Sunday, April 6, 2014

Raise your hand high enough so I can see

This month's 10 Things Techie Assignment involved student response systems.  Over the past semester I have been trying to integrate these in various ways.  Here's a few of my trials and tribulations:

Polleverywhere.com:  I use this occassionally as a "do now" to gather assessment data instantly from the students.  It seems the typical "do now" has lost it's attention grabbing effects, and something accompanied by "take out your phone" has much more attention getting power.

I also used it recently to poll my students to see if they were interested in taking a particular new proposed class.

+ I had it displayed on the SmartBoard and it was nice that the kids could see the results jump as new votes were tabulated.
- Not as easy for someone without a smartphone since it does involve texting a number.  You can create an account on a desktop, but of course, this lacks the "instant gratification" appeal.


Socrative.com:  As a freshman class advisor, one of the class officers recently used this to poll the freshman class regarding a dance.

+easy to use on a smartphone (I did not try this on a desktop,but I believe it is also easy to use that way)
+loved the way it compiled data into an excel spreadsheet


Edmodo.com Polls:  This is my favorite, just because I've been trying to use edmodo as my classroom "platform" more and more this year.  I posted a poll for the students to take regarding their opinion on an upcoming field trip.

+it was great because my students already had accounts
+easy to use
+they could see the results instantly, transparency in my decision


All in all, I think student response systems are a new and innovative way to take "votes".  I am trying to also integrate them more into the actual learning process to assess student learning.  As mentioned, I do occassionally use them as a "do now"  or a quick quiz to check for understanding.  However, when doing this it is easiest to use a tool that does not require students and/or the teacher to create yet another account.  Edmodo has my vote!!

2 comments:

  1. Hurrah!! Nice job. When using Poll Everywhere with students, I set it so that it can be taken more than once, and suggest that students who don't have a phone on them, or free texting plan ask to use a neighbor's.

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  2. Great job! You should ask that freshman officer where he learned about Socrative ;)

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