PPS Instructional Technology

I have used Socrative , Lets Geddit , Kahoot , etc. and really enjoy them, each seemed to accomplish the task of quick online formative assessments well and each had it's pros and cons. Overall, I felt like my toolbox in this arena was already full. When I went to MACUL 2015 , I really wasn't looking for another online formative assessment tool. HOWEVER, I was at the SIGEE meeting at MACUL and my friend John ( @bcgeek ) introduced me to Formative ( https://goformative.com/ ). WOW! After a month delay, I finally got a chance to check it out and I am impressed. The user interface is clean and easy to use.  You can upload PDF, Word files, or Google Docs and easily convert them to an online assessment.  You can see students answering the assessment in real time.  The list goes on and on!  Try it out in your classrooms and let me know what you think! To get started, here is a quick introductory video: Or for my friends who find paper tutorials he...

Our final student response system in this series, is a newer tool developed by a classroom teacher in order gage student understanding.  This great tool is called: http://letsgeddit.com/ Question Types:  Multiple Choice, True or False, Short Answer, Poll.  Most prominent feature is the "Check-In" where students can rate their understanding on a simple bar graph or request attention. Works on:  Any internet connected device Really cool feature:  1. You can make notes about how the lessons went so you can review them later. 2. Have a constant running pulse of student understanding with the Check-In feature.  The best part about this feature is that it will compare how the student rates their understanding with how they answer questions so the teacher can see if their is any disparity between the two. Learn more about geddit by watching this video:

Adding to our list of great student response systems, we have: http://www.gosoapbox.com/ Question Types:  Quizzes include: Multiple Choice or Short Answer - you can include image with your question.  You can also do Polls (quick multiple choice) and Discussions (short answer) Works on:  Any internet connected device Really cool feature:  1. The Confusion Barometer: Students can show how well they are understanding the current topic.  2. Social Q&A: Students can ask a question, then other students can vote on questions if they want that question answered as well.  Go Soapbox will then automatically rank the questions based on which ones have the most votes.  Check this feature out:

Our second student response system we are going to take a look at is: http://www.infuselearning.com/ Question Types: True/False, Multiple Choice, Sort and Order, Text Response, Numeric Response, Likert Scale, draw response (only available in quick assessment mode) Works on: Any internet connected device Really cool feature: Students can draw their response - very cool if you have tablets in your classroom Looking for a play by play comparison of Infuse Learning and Socarative? Here is a great review comparing these two tools ( http://itechbob.blogspot.com/2013/01/socrative-vs-infuselearning.html ). The bottom line is: if you are looking for a student response tool, check out both of these great tools and see which one fits you and your needs the best.

Many of you know about the “Clicker” systems that a couple of our schools have that allow teachers to ask questions of their classes and have the students type in their response using the clicker. These are great tools for formative assessments, exit tickets and quick checks. Unfortunately, clicker systems are expensive and not very practical since they only do one thing. This is where great tools like GoSoapBox , Geddit , Infuse Learning and Socrative step in. These programs work like clickers to collect student responses, but students can use computers, chromebooks, smartphones or tablets to submit their answers. Another bonus is that they are really easy to use! Over the next week, let’s take a look at each one of these programs, starting with: http://www.socrative.com/ Question Types: Multiple choice, True/False, Short Answer, Exit Tickets Works on: Any internet connected device, iPad/iPhone App, Android App Really cool features:  1. Quiz answers are compiled i...