Assessment

I liked Socrative as a good site to quickly assess how my students are understanding the material during a lecture.  It offers a lot of options.  Students can respond using an iPod or cell phone, which most of them have.  The results can be sent to a Google or excel spreed sheet, and I can get instant feedback so I will know where to spend a little extra time if needed.  I can also get a quick understanding check at the end of a lesson to see how they felt the lesson went.  I could even set up a check later in the night to let them respond as to how the homework went.  That would give me an idea first thing the next morning as to which problem numbers gave them the most trouble and which areas of the previous lesson I need to make sure to back over.

I kind of liked Moodle as well, but there was a lot going on with that site.  It appears to offer way more than I need, and I like to keep things as simple as possible.  Not only that, but I don't ever see myself using any website or program for a summative assessment; I prefer the traditional method which allows me to see common errors, allowing me to more accurately give feedback as to exactly what a student did wrong instead of just telling them they got #4 wrong.  Not to say Moodle wouldn't be a very valuable tool for a lot of teachers; it just isn't for me.

I don't see myself using Socrative for summative assessments.  With math, I really like to look at and go through their work.  Multiple choice quizzes/tests don't allow me to see the errors that each student is making which is so important, so i see myself using Socrative to get quick feedback on how my students are grasping concepts during the lesson, after the lesson, and hopefully after/during homework.