When looking through the different online tools I got the most excited about Socrative. This is an online, browser based student response system that allows the students to use any device that has an Internet browser to connect. The teacher sets up a quiz or ticket out the door and the questions show up on the student’s device where they can respond. There are options of multiple choice, true/false, and free response with the questions so you could even get the students to summarize what they learned in class and it is less paper for the teacher to deal with.
My school recently implemented a Bring Your Own Technology (BYOT) initiative and so far it has not been very successful. Right now I see the technology being used at our school for students to listen to music while they are doing a worksheet and not really utilizing the technology to improve learning and mastery of standards. Having a program that automatically tells the instructor if students are getting a topic will help to move teaching to new topics or reteach on topics that haven’t been mastered yet. It will also save the teacher time that would be spent grading by hand.
I would manage the use of Socrative with my students by making sure that the students understand the reason for using Socrative and how to properly use it. Our students understand that they can lose their technology privilege if they are not using their technology as the teacher is asking them to. I would hope that the students would see the positive aspects of the tool and how it could be used to communicate with the teacher and ask questions that they may be too afraid to ask in person.
The biggest challenge of using this tool will be that not all of my students have their own technology and my school doesn’t have any mobile technology carts available. It is not very convenient to go to the computer lab in order to use this technology and I think the time wasted to travel to the computer lab would outweigh the positive of using this tool. I am going to speak with my principal about what his plans are for our technology money this year and I am going to suggest that we purchase some mobile technology carts for use in the classroom.
My school recently implemented a Bring Your Own Technology (BYOT) initiative and so far it has not been very successful. Right now I see the technology being used at our school for students to listen to music while they are doing a worksheet and not really utilizing the technology to improve learning and mastery of standards. Having a program that automatically tells the instructor if students are getting a topic will help to move teaching to new topics or reteach on topics that haven’t been mastered yet. It will also save the teacher time that would be spent grading by hand.
I would manage the use of Socrative with my students by making sure that the students understand the reason for using Socrative and how to properly use it. Our students understand that they can lose their technology privilege if they are not using their technology as the teacher is asking them to. I would hope that the students would see the positive aspects of the tool and how it could be used to communicate with the teacher and ask questions that they may be too afraid to ask in person.
The biggest challenge of using this tool will be that not all of my students have their own technology and my school doesn’t have any mobile technology carts available. It is not very convenient to go to the computer lab in order to use this technology and I think the time wasted to travel to the computer lab would outweigh the positive of using this tool. I am going to speak with my principal about what his plans are for our technology money this year and I am going to suggest that we purchase some mobile technology carts for use in the classroom.