Module 4: SRS Tools

One of the first things that I learned about the student response tools is that they are extremely helpful in regards to teaching a lesson or wanting student feedback. A lot of the tools were useful if an educator was trying to determine how a student was doing in a specific content area as many tools could show strengths and weaknesses in a specific topic for each student. However, in regards to some of the tools that we were allowed to use, I found some of them very overwhelming in trying to figure out because of how information packed they were. Despite some of the websites being overwhelming in information, I also noticed how some of the tools were specifically for or were more aimed at a specific topic. I thought that would be useful for that specific topic, but it would not be if a teacher would want to use it for another subject.





As for my own class, Technology in Education, we were assigned two tools to learn. For our next class session, it was each student’s responsibility to find the most important information about each tool and meet with other students to build more knowledge on the tool, as students had the same tool. The next time I was to meet with a group, it was to teach my group about a new tool. I also learned about different tools from my own with my second group. After that, it was the group's responsibility to choose the best tool to demonstrate to the whole class. I liked this part of the assignment because each group got to teach their tool and then learn about different tools more in depth.





Throughout the assignment, I put myself in a teacher’s shoes and I tried to figure out how I would use this in my future classroom. What I found SRS tools useful for was to have mini quizzes on them, allow students to answer questions anonymously, as well as have review quizzes on them.





One of the SRS tools that I looked at was Socrative. I love Socrative because this tool can be used for quizzes in class. I also used this tool when I was in high school and I thought that it was easy to use and helpful for review. I’m going to say that my teachers liked it too because most of them used it. :) The first thing that I had to do in Socrative was to make an account. This was a simple process and it took me right to making my own Socrative. The first thing that it allowed me to do was find a pre-made Socrative quiz, I, obviously, did not have one in mind, so I moved forward. One of the strengths of this website was that it had three different kinds of methods to do a quiz, I could control when to move forward with a quiz, which was helpful if I were to do a discussion or something similar. Another method was where students could go to a different question and skip and come back to a question, which I thought was cool. The only weakness is that if a student were to skip a question, I would worry that Socrative would not remind the student to go back. The third method was where students must take a quiz in order, but they would receive instant feedback. This would be useful if a teacher wanted to have a small quiz after a taught lesson. I also loved how Socrative allowed a fun way to do a group activity, which was called space race. Socrative also allowed teachers to do an exit ticket, which is helpful for after a lesson. Another strength of this website was that it allowed the teacher to decide whether they would want to show students names, shuffle questions or answers, or show instant question feedback. I thought that Socrative was very easy to use. Pro Socrative allows a lot more features, but I find that the free version is just as useful and gets the point across.





The next SRS tool that I used was called Padlet. This was an interesting tool because it was something that I have never seen before. This tool was extremely fun to use because it was easy to understand and was fun to put together. I found this tool most useful for open end discussion in a classroom. Some of the things that I loved about this tool was that students could create many different kinds of responses. Students could post a picture, take a snapshot, import a photo of themselves, or simply just write a comment. Students can post questions in regard to the teachers question, or ask a question anonymously. The Padlet tool had many strengths due to how easy it is to use. All students and teachers would have to use is their google account if they have one in order to use this tool. Some weaknesses of this tool is that it gives different templates of how to set up a specific Padlet. However, I did not see any difference in the templates that were provided. Another weakness was that, without the pro version, there are a very limited amount of padlets that you can have. If I were a teacher, this would be useful for some classes, but if I wanted to save the padlets, I could not because there is a limited amount. Although there were some weaknesses in this tool, I found it to be fun to use because of how different it is. I think that students would really enjoy this in a classroom, especially for open ended discussions.





The third tool that I used was called Quizizz. One of the first things that I noticed when I created my own quiz was that there was an option to align the quiz to a state’s standards. I thought that this was a unique feature because it is obviously a very important part of being an educator and I have not seen that feature on any other website that I looked at. I could also add details about the lesson, such as “English and grammar topics,” not only that but I could also import an image to the quiz. Another aspect that I saw as a strength was that a teacher could find questions that have already been made and it can be added to their own quiz. I absolutely loved this tool because a lot of the work was already done for me. Each question has their own time limit on it and provides the correct answer. Another strength that this tool had was the ability to play a review game from the quiz. This would be helpful for students to either play at home or for a teacher to play for the class before the actual quiz. I honestly had no weaknesses for this website, as it was easy to use and super helpful when trying to create a quiz for a lesson. This has been my favorite website to use, and I will most definitely use it when I am an educator.





Overall, I have enjoyed looking at each tool and learning about how I can apply it to my classroom one day. It has made me much more excited to be an educator one day.