Plicker

Ever want to quickly poll your students but don't want to hassle with the time it takes to set up devices? Plicker is for you!
I recently read a blog post from Richard Byrne about the top ten technology tools for educators this year and Plicker was on the list. Having not heard of Plickers I decided to look into it. Intrigued by what I read I emailed a teacher who I knew would be willing to try them out. Less than 24 hours later Plicker has been tried and deemed pretty darn cool by all involved.
What is Plicker? First of all, the word Plicker is a shortened form of "paper clicker". You know TurningPoint, right? Great tool, but sometimes finicky. The batteries in the clickers go dead, the students can't get their response recorded no matter how carefully they point to the receiver. Sometimes you just don't want to bother with checking out a TurningPoint kit from the library. With Plickers you print out a set of cards that have what look like black puzzle pieces on them, each side labeled with A, B, C, or D. Each student is assigned a unique Plicker (the Plicker below is #13). As with TurningPoint, students do not see how other students answer. Students display their Plicker with their answer choice facing outward (the Plicker below would register answer A if held in this position).

From the front of the room the teacher uses their smartphone to do a "sweeping" scan of their classroom as students hold their Plicker up to answer the question displayed. We found that as students saw their name checked off it worked best if they turned Plicker facedown - that way the teacher easily knew which Plicker still needed to be scanned. Teachers can enter questions on the Plicker site, or on their smartphone. As the teacher scans the classroom a chart shows on the phone which answers have been registered, and they are coded red/green for incorrect/correct.

The question is displayed via the LCD hooked up to the teacher's computer with the teacher signed into their account on the Plicker site, along with a list of the students in the class. The student list can be displayed by card number, first name, or last name. Teachers also have the option of displaying the answers next to the student name. Once all have answered you can display a graph of the answer choices, with or without the correct answer displayed.

   

The reports from Plicker do not compile all the results into one score, just by question. However, it makes a super tool to use for quick checks and exit tickets. Yes, you need a device on which to use the app - but there are Apple and Android versions. The version used to test Plicker was an Android. Since there is an Apple app, it is possible that an iPad could be used rather than an iPhone. Plicker cards are probably best used on card stock. The site does say if you laminate the cards to use a matte laminator so the glare does not interfere with your scan. 

Collaboration With Google Drive: Part Three

This is the third and final installment in a series of postings drawn from a conference session entitled Collaboration with Google Drive,  by Andrea Jones of Franklin Middle School in Fairfax County. In this post we will move on to the use of templates and contact lists in conjunction with Google Drive

Templates

At some ACPS schools, there is a lesson plan template created in Google Docs.  The lesson plan template serves to illustrate how a teacher might create a “handout” assignment in Google Docs and share it with the class, granting students only the right to “view” the documents.  Students could then “make a copy” which they can edit (fill in the answers) and place that copy in their folder which is shared with the teacher. Again, this process should sound very familiar to those teachers who are filling in Google Docs lesson plan templates. If you are not doing your lesson plans in this manner, it might sound very confusing, but, it isn't really--just try it step by step and see how it works. If you run into difficulties, don't hesitate to contact your friendly, local ITRT or to ask one of the teachers I suggested in last week's post.

Contact Lists

In order to facilitate the sharing of documents, it is handy to have student groups within your contact lists. That is, you can create a group with all your students from a particular class. Then, rather than having to share a file with each individual student's Email address, you can just type something like "second block" and share it with all  twenty-some odd students in second block. (I've had classes where quite a number of the students were odd).

Andrea suggested that the first time you have your class use Google Drive you may want them to fill out a form in which they enter their account address--which would enter them in a column on a spreadsheet. This, in turn, would allow you quickly and easily create a group of contacts by copying and paste-ing the column of addresses as you create a contact group.  There are other ways as well, of creating groups of contacts and it sure makes things a lot easier to share a document with a class full of students. If you’d like help with creating groups in your contacts, let your ITRT know.

illustrations of how to switch to contacts, where to find forms, the spreadsheet--might be included. 

