Interactive Apps and how they work in the classroom

 I really enjoyed my EDTS 325 class this week.  We looked at 7 different interactive systems and how they can be used by teachers in a classroom.  It was so interesting to see all the different systems and experiment with them, seeing how each one worked from both the view of the creator (teacher) and the student interacting with the app.  I am going to review my findings for 3 of the different systems and examine both the pros and the cons of each.

 They will be rated as follows:

5=very effective (user-friendly, multi-purpose)  

4=mostly effective (fairly user friendly, useful features)

3=somewhat effective 

2=potentially effective, but only with practice 

1=uneffective, too complicated/simplistic

POLLEVERYWHERE:  4.5

Teacher Use

            First, I am going to look at it from the view of the teacher creating questions.  http://www.polleverywhere.com is a great site to use for quick polls in the classroom.  Their tag line is “30 seconds to set up and no sign in required”.  They are true to their word. I had already used it before so had created an account.  The benefit of this is that all your polls are kept under your sign in name so they are available for reuse.   It is a great tool for the classroom. They created a room with a number for me to add my questions with multiple choice answers. Then the questions are activated and the student is given a code to text to their phone. DONE, that easy!  

Student Use

As long as the student has access to their own cell phone it is easy, especially the second time.  The first time I used it, I had a bit of trouble figuring out what to text just because it was so new to me (and I am old!).  It was fun to see the answers register and the graph grow.

Flexibility

The only drawback is that there isn’t an open ended response.  Students can’t type in an answer and have it displayed. So, it is great for a quick poll in the classroom.  Flash quizzes with live instant results, what a great way to get students attention. All free!      

Diagnostic feedback

As a teacher, you can create reports and identify which students answered what, which is good to identify needs.  You can also create anonymous polls to protect student identity.

Plickers:  4

Teacher Use

This was my first time on www.plickers.com .  Wow, is all I can say. Wow, was I impressed with this app.  It is so exciting.  You get real time answers from your students with just the click of the camera. It reads the student’s answer card giving real time results.  It is a lot more work than the other applications we used as you need to add your student’s names and print out individual cards for each student.  Once you have done the initial setup, it saves your class list and you can laminate the cards so that they can be used many times.  As the teacher, I think that as you gather the answers by scanning the room with your devices camera you have the most fun watching the information get snatched up magically and organized for you.  I think it is great for younger classrooms or in classrooms where students don’t have access to digital devices. 

Student Use

Students get a laminated card that is made just for them with their names linked to it.  It is easy to use, they simply hold up a card with the side with the letter that corresponds to their answer at the top.  Little kids may get confused with putting the right answer to the top.  It isn’t really exciting for the students but I think the teacher has fun gathering responses.

Flexibility

No open ended response.  Just good for quick polling of predetermined answers.

Diagnosis feedback 

It is a bit limited as it only works for multiple choice questions and not open responses by students. It shows in real time as the phone passes by the students.  It shows which students you have scanned and if you missed anyone.  It is a bit cumbersome as you have to print out cards, keep them organized and hand them out to the students each time.  I think the first few times would be very fun but I worry because it isn’t as spontaneous, it wouldn’t be used as much as the others.

Padlet-3

Teacher Use

            I have a real mixed review of www.padlet.com .  Padlet was easy to sign in and you can create an account or just use it without creating an account.  I loved that students got to fill in their own padlet or sticky note, so it was the best application for individual unique responses.  I really disliked that it wasn’t user friendly.  I felt frustrated trying to set it up.  The question text was too small.  I wanted to be able to adjust it and make it bigger or bolder on the screen.  I even used Google looking for ways to change it and couldn’t figure it out.  I see how it would be a great way to get student unique responses and I am sure that I will use it in my classroom. 

Student Use

Padlet is very easy to use. Students are logged in by room number and they double click anywhere on the page to write their response.  It is a great way to get the individual voices heard.  It can be used on a desktop or tablet.

Flexibility

This is a great application for individual response, although you can’t use it for multiple choice responses.

 

Diagnosis feedback 

It was very difficult to figure out.  Out of all the websites I used, I spent the most time trying to figure this one out and felt very frustrated!  It offers an option to use a background, which I was thrilled with, but when you applied the wallpaper it repeated the picture rather than fitting to size.  There was no adjustment at all.  It would have been nice if you could mute it or make the student answers more prominent.

FYI

Socrative Teacher- 5

Google Forms- 5+

Answer Garden- 3 (very cool but just makes word clouds with the answer so I would give it 5 for making a classroom word clouds but 3 for effective polling)

Kahoot- 4

            I only was going to review three of the seven sites I used but I can’t stop without mentioning Socartive Teacher/Socrative Student.  Socrative is so versatile!  It was easy to set up and I loved how you could add pictures that related to your quiz to make it more appealing.  It is great because it has several different ways you can use it.  Space race is a quick race to see who can answer the fastest!  I love competition so it is a great way to wake up and engage your students.  It also has an exit ticket where, as a teacher, you can get a snapshot of the students’ understanding, questions they have or what they have learned.  Great way to end the class.

            My other favorite is Google forms!  What an amazing site.  It is so versatile and just like everything Google, it seems perfect in every way.  It has many different ways you can ask questions from grids to multiple choice.  It saves automatically and is free.  Finding out about this will impact me greatly as a teacher.  I believe this is the answer to communication with parents.  No more crumpled papers on the bottom of the back pack!