Ok, the title's misleading. I may not use each of these every week, but currently they are sites I just can't keep away from. Check them out...
OBSURVEY
I'll start with one I do use weekly - obsurvey.com is a very simple tool to prepare surveys and quizzes. I use them to receive feedback from the week with my Year 7 tutor/home group. I see them for 20mins at the start of each day, which isn't always long enough to find out how they are going and if things are bothering them. Sometime I forget to prepare it on Friday morning, and I can easily prep it in a few minutes. The reports can be downloaded to pdf and you can see individual responses to questions. You can even create a new survey based on previous surveys. I find it a great way to get a more reliable and honest (sometimes too honest!) feedback.
SOCRATIVE
I'm new to this one. I came to Socrative as an app recommended by an A.D.E. It is so simple yet useful it can't be ignored. I've seen or heard of similar websites and tried to have programs with student 'clickers' sold to me at conferences, but this is amazing simple and free. It can be driven from iPad apps (student app and teacher app) or on laptops/desktops at m.socrative.com which is equally as effective. Teachers can pick from True/False, Short Answer, Multiple Choice or (my favourite) pre-made Quizzes - this comes with an 'Email report' feature, as well as providing students with instant feedback on their responses. Certainly one to check out for a 1:1 classroom.
BIT.LY
Perhaps I just like the title, but I use this often. Not just handy for a twitter post when characters are at a premium, bit.ly shortens web addresses that just get lost in emails or are hard to explain. See the image below for an example. Copy any web address into the box at bit.ly and it will shorten it to 6 alpha numeric characters (e.g. http://bit.ly/wOzoqz - a shameless plug for my previous blog post!). This makes it much easier to handle, and much easier to read as a link. Get on it!
EDMODO
SYMBALOO
I have discussed Symbaloo in a previous post, but it has to gain mention here. I recently set the homepage of my Safari web browser to our school intranet as I was using it so much, but when I caught my self moving my mous to where the symbaloo tiles were on the screen to access websites and then they didn't appear, I realised I needed my old friend back. I will be investigating the 'sharing' of 'tabs' next term and look forward to sharing some positive results in future posts.
OBSURVEY
I'll start with one I do use weekly - obsurvey.com is a very simple tool to prepare surveys and quizzes. I use them to receive feedback from the week with my Year 7 tutor/home group. I see them for 20mins at the start of each day, which isn't always long enough to find out how they are going and if things are bothering them. Sometime I forget to prepare it on Friday morning, and I can easily prep it in a few minutes. The reports can be downloaded to pdf and you can see individual responses to questions. You can even create a new survey based on previous surveys. I find it a great way to get a more reliable and honest (sometimes too honest!) feedback.
SOCRATIVE
I'm new to this one. I came to Socrative as an app recommended by an A.D.E. It is so simple yet useful it can't be ignored. I've seen or heard of similar websites and tried to have programs with student 'clickers' sold to me at conferences, but this is amazing simple and free. It can be driven from iPad apps (student app and teacher app) or on laptops/desktops at m.socrative.com which is equally as effective. Teachers can pick from True/False, Short Answer, Multiple Choice or (my favourite) pre-made Quizzes - this comes with an 'Email report' feature, as well as providing students with instant feedback on their responses. Certainly one to check out for a 1:1 classroom.
BIT.LY
Perhaps I just like the title, but I use this often. Not just handy for a twitter post when characters are at a premium, bit.ly shortens web addresses that just get lost in emails or are hard to explain. See the image below for an example. Copy any web address into the box at bit.ly and it will shorten it to 6 alpha numeric characters (e.g. http://bit.ly/wOzoqz - a shameless plug for my previous blog post!). This makes it much easier to handle, and much easier to read as a link. Get on it!
EDMODO
I have not use this much since being out of the class (as you can see from the screenshot!) but I'm getting back into it next term as I can see it doing a job for me (as with all ICTs, it's pointless and irrelevant unless it's doing a job for you). Edmodo is a way to communicate with students in your class. You can prep and administer tests with them (shown below), run surveys/quizzes/gauge feedback, split into small groups for students who may regularly miss information etc. It's set up similar to social media sites, with ability to chat, post and interact. The online 'turn-in' of assignments and the teacher's ability to mark/grade digitally through this site is an impressive feature too. More later in the year with another post.
SYMBALOO
I have discussed Symbaloo in a previous post, but it has to gain mention here. I recently set the homepage of my Safari web browser to our school intranet as I was using it so much, but when I caught my self moving my mous to where the symbaloo tiles were on the screen to access websites and then they didn't appear, I realised I needed my old friend back. I will be investigating the 'sharing' of 'tabs' next term and look forward to sharing some positive results in future posts.
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