Texting+in+the+Classroom

Karen Kelly

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Texting is a great way for teachers to collect pieces of formative assessment. Let’s take a look at a free service (for 40 or less participants) such as polleverywhere.com where teachers can pose a question to their classes and allow their students to text in responses. Questions can be open-ended or multiple choice. Many of the teachers I work with want expensive clicker-type student response systems for their classrooms that cost well over a thousand dollars upwards of $4,000 depending on options selected. Polleverywhere uses the web and makes this type of technology much more affordable for schools. Students simply use their cell phones instead of a clicker to submit their responses. Polleverywhere can also be used for participants to pose questions to the group or instructor. The site has some pretty neat features for educators—they will track student responses for you and will even collect data to be used for grading and/or attendance. Collecting real-time formative assessment is one of the best features or the site. Wylie and Ciafolo (2006) showed that teachers could use data collected from formative assessment as a baseline to determine the focus of the days’ lesson or to check for student understanding. Teachers could sort students into groups using the data and by doing so could give students the opportunity to discuss their responses and in doing so force students to go further in their thinking/reflection about their responses. **Pros**: Free, easy to use, less expensive than other student-response systems, variety of question types (open-ended, multiple choice) **Cons**: Students could try to abuse the anonymous nature and post irrelevant comments/questions if given an open-ended prompt



Wiffiti screens are popular in large public venues such as sports bars, conventions and concerts. Innovative educators have figured out that Wiffiti screens can be an engaging tool for students as well. Wiffiti screens are basically web pages where participants can comment via text messaging or the web. Responses can be viewed in real time as they are submitted. Teachers can pose a question or topic and students can text in their responses to the code that corresponds with their class screen. Wiffiti boards can be embedded into a teacher’s website or blog for easy access. One of the greatest benefits I found when using Wiffiti for the first time with my students was that students who didn’t participate very actively in class discussions participated very actively when they did not have to actually talk out loud in front of the class. For example, one of my students has Tourette’s Syndrome as well as an issue with stuttering and she does not like speaking out in class unless she has practiced and prepared for it. Her prohibits her from participating in many of the day-to-day discussions in class. When I used the Wiffiti board for the first time, her comments coming and it occurred to me how much she and her class could benefit with the Wiffiti screen to help facilitate her communication. She was an asset to her peers with her contributions and I am sure she would not have contributed as freely and as frequently had it not been for the ability to type in her responses to the class.

Wiffiti is currently making changes to their website (as of 2/2012) so users can expect to see some changes in the near future. According to the company's website, users can expect to see improved moderation of content and improved filters which is great news for educators!

**Pros**: Free, easy to use, less expensive than other student-response systems, screens can be personalized **Cons**: Students could try to abuse the anonymous nature and post irrelevant comments/questions

Preparing your Classroom for Cell Phone
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