[icon name="fa-slideshare"] STANDARD 2: design and develop digital age learning experiences and assessments
“…attention to minute-by-minute and day-to-day formative assessment is likely to have the biggest impact on student outcomes.” (Dylan Wiliam)

via Frank Nochese
Formative assessment is one of the best ways to ensure student learning. Unfortunately, formative assessments can take time to administer and grade.
This past week Bob Oddo shared an app that he found called Plickers which makes formative assessment as easy as taking a picture of your class. The students do not have to have a device; all you need is the Plickers app on a smartphone or iPad, a set of easy-to-print answer cards, and a set of questions.
This past summer Lena Wang, the Systems Analyst at KAS, went to JOSTI in Washington D.C. where the app was used to survey the attendees about the conference itself.
The teacher asks a question, and students hold up cards giving their answer. Through the app, the teacher takes a picture and is given immediate data about the distribution of answers in the class. From there, teachers have information on how to proceed with their teaching.
We tested the app in the Office of Learning Design this week and found that the teacher needs to keep their phone in the portrait position when surveying the class. There was also an issue when one participant was a little hidden. All in all though, a very interesting app.
Read about one high school science teacher’s experience with Plickers.

Screenshot of a Plickers card
Pingback: Assess Students with a Photo, Your Ultimate Password, PD Stamina [issue 11] • Tekiota
Amanda Barrow, of high school English program fame, very nicely invited me over to witness her trial of Plickers in her Global Studies classroom. She was able to create a poll for her students in 5-10 minutes and collected the answers with the Plickers iPhone app. She had some very nice insights on using the app which I am relaying for her here:
These are the following improvements she is hoping for in the near future:
Amanda’s experience with Plickers was positive and she is looking forward to use it again as a formative assessment.
Pingback: Match Fonts, Translate in Google Sheets, Plickers [issue 16] • Tekiota