Activity 7: Assessment/Polling & Data Gathering Part 1

With "formative" and "summative" assessment terms being thrown around the educational landscape like Star Trek references at a Pocket Protector sales event, this week's exercise will focus on Web 2.0 tools that allow you to gather valuable information from your students and colleagues. Nerds love gathering data!

You can use these tools as informal exit slips to assess comprehension, as a formative assessment, as a formal pre or post assessment tool, to review for an upcoming quiz, or even to schedule a meeting day and time that works for your PLC.  Here are some examples:

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PollEverywhere.com (Parent permission for under 13 to create.)

Watch this 2 minute overview of PollEverywhere: 

We've embedded this poll in the blog for you to sample. So go ahead and text the code via your cell phone that matches your answer or submit it via the webpage given and watch the poll change in real time!
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Kahoot
If you have ever gone to a restaurant to play that sci-fi trivia game (my username is CylonSerenity, check me out on the leaderboard) where the point values decrease as time goes on then you know how Kahoot works.  You can create a Kahoot or find Kahoots that have been made by others, edit them, and use them in your classes.



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Socrative

Watch the "video overview" on the homepage of Socrative.
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To Complete Activity 7:

1. Pick two tools and create two products you can use with your students or colleagues. Embed/share them in your blog post and reflect on the process and how you might use these tools at school.  
2. Make sure to comment on 3 other nerds' blogs!

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Further Investigation

There are many additional tools that you can use for formative assessment. Below is a list of a few additional resources.

Quizlet: Create flash cards that can be used for practice, creating practice games and activities, and creating assessments.  Students can also use Quizlet to create their own flash cards.

Peardeck:  This tool was covered in activity two as a presentation tool but it is also a great assessment tool.  When you are creating your presentations you add formative assessment questions into the presentations.

Plickers:  Students each get cards with unique shapes on them.  The way they hold them identifies their answers to multiple choice questions.  You use a phone to capture students answers when the camera looks at each card.  The results are then tabulated on your computer.

Exit Ticket: This is another powerful student response system

Mastery Manager: Is used for district assessments and can also be used for individual teacher assessments.  The most basic assessments in Mastery Manager are simply pdf versions of a test that is uploaded into Mastery Manger to create an online version of the assessment.  You can also use Mastery Manger to tie standards to tests and quizzes.

Here is a link to even more formative assessment tools.  This list is provided by Common Sense Media.