“Okay, class, take out your phones for our math review today.” While surfing the net, I came across an app that requires teachers to say those words. Do you think the students will object?

The concept reminds me of the traditional clicker system. It allows teachers to present questions in different formats. Then, students answer anonymously using their laptops, tablets, smart phones or other handheld devices instead of using clickers. Thus, students’ fear of looking silly for wrong answers are reduced which encourages participation. The developer, Socrative, provides immediate feedback by showing results for the class. For example, the app shows many people have chosen choice A, B, C, and so on. So, if the majority of the class chooses the wrong answer, the teacher knows he or she will need to reteach the topic. At the same time, students can see they were not the only one with the wrong answer. The digital clicker system requires two apps one for teacher and one for the student.

Android apps: Socrative Teacher and Socrative Student – 5 stars

Apple versions: Teacher Clicker- Socrative and Student Clicker - Socrative and available for use on the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.

Space – 5.6 mb
Rating 4+
Requires iOS4.3 or later

Getting Started:
Teacher:

First, you’ll need to load the teacher version. I chose to load the Socrative Teacher Clicker on my iPad, and it literally takes only a few seconds to load. After registration, the “Ready to Go …” message appears with clear directions. Be sure to jot down the room number which you will give to your students. That’s it until the students set up their side. As a side bar, I highly recommend clicking the “learn more” link they provide. In so doing, for example, it points out the teacher and student tools of Socrative can run from an Android device, Apple device, Chrome book, computer, tablet or smart phone by going to a given website.

For the Student:
At this point, the teacher has registered. So, let’s test out the student side of the application. To do so, I set up two student accounts. I used my iPhone and downloaded the Student Clicker – Socrative. Then, I went to the appropriate website on my laptop. There isn’t much to the student app. After you download it, the only information needed is a room number provided by the teacher. When the room number is entered, the student is instructed to wait on the teacher’s next activity.

Let the Learning Begin:
Once the teacher and student accounts are set up, there are several options to engage the students. For a quick start, the teacher can verbally ask a True/False question and click the True/False button on her screen. Meanwhile, the student screen offers the appropriate choices of true and false. As the students click their choices, the responses appear on the teacher’s screen which displays the votes and a bar graph representation of the votes.
In addition to single questions like we demonstrated above, Socrative allows teachers options for a quiz race game and Exit tickets.
When a teacher chooses the exit ticket, the students are prompted to enter their names and answer three multiple choice questions.

1 How well did you understand today’s material? (Totally get it!; Pretty well.; Not very well.; Not at all, need help.)
2 What did you learn today?
3 Please solve the problem on the board

Upon completion, students would click to exit or choose the option that allows a different student to submit an exit ticket. At first, I was confused. Then, I realized this option took into consideration that not all students will have a device to use. Thus, it allows everyone to participate in the Exit Ticket activity.

If you think that’s great, you’ll love the option to have a color coded Excel spreadsheet emailed to you with the Exit Ticket results and the number of questions answered correctly by each student.

Yes, the Exit Ticket feature wins as my favorite feature of the Teacher Clicker, and I look forward to using it on a larger scale. By the way, at the time of writing this article, the app is free.

Buy Android Apps Socrative Teacher and Socrative Student