the benefits of storing student work digitally?
   By storing them digitally she a) has less clutter/files to manage and b) is able to compare/contrast student work with prior work more quickly.  This lets her see how the student has progressed, and can also be used to show the student their progress.
3. How does Ms. Dearlove use the data she collects?
   She uses the data to plan her future lessons better.

I really like this idea. My students work in small groups frequently and I've been wondering how I can follow up to make sure they are on task.  This is a perfect solution...it provides evidence for further coaching.  If a group is meeting expecations, their conversation could be saved and serve as an example when trying to teach or reteach group work routines.

I am a big fan of group discussions to hear ideas and see where student understading is, however, I worry that with larger classrooms it can be difficult to gage exactly if a group is on task, and or if they are all participating and are good matches. This recording of the group discussions is an exellent idea in order to help me come back and listen in on the student groups with out necessarily being there constantly trying to hover over them. I could use and Ipad and my cell phone and this will cover at least two groups while I focus in on listening to others. Love the idea. 

I think this is a good strategy. It allows both the teacher and the students to reflect on the conversations going in class. The teacher can hear if the students were all contributing to the conversation and if they were staying on topic or not. The students can hear how much they were contributing to the conversation, if they were talking over their peers, and if they were staying on topic.

We are trying to find new ways to connect technology in the classroom without being a destraction. I think this helps the teacher over all to evaluate the students understanding of the lesson. And it helps the students se their proccess on how far they gone in their work, in this case reading and listening.