Reflective Teaching: Day 2, New Technology in the Classroom

Reflective Teaching Challenge.  I was supposed to start on the challenge yesterday, but since I just got the challenge in my email today (well, I just read about it today) I am doing two blog posts to make up for starting a day late.

Day 2: Write about one piece of technology that you would like to try this year, and why. You might also write about what you’re hoping to see out of this edtech integration.

One piece of technology that I would like to try this year is Geddit.  I just heard about this from my principal.  It is a way to get feedback from my students about whether they "get it" (the "it" being whatever content we're going over in class).  It also would allow for quick understanding checks over a critical thinking kind of   Another plus is that I could use the results for grouping or comprehension checks or a gauge of learning either individually or overall.

I like it for several reasons.

First, I already do a verbal version of this kind of feedback with the good-old "Get it?/Got it./Good."  While the notion of the kids saying "Got it" to my "Get it" is good, I am sure that some of my students are just saying "Got it" out of habit, not because they actually did "get it."

Second, I need a better way to judge whether or not a student did "get it."  This tech would allow me to see at a glance whether or not the student understood the concept and/or felt confident in the material.

Third, I like the idea of letting the students become self-assessors to their understanding.  When the student does the metacognition required to decide how much s/he really does "get it," s/he is using critical thinking skills.

So... I think I'm going to look more into this edtech and see about integrating it into my lessons.