Thing 18: Student Assessment & Feedback Tools

I chose Dotstorm and Spiral because I had never heard of them before and wanted to try new tools out. When I tried Dotstorm I was struck by the fact that it looked like a mood board or similar to Pinterest which I love. I like that you can embed videos and images and I can see it being used for different group projects and collaboration. I also thought Dotstorm would be good for using Expeditionary Learning or Managing the Active Classroom protocols such as a digital gallery walk or chalk talk! Out of the two tools I chose however I enjoyed Spiral much more. I like the fact that it has multiple means of assessing and I started building a discussion lesson on absolute monarchs that will keep students engaged in the mini lecture and check for understanding multiple times. I am looking forward to passing on this tool to my colleagues. The only thing I wish was to make it easier to link to LMS platforms like Schoology or Google Classroom. Out of the other assessment tools listed I have used Edpuzzle, Kahoot, Plickers, Peardeck, Google Forms, Today's Meet, and Quizziz. I love using Edpuzzle to check for understanding during Youtube videos when the class is being too rowdy or I assigned homework. I use Kahoot everyday and besides the usual glitches like timing and picking answers for students the kids love Kahoot. However, if I need to assign individual work or homework I use Quizziz because it is self paced and the students can see the questions/answers on their own screen. I've also used Plickers and PollEverywhere to check answers on the Regents multiple choice and Plickers is a strong tool in the East's science department that many of the students are used to using. I love using Google Forms through my Google classroom to check for understanding and get feedback on group projects because students are used to it. I also like the fact you can turn Google Form responses into graphs and pie charts to make it easier to understand. Today's Meet I've used during PDs but I find you have to remember to check it during the session to answer responses. But it is a nice way for participants to also help one another. Finally I've used Peardeck with Global Review but find lately it has had a lot of bugs and is not counter intuitive to learn. Overall, with East's big push for assessment and learning these tools have made my classroom so much easier and helping build 21st century learning skills.