Plickers: Game + Assesment

I try to include technology in my lessons as I know that students nowadays are really motivated by that. So, today I'm going to talk about one of my experiences using "Plickers".


Designing

Plickers is a software online in which you can make questions with two to four possible answers. To do this, enter here: https://www.plickers.com/.

Playing
After designing your questions, it's time to play. Students need to see the questions so I recommend using a projector, or in smaller groups you can use a laptop. 


Students see the questions, see the answers and can choose between "A" "B" "C" or "D". The way in which they choose is the fun part: they have cards with an unique code. You can print this in the official "Plickers" website. Students have to show the teacher this card; if they choose "B" the "B" should be on top.


Scanning

With that weird code, how is the teacher supposed to know what the answer is from far away? Well the idea of that code is to be scanned. The teacher has to download "Plickers" on the phone and there you can scan students' answers.


Scanning the students does not take long, because you can scan up to 3 or 4 students at the same time. My advise: it is easier to scan from far away than from really close. It's great!

Assesment

After scanning, the answers are shown, you and your students can see a percentage of right and wrong answers. If you want, you can show who answered what so they can check their answers.



After dealing with as many questions as you want, you can see the results of each student on your phone, so you know more or less if the group knew the answers. I do not recommend this tool for evaluation because, as it is a game, some students can "cheat" by asking classmates, or just guess the answer if they do not know. This is for fun! And it gives us a general idea of the understanding of the topic.


What I like the most about this tool is that it can work well on kids, teenager or adults. Everyone loves Plickers! I hope you can include this game in your lessons because it is a good turn to everyday's lessons.

When I was writing this post I came across a very detailed post about Plickers written by a Primary Teacher. Check it!
http://theprimarypack.blogspot.com.ar/2014/11/plickers-formative-assessment-data-in.html

I'd like to thank Gimena who helped me with the making of the game when I used Plickers for the first time. 


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