Getting tech-y with it!

Getting tech-y with it!

            All the material for this week’s discussion was a very interesting read.  The thing that stood out to me the most, was the YouTube video, Tech Tips for Teachers: Formative Assessment Apps.  I was able to relate to this video the most.  In the video, the elementary teacher, Emily Tombes touches on several different applications she utilizes in her own classrooms.  One of the apps that she spoke about was Socrative, which she thought was an excellent tool for formative assessments.  She said that one of her favorite things about this particular app was that students did not have to log in to join the activity. 

While watching this video, I immediately thought of the students at my school.  Almost every app that they have to work with, in all their classes, requires them to login with a username and password.  This is where it gets problematic.  All of the students have red folders and agenda notebooks that they are given by the school each year.  They are supposed to carry these with them to each of their classes. 

Inside the front covers of their agendas, the students typically have their username and password for at least two different apps, at any given time.  The problem with apps that require logins, is that not all the students write their information down when they are supposed to.  Additionally, students must first log in to their Google accounts before they do anything.  If a student attempts to log in to an app and enters their information incorrectly three times, they will be locked out.  This can be especially difficult for special needs students. 

Some special needs students are higher functioning than others, but there are still times when even they have difficulties with logging in to their accounts.  With Socrative, students do not have to worry about that.  I love that aspect of this app!  I feel more apps should have that same feature, or at the very least, simplify the login process.  All students would benefit from this type of feature, special education students and general education students.