Recently
in my technology in education class, my classmates and I presented on certain student
response systems in a showdown! Student response systems (SRS) allow
instructors to pose questions and gather student’s responses during a lesson/lecture.
These response systems are super beneficial in a classroom because you as the
teacher get to measure your student’s strengths and weaknesses on certain
topics. This increases student engagement during class and helps them retain
more information. During this showdown, I realized how many useful resources
are out there to catch the attention of students and then test their knowledge
on the topic.
One of my
favorite student response system was Formative.
Formative gives the teacher the ability to see the student’s comprehension of
the topic. The teacher can create assignments, quizzes, exit slips, homework or
independent practice. They then can add pictures, text blocks or videos to
explain the topic or assignment. After this, teachers can add questions. The
thing I like the most about this SRS, is that you can add a question in multiple
different ways. Teachers can add multiple choice, essay, short answer, and true
or false questions to test a student’s understanding. Formative also allows
students to draw their responses if they are not strong readers when taking assessments.
The teacher will then assign the assessment to the students and the students
will type in a class code to get to it. Teachers can also view the responses of
the students to evaluate where they are on the topic, which ones they struggled
with and which ones they have mastered. Formative is a quick and easy way to assess
student’s comprehension. One thing I did not like about this specific student
response system was that you cannot teach the lesson on this website, only the assessment,
which makes it inconvenient for the teacher. During my experience, I created an
art quiz in which tested my classmates on their ability to look at a painting I
posted and identify the artist in multiple choice questions. It took me only
five minutes to create the quiz and I thought it was super easy to use!
Overall, I will use this in my future classroom which will make it easier to
see student’s growth and areas that they need to improve on.
Another
student response system I will definitely use in my classroom would be Quizizz. Quizizz is an engaging
website that allows students to get involved with learning by taking fun
quizzes. This assesses student’s academic level in certain lessons. These quizzes
are different than regular ones. When my fellow classmates presented this
website, they gave us a class code to join and they had set us up on the system
in groups. We were to finish the quiz in the fastest amount of time while
answering the questions correctly. A down side of this quiz is that students
will rush through the quiz just to be the fastest. A benefit from this website
is that you can import spreadsheets or find other quizzes that are previously
made as well as creating your own. Quizizz will keep track of how many
people answered and what their responses were. You will get instant feedback
and are able to track detailed data on the student’s comprehension. One thing
on this system is that teachers can differentiate between content for different
students based on their level of understanding. Teachers can choose between
videos, PDFs or web pages. When making the quizzes, you can put pictures or
memes in-between each question so the students can enjoy taking the quizzes. Getting
feedback in such clear and immediate way, is helpful for teachers so they know
the student’s strengths and weaknesses while planning for new lessons. One
other downside to this website is that with the free version, you are only
allowed to have five activities and three different classes. Overall, I believe
that this website is super beneficial for students to engage in their learning
in a more positive way.
The last student
response system I will be talking about is Mentimeter!
Mentimeter is all about interactive presentations. Instead of having a
classroom lecture on a certain topic where all of the students get distracted
or day-dream, students will have a chance to participate in the presentation
while you are teaching them something new! Teachers will create questions,
click start presenting and the students will grab their technology device whether
it be a cell phone or laptop and type in a student code in which will be given
on the presentation. Their screens will pop up with the question and then they
will submit their answer. When students visualize these answers, it makes them
think and reflect back to what they had just learned on the previous slide.
Everyone has an equal opportunity to voice their opinion. Students will feel
more involved. When the presentation is done, you can analyze the data or share
it. You can measure the progress of your students in a fun and creative way.
One down side to this website is the prices. With the free version, you are
able to have an unlimited audience size and unlimited presentations but you are
limited to how many questions you put into your slides and you cannot export
data unless you upgrade. In my technology in education class, I was able to
portray a student and log in with a class code. I loved the presentation and
being able to learn about something and test my knowledge right away. I believe
Mentimeter is an excellent resource to use in the classroom because students
are not just listening, they are engaging.
I hope
once you try out these student response systems you will love them as much as I
do! They are perfect for teachers in every classroom and will give them quick
feedback on how their students are mastering the content. I will be using them
in my future classroom and utilizing how simple and fast they are! I know my
students will love them and yours will too!
