Student Response System Showdown!

    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!