David+Crowell's+Presentation+Page

A little bit about David Crowell:


===I am member of the Social Studies department at Grand River Academy, an all boys boarding school, in Austinburg, Ohio. This is my 6th year at GRA and during that time my role at the academy has only grown. Currently, I teach US History, Introduction to Sociology, History Through Sports and Digital Citizenship. Outside of my teaching schedule I coach Golf and Baseball and am the head of dorm on campus where I live with my wife. GRA rolled out a Chromebook for all students program this school year. Every classroom is fitted with a SmartBoard and every teacher has a HP laptop. ===

===This my 4th semester in the Instructional Technology program. If all goes to plan I should graduate this summer and take on a more formal role of Technology Integration Specialist at GRA. Through the coursework and content that I have now been exposed the way that I not only think about technology integration but how I go about planning for lessons has changed and I hope to be able to help fellow teachers think differently about how to approach teaching and student learning. ===

Featured Technology: Socrative by MasteryConnect
==== Socrative is a student response system that features multiple forms of formative assessment tools that teachers can use at different points in a lesson and in various ways. Each teacher can create a profile for free and make rooms for each class they have that uses Socrative. Teachers can use the tool to create quizzes, exit tickets or space races as well as to quickly assign questions to the class as they come up through the lesson. Quizzes can be used any way that a teacher may see fit, whether it is formal or informal, a pre-assessment, or a gauge on if learning objectives were achieved. Exit tickets have been pre-created for a teacher to start at the end of the lesson to see which students understood the content and who may have been confused during parts of it. The data sent to the teacher from an exit ticket can help teachers decide where to go with the instruction next. The Space Race feature creates a game like out a teacher created quiz in either a group or individual setting. ====

Tutorial Video for Socrative featuring its Quiz Option:

ISTE Standards
Students: 1. Empower Learners - Students leverage technology to take an active role in choosing, achieving and demonstrating competency in their learning goals, informed by the learning sciences. c. Students use technology to seek feedback that informs and improves their practice to demonstrate their learning in a variety of ways. d. Students understand the fundamental concepts of technology operations, demonstrate the ability to choose, use and troubleshoot current technologies and are able to transfer their knowledge to explore emerging technologies. 2. Students recognize the rights, responsibilities and opportunities of living, learning and working in an interconnected digital world, and they act and model in ways that are safe, legal and ethical. b. Students engage in positive, safe, legal behavior when using technology, including social interactions online or when using networked devices. c. Students demonstrate an understanding of and respect for the rights and obligations of using and sharing intellectual property. 6. Students communicate clearly and express themselves creatively for a variety of purposes using the platforms, tools, styles, formats and digital media appropriate to their goals. b. Students create original works or responsibly repurpose or remix digital resources into new creations. d. Students publish or present content that customizes the message and medium for their intended audiences. 7. Students use digital tools to broaden their perspectives and enrich their learning by collaborating with others and working effectively in teams locally and globally. b. Students use collaborative technologies to work with others, including peers, experts or community, to examine issues and problems from multiple viewpoints. c. Students contribute constructively to project teams, assuming various roles and responsibilities to work effectively toward a common goal.

Teachers: 2. Teachers design, develop, and evaluate authentic learning experiences and assessments incorporating contemporary tools and resources to maximize content learning in context and to develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes identified in the Student Standards. c. Customize and personalize learning activities to address students' diverse learning styles, working strategies, and abilities using digital tools and resources. d. Provide students with multiple and varied formative and summative assessments aligned with content technology, standards, and use resulting data to inform learning and teaching. 3. Teachers exhibit knowledge, skills, and work processes representative of an innovative professional in a global and digital society. b. Collaborate with students, peers, parents, and community members using digital tools and resources to support student success and innovation. d. Model and facilitate effective use of current and emerging digital tools to locate analyze, evaluate, and use information resources to support research and learning.

Pedagogical Considerations:
Socrative has many uses in the classroom. The most common being quizzes and space races. While the exit ticket feature is nice and easy to roll out during the last 5 minutes of class the others allow more customization for teachers and a lessons specific learning goals. The Space Race tool offered in Socrative is best used for a review game. The competitive aspect to them offer something different than the quizzes do although the same data on where students are in relation to the learning goals is available. The lesson plan provided below and accompanying video takes a spin on how to use Socrative.

Socrative for Peer Editing
The sample lesson that I have created uses Socrative as a way to allow for a peer editing writing workshop in class. Using the Quick Question Short Answer option students will be able paste in their essay. Using Google Sheets with a few formats Socrative can serve as an effective peer editing session. Below you will find a Word document containing a lesson plan and a video explaining the mechanics of the lesson.



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Access and Prices
Socrative is a free service with premium membership available. With a free account teachers can do anything that I have talked about in my presentation. With a premium membership the added benefits include more and varied reports, the ability to create more rooms and a countdown feature for the Space Race. The price for the Pro version is $29.99 annually with a bulk account price available by request.

Additional Resources and Links:
1. Socrative Website

2. 13 Ways to Use Socrative as a Formative Assessment Tool 3. Ideas for uses of Socrative 4. Fractus Learning - Get More out of Socrative