Assorted Notes

Andrea pointed out the different types of files that can be created and shared--documents, spreadsheets, forms (quizzes, surveys), presentations, and drawings.  She mentioned that some tools are only visible when an item on the page is selected--so students shouldn't panic if it at first appears that they can’t do something.  She suggested that “Chrome” is the best browser to use in conjunction with Google Drive.

Next week we'll move on to another topic, see you then.

Collaboration With Google Drive: Part Two

A Happy New Year to you all.
Continuing on with what I learned from a session entitled Collaboration with Google Drive,  by Andrea Jones of Franklin Middle School in Fairfax County. Let's get to the mechanics of Google Drive.

File Management  

First, one can very quickly accumulate an unwieldy number of files in one's drive.  Therefore, organization is critical.  Put some forethought into naming conventions.  That is to say, think about if you want students to turn in work with titles based on assignment number, subject, student name, date, class period, etc.  Next, realize that it is crucial to organize files into folders.  Every folder is going to be “owned” by someone--in this discussion, either the teacher or a student.  The owner houses the  folder on their “My Drive”.  A folder can then be shared with others who might be granted various levels of permission.  Any document placed in that folder by default “inherits” the permissions assigned to that folder.  If a teacher creates a folder and shares it with students, those students might be given the rights to edit or view documents in the folder.    

My false starts experiences suggest that I should have listened to Melissa in the first place and had teachers set up their own folders for lesson plans.  Applying this to the classroom, you might want to have students set up their own folders--so that they own them, and then have the students share the folders with you.  If you do that, you’d have one folder per student in your “shared with me” or "incoming" drive.  I’d suggest you group these as sub-folders by block (or by subject if you are an elementary teacher) and copy them to "my drive" (thanks Ms. Walker for that suggestion.) Students might want several folders--where they keep documents (files or assignments) which they are not ready to “hand in.”   Andrea pointed out that if the student “owns” the folder, the teacher can delete it at the end of the year and the student can keep it to accumulate a portfolio of work done over a number of school years.

File Types

Andrea pointed out the different types of files that can be created and shared--documents, spreadsheets, forms, presentations, and drawings.  She mentioned that some tools are only visible when an item on the page is selected--so students shouldn't panic if it at first appears that they can’t do something.  She suggested that “Chrome” is the best browser to use in conjunction with Google Drive.

Monitoring Tools

Andrea then spent quite a bit of time on the use of “revision history,” “comments,” and “notifications” which can be used as monitoring tools to allow the teacher to evaluate how much was contributed by individual group members.  To go into specifics here would make this entry far too long, but Melissa presented an overview in her post on May 7th (The Ultimate Workflow) and I’d be happy to work with anyone who might want to use these features but feels the need for some support in doing so. Needless to say, once the students realize that the teacher is monitoring who is doing what, the problem of one student doing all the work is greatly alleviated.

Management Tools

Before I conclude, let me mention a few management tools that might be helpful and may also become subjects of future blog posts.  Doctopus is an “add-on” available for Google Sheets (their spreadsheet program) that is designed to manage student group projects.  Doctopus is described as “An octopus for docs!  Teacher-built tool for scaffolding, managing, organizing, and assessing student projects in Google Drive.”  A second "add-on" is Gclassfolders  which “will automatically create and share student folders for a  teacher.”

Finally, since attending the conference, Google has come out with classroom.google.com a classroom management site offering some of the same features as Edmodo.  

Well, this posts seems very lengthy, if you’ve made it this far, thanks for sticking with it, I know that, as time passes, more and more of you will be using Google Drive with your students and I hope that this review will both encourage you to do so, and give you some insight into how to best manage that process. Some experienced teachers who would be good resources on the would be Amanda Mitchel, Amanda Hruska, and Kathy Evans (NHS), Melanie Walker (AHS) and Judy Fieth (CHS).
Next week we'll move on to the use of templates and contact lists in Google Drive.