When I first became interested in technology, it wasbecause of the opportunities it gave my learnersoutside class. Technology meant I could offer a fargreater range of activities for the students to do. It might beblogging, listening to a podcast, watching a video, doing aninteractive game or perhaps even completing a mind map alongwith other students, but my focus was generally on what couldbe achieved outside the lesson. Inside the classroom, theimmediate face-to-face interaction that can take place betweenthe students themselves or the teacher and the students means Ifind less reason to make use of technology. There is anabundance of photocopiable material, games and activitiesavailable in books, and sometimes I even find that technologycan be intrusive.
There are, however, exceptions. I do like to use technology tocollect my students’ ideas together when brainstorming anddiscussing ideas in class, and, of course, like many teachers, Imake use of video. Another technology that I think can work wellin class is Socrative. I was reminded of how useful this is whilewatching Tilly Harrison’s presentation at IATEFL 2016 inBirmingham.
Socrative and the classroom
Socrative allows you to quickly make quizzes and polls that youcan use to check understanding during a lesson or lecture. Thekey feature that makes Socrative so useful is that once you havecreated a quiz, you just share the code with the students. Theycan use their mobile phones, computers or tablets to simply goto Socrative.com, key in the code, write in their names and thenstart the quiz. They don’t need to log in or sign up (somethingwhich often wastes class time).
There are a range of quiz types, and setting up a quiz onlytakes a few minutes. I generally set my quizzes up before thelesson, but it is so easy to use that you could almost do it on thefly. Once a quiz is created, it can be used time and time again.Quizzes can also include small images, though I have nevermade use of that feature. There are also a few options to makethe quizzes more game-like. So, for example, they can be set upin such a way that the students are in a race to complete the quizwith as many correct answers as possible. You can project yourstudents’ progress onto the screen so the whole class can seewho is winning the race.
Socrative can also work in various modes. For example, youmight get the students to watch a video and then work in groupsto complete a quiz on it. Each group works through the quiz at itsown pace and receives immediate feedback. In ‘lock-step’ mode,the students answer a question and then wait for feedbackbefore moving on. I tend to do my quizzes in the group mode,and then we look collaboratively at the scores at the end. Youcan show the scores on the screen if you want, and then gothrough any of the questions that the students had problems with. This can give you some useful feedback about what yourstudents have understood and where there are still gaps in theirknowledge.
Socrative can be particularly useful in large classes. Theteacher may explain something, tell a story or play a listening,and then get the students to work in groups and complete a quizrelated to the material. It immediately changes the dynamic of theclass.
A good tip is not to make your quiz too short. Asking thestudents to get out their devices just to answer one or twoquestions is really not worth it. I tend to ask at least seven oreight questions to make it worthwhile.
What has most impressed me is how quickly and easily thestudents can access the quizzes. It is also useful to see theirscores and track their progress. Socrative could easily be used toget feedback from the students at the end of a lesson and, infact, there is a special button called ‘Exit ticket’ which generatesthree quick questions that help you to understand the students’‘take out’, ie what they have picked up from the lesson. I think itis more interesting to generate your own questions, however.Remember, you don’t have to use Socrative in class; it could justas easily be used at home.
For me, Socrative ticks a lot of boxes. I have been doing a fewtrials with the tool in some experimental classes, mainly onteacher training courses, and it has worked well.
It is free, easy to use and does not require any log-in for thestudents. The interface is very clear, too, so the students caneasily work together and see the questions on the screen,especially with a computer, laptop or tablet. I really hope thesoftware developers don’t start adding in additional tools andfeatures and making the technology more complicated.
To use Socrative, you will need an account and, of course,your students will need access to some sort of device with a wi-ficonnection. Not all the students need to be online, however: youonly need one student in each group to be able to access the quiz.
Help videos
I have put a set of help videos on my website to show youhow to get started with Socrative.Take a look here.
Russell Stannard is the founder ofwww.teachertrainingvideos.com,which won a British CouncilELTons award for technology. Heis a freelance teacher and writerand also a NILE Associate Trainer.
Keep sending your favourite sites to Russell:russellstannard@btinternet.com