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INTRODUCTION

There are tons of tools available for gathering feedback from students, colleagues and other groups. Whether you need an anonymous brainstorming tool (eg: AnswerGarden) or a detailed survey form with lots of options (eg: Google Forms) there’s likely a free or relatively cheap option available.

This lesson includes a variety of tools that can be used for brainstorming, exit tickets, data collection, assessments, feedback and more.

READINGS, TIPS, RESOURCES

• Empowering Teachers With Tech-Friendly Formative Assessment Tools
• 5 Reasons for Formative Assessment and 5 Methods for Utilization
• Know Students Better: A Visual Guide to Formative Assessment Tools – Great graphics by Tony Vincent that summarize the features of many tools.
• Student Assessment & Feedback Tools – Wendy Molle posted this terrific summary of the tools she tested for the 2016/17 Cool Tools workshop.
• 20 Formative Assessment Tools for Your Classroom – Short summaries of popular tools.
• 5 Fantastic, Fast, Formative Assessment Tools – VIcki Davis discusses different approaches to formative assessment and a variety of tools for each approach.
• 12 Great Formative Assessment Tools for Teachers
• 11 Backchannel & Informal Assessment Tools Compared in One Chart
•  – Note that Todays Meet is no longer available.
• The Ultimate List – 65 Digital Tools and Apps to Support Formative Assessment Practices – The NWEA has updated this list. Every tool you could imagine.
• Snapshots Of Understanding? 10 Smart Tools For Digital Exit Slips

TOOLS TO EXPLORE

• Padlet – Formerly known as WallWisher, handy and easy to use noteboard. Free / Fee. At it’s simplest, you set up a padlet board with a question. Students can add their reactions to the board, no student accounts needed. Lots of layout options and privacy settings.
  • Introduce Yourself – Test it out by introducing yourself on this year’s CoolTools padlet.
  • 30 creative ways to use Padlet for teachers and students – lots of great ideas.
  • How to Use Padlet: A Fantastic Tool for Teaching
  • PRICING NOTE: As of early 2018, if you’ve never had an account, you’ll be limited to 3 Padlet boards. Users with an account are limited to the number of boards they already have plus 3 new ones. Many people were understandably upset by this change, but the creator of the service just couldn’t sustain the service any longer.
• Flipgrid – Terrific tool for recording short video responses to questions.  FlipGrid has been acquired by Microsoft and is now completely free!
  • Andy Plemmons: Natural Side of Student Voice – comments about using Flipgrid
  • 2nd Graders Use Their Research To Respond Via Flipgrid!
  • The Educators Guide to FlipGrid – Free PDF with tons of details about using FlipGrid. Other getting started resources are linked from that page.
  • FlipGrid for the Camera Shy – Some great tips for helping camera shy students use this video based tool.
  • GridPals – Connect with other educators around the globe.
  • Pop Up tent for recording – Flipgrid was giving away tents similar to this earlier in 2018. Handy for noisy rooms and for students who might be a bit shy about recording their videos.
• PeerGrade – Run a “live session” for student peer review of work. Students sign in with a code, no email needed. They submit their work with a Google Drive link, a link to URL, text typed right in the app, or by uploading a file. They then give feedback on the work of 3 other students. And finally receive their own feedback.
• Quizlet Live – Well known for creating flash card sets to help students learn and review content, the Live option turns your sets into a game. Quizlet creates random teams from your student lists and they must work together to answer questions and complete the game.
• Spiral –  Currently includes 3 types of student activities: Quickfire for quick questions and answers, Discuss for interactive presentations, and Team Up for group work.
• Vizia – Import a video from YouTube or Wistia. At any point in the video, easily insert polls and questions to check for understanding.. Students play the video, it stops where you’ve inserted a question. Students need to answer or skip questions to proceed. Results can be added to a Google sheet, along with student name.
• EdPuzzle -Similar to Vizia. Add a video and add questions, quizzes and polls at specified points.
• Kahoot – “Create, play and share fun learning games for any subject, for all ages, for free!” Very popular and lots of fun. NOTE: Watch out for students hijacking Kahoot with fake accounts.
• Quizziz – Somewhat similar to Kahoot with some different options. Both are great for quiz like games in class. Short video from Tony Vincent demo-ing how it works.
• Formative – Add content for students to review, then create assessment questions for them to answer. Create class groups to simplify administration.
• SeeSaw – free iOS app lets students upload digital work and photos of physical work. Teacher can provide feedback, parents have access.
  • Seesaw, The Learning Journal – blog post by Joyce Valenza
• Plickers – iOS app to gather feedback from students in the classroom. You have the app on your device, students each have a large printed card with a QRCode on it. Each card can be used to select the answer A, B, C or D to your multiple choice question. Students hold up their card, you scan the room and app gathers answers.
• AnswerGarden – Free tool for web and iPad. Pose a question, respondents answer anonymously and a word cloud is created.
  • Example for Cool Tools class
• Google Forms – Great for creating feedback forms and quizzes. Input is saved in a Google Drive spreadsheet. Google Forms now has a self grading feature.
  • Video explaining the self grading features.
  • Flubaroo for self grading quizzes – Flubaroo has been around for quite a while and still has some features that the Google self grading feature doesn’t have. See this post for a comparison: New Google Forms Quiz Feature vs Flubaroo
• RemindChat – Safe and simple one-on-chat messaging with students and parents. From the folks at Remind (formerly Remind 101)
• PearDeck – adds interaction and feedback options to slide deck presentations. Free option and discounted educator pricing.
• Clipisode – Make a video with a question, students can reply and add to the video. I haven’t tested this out yet, but looks really interesting!

LEARNING ACTIVITY

• Explore 2 or 3 assessment tools that are new to you, whether listed in this lesson or other tools you want to explore.
• Points to cover in your blog post:
  • Share why you chose the tools you did and how your testing worked out.
  • If you tried something out with a student or other group, tell us how things worked out.
  • How you might use these tools in your school setting.
  • Any other tips and ideas that you want to share.

*TURNING IN YOUR ASSIGNMENT

• Write & publish your blog post.
• Copy the URL (webpage address) for your post.
• Return to your Google Classroom, find the assignment page for the lesson you just completed and follow the directions for turning in and sharing your work.

*Only for students participating in the workshop for PD credit hours through the Google Classroom.

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