Answer: One solution is to use Student Response Systems.
A Student Response System (SRS) is a wireless response system that allows an instructor to pose a question or topic of discussion for students to respond via a "clicker" or hand-held device. There are many benefits in using a SRS with our students. Here are just a few:
- promote active student engagement throughout a lesson
- promote discussion and collaboration among students
- encourage participation from each and every students in the class
- create a safe space for shy or unsure students to participate
- check for student understanding throughout a lesson
There are many different SRS available for educational settings. This post will focus on two SRS that are at the top of their game and widely used in K-8: Infuse Learning and Kahoot! Both SRS are Internet based and readily available to use on all tech devices. No app to download, just go to their website. :)
Infuse Learning allows teachers to push (send) questions, writing prompts, and quizzes out to their students' devices in private virtual classrooms. Students respond to the questions from their teacher and submit their answers from their individual devices. The teacher can view all student responses and even save student work for future use. Infuse Learning gives teachers and students a wide variety of formats in which to response to a question or prompt. Students can reply in standard multiple choice, true/false, or written response, options that are found in most other SRS like Socrative. However with Infuse Learning, students can also submit drawings, sort a group of answers into a particular arrangement, or rate an answer on a Likert Scale. These additional options for student responses are not found in most other SRS. The drawing feature is especially useful in a Math or Art class when you want students to draw a model or show their work as part of the solution. Like all SRS, teachers can create and save quizzes to be revised and used year after year.
To get started with Infuse Learning, visit http://www.infuselearning.com/ and set up an account. Consider watching their video tutorials, they are very helpful.
To get started with Infuse Learning, visit http://www.infuselearning.com/ and set up an account. Consider watching their video tutorials, they are very helpful.
Kahoot! is another SRS and the students just going crazy over this one. Similar to Infuse Learning, Kahoot! allows the teacher to push out questions for students to respond. Questions are presented in a multiple choice or true/false format. When questions are pushed out to the entire class at the same time, students are given a limited amount of time to respond. Once all students respond to the question or the timer runs out (which ever happens first), the correct answer is revealed as well as the number of students who selected each of the possible answers. What I especially love about Kahoot! is that there are over 1 million Kahoot quizzes already created by other teachers that are available for anyone to use. You can even modify a pre-existing game to meet the specific needs of your students. To get started, check out the teacher's link at https://getkahoot.com/. Students will need to access Kahoot! via a different link - https://kahoot.it/#/
Do you use Infuse Learning, Kahoot! or any other Student Response System? Please share your experiences in using any SRS with your students. :)
I love Kahoot! and I can't wait to try Infuse Learning! The best part about Kahoot! for teachers is that there are tons of already made quizzes. It is an added plus that the kids have fun playing! I recommend using Kahoot! as an informal assessment or to review content in preparation for a test.
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