Another Way to Engage Students with Technology

Most teachers assess their teaching and their students' learning several times during class as well as at the end of the class.  Exit tickets or exit slips are used at the end of the class.  Back in the day I personally used index cards with a math problem from the day's topic as my exit ticket to assess my teaching and their learning.  

But digital exit tickets are much more engaging for all involved now.  Several ways exist right now - with more and more apps being added almost daily - to allow students to use technology to assess their learning.  One way that teachers can use digital exit tickets is to have students send a tweet that provides a summary of what they learned or provide a specific answer to a question.  High school students love Twitter and so do a lot of teachers - so this is a quick way to implement technology while assessing teaching and learning.

Instagram can also be utilized to capture the "look" of learning.  Instagram would be especially useful during class activities and then could be posted to a class blog.

Edmodo is another way that teachers can use digital exit tickets.  Most school systems encourage using Edmodo and this would engage everyone.

Vine videos can also be a fabulous way to sum up a lesson with just 6 seconds' worth of action.  YouTube videos also can create the digital exit ticket.

The point of today's post is to start developing a variety of ways to engage students and to assess teaching and learning using technology.  Many years ago when I was an Instructional Coach in the District of Columbia Public Schools, a math supervisor suggested that iPods would soon be used in classrooms and would engage students and create a climate conducive to learning.  I loved the idea then - and all these years later, definitely have seen the evidence.