FTT - Another Look at Socrative

photo credit: albertogp123 via photopin cc

Technology Enhanced Formative Assessment with Socrative

@JoeTaylorDHS

Full disclosure - some of this content is a repeat of a blog post I wrote in 2014. I thought it was worth revisiting.

Technology Enhanced Formative Assessment is a topic that is much bigger than this relatively short blog post. However, virtually every successful 1:1 teacher I've worked with says the same thing. The ability to use the technology to weave formative assessment into the classroom frequently and relatively seamlessly helps lead to increased student achievement.

Scholars Ian Beatty and William Gerace (2009) believe so strongly in the research behind technology-enhanced formative assessment that they built their entire pedagogy on it (click here for the full article). They wrote that the classroom should not only be student-based, but also assessment based, and that formative assessment should be used to:

1. Motivate and focus student learning with question-driven instruction.
2. Develop students’ understanding and fluency with conversational discourse.
3. Inform and adjust teaching and learning decisions.
4. Help students develop metacognitive skills (see full citation below).

There are actually lots of different tech tools to help you embed formative assessment into your classroom, but one of my favorites is called Socrative. Socrative is a free, online, classroom response system that can help you accomplish the goals outlined by Beatty and Gerace above. While you can use Socrative for asynchronous work at home (like Google Forms), or embed it within a presentation that you are making in class (like Pear Deck), I like to use it as a stand-alone tool so that an entire lesson is centered around questions and responses. 

I loved to use Socrative in a conference session I used to lead on the "Fair Use" exception to the Copyright law in the US. If you just yawned, you weren't alone. Rather than droning on about the nuances of the law, I created some fairly simple, but open to interpretation, real-life dilemmas faced by schools on a regular basis and used them to drive discussion. Here's an example:

Of course, the answer to the question is, it depends on the scenario. But it led to some great discussions both in and between our groups, and was more interesting than listening to me doing my impression of the history teacher in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off."

To get started, go to Socrative.com and create your free account, you have several options for interacting with your students:

You can create a quiz in advance, and lead your class through it as graphical displays of responses appear on the screen, or you can put the students in groups and have them work at their own pace. You can also create questions on the spot or use the "Space Race" (students square off against one another in teams) to add a competitive gaming element to the classroom. At the end of the activity, you can get a report of how each student did on the quiz.

Here's a really short intro video (Socrative in 90 Seconds):

But for a deeper dive, here is a detailed video from Socrative:

*And if you are interested, my go-to expert on Copyright and Fair Use is Renee Hobbs and the Media Education Lab. If the topic interests you, please explore The Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy Education.

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Reference:
Beatty, I. D., & Gerace, W. J. (2009). Technology-Enhanced Formative Assessment: A Research-Based Pedagogy for Teaching Science with Classroom Response Technology. Journal Of Science Education And Technology, 18(2), 146-162.

FTT - What's New in Google?

• What's New In Google?

@LisaBerghoff/@MrKimDHS

One of the things that I appreciate most about Google is that they are constantly reinventing and improving their products. There are some recent updates that I have been dreaming about for a while and I'm so excited to share them with you. Some of these updates are new-ish but you might not be aware of them. Here we go!

1. Add a watermark to your docs.

It's just a draft! It's confidential! Whatever it may be, it can be helpful to add it as a watermark so it is super obvious. You can now add text or an image as a watermark in Google docs. You can adjust the transparency of the watermark as well as choose horizontal or diagonal orientation. 

• Click on Insert and then choose Watermark
• From the side panel, type in your text or select your image
• Make any adjustments that you need: transparency, orientation, font, etc.
• To remove the watermark, go back to Insert and choose Watermark and click remove

2. Review And Approval In Docs

Need to make sure the right eyes are on your docs? You can now use this approval system for docs, sheets, and slides. 

• Click File and choose Approvals
• Enter your list of approvers, add a custom message, and optional due date. The people you list here will receive an email notification with a link to the document. When edits are made, all reviewers are notified and the latest version is reapproved.
• A document is considered approved when everyone signs off. At that point, the file locks and cannot be edited. 

3. Activity Dashboard: See who has viewed your docs.

Sometimes it can be frustrating if you share a link to a doc for others simply to view but you have no idea if they have even clicked on the link. The activity dashboard can show you how others have interacted with your document. It can also help you keep better track of changes that have been made, how the document has been shared, and the trend for comments.

• Click Tools and then Activity Dashboard. You can also click the icon with the bent arrow in the upper right corner. 
• From here, the dashboard will appear and you can click to see your data

4.  Quickly Create Meeting Notes In Docs From Calendar

Meeting notes is one of the most common uses of Google docs. Now, you can use the shortcut for meeting notes that is found in calendar.

• From your Google calendar, click on an event and click edit to view the event details
• Click Create Meeting Notes and a new Google doc will automatically be created and attached to the calendar. It will be shared with all event guests if it is created prior to the meeting.
• The notes document will automatically have the date, the title of your meeting, list of attendees, as well as space for notes and action items. 

What new Google features are you dreaming about? Have you tried any of these new features yet?

Want some help?

Let us know!

 

FTT - Parent/Guardian Guide to Schoology

 Parent/Guardian Guide to Schoology 

@LisaBerghoff/@MrKimDHS

In an ideal world there is a perfect level of synergy in the dance between students, their parents/guardians, and the teachers. While staff don't necessarily want to receive an email within minutes of a posted grade, we certainly don't want parents being completely out of the loop. There must be a happy medium. With the help of technology we can at the very least bring everyone to the table and help parents/guardians feel more engaged and helpful in regards to student academic struggles and successes. Here is a quick rehash on how to get your parents/guardians active on Schoology. 

Schoology Parent Access Guide

You can direct your parents/guardians to this helpful Google Doc with clear instructions on how to get started with Schoology. While we're halfway through the year, it is never too late to get parents and guardians onboarded.

Parent/Guardian Email Notifications (The Digest)

It may also be helpful to note that parents and guardians must individually sign up to receive weekly (or daily) email notifications about their students' grades. It shows up in the form of a Parent Email Digest and you have full control of the timing. You can also request an "Overdue Submissions Email." Much as it sounds, parents and guardians could receive a notification whenever an assignment submission has been marked as missing.

• Click on the name on the top right-hand corner
• Click on "Settings," and then "Notifications."
  
  
  

  
  
  

From everything I've experienced, it certainly takes a village to take care of your children. While I can fill entire libraries of things I still haven't figured out about parenting, what I have learned is that clear communication is key. Let's part the veil a little bit, at least with Schoology. If you have any other strategies on working together with parents and guardians, let us know!