Socrative for Mobile Polling Just Got Better!

On of my favorite free resources for mobile polling, surveys and brainstorming is Socrative.  Socrative can work on any mobile device with Internet access.  Socrative just got better!  Socrative added two new features that allow for more choice in instruction as well as representation in presentation.  You can now add images to quizzes as well as grade short answer surveys!

So how do I use Socrative in my classroom?  Below are a few ways that I have used it with my preservice teachers in our university courses.  
1)  Entrance Tickets
As soon as the students enter the classroom they log into Socrative (via their laptop, cell phone or iPod/iPad) and answer the getting started question.  This helps to focus the students as well as give me some data to work from for the class period.

2)  Collaborative Group Work Feedback
When I have 5 or 6 groups of students working on a project, I often use Socrative to gather feedback and to assess thinking and progress.  Sometimes I create a "quiz" in Socrative beforehand that I ask them to use as a guide as they are doing their group work.  As they progress through the quiz, I can see (in realtime) on Socrative where they are at in their group work as well as their "thinking" around different topics.  I often project the results in real time so all groups can benefit from the efforts of each group.

3)  Attendance
This is a very simple application of Socrative, but useful.  I ask the students to log into the Socrative room and post their name so that they get their attendance credit (since Socrative logs the time in, I can see who was tardy or on time).


4)  Quick Checks
Since Socrative does not require your to "create" a multiple choice question before using the tool (instead you just select Multiple Choice and it just gives answers of A, B, C, D, E), you can ask multiple choice or free response questions spontaneously in class when you feel as though you need to get a better understanding of what the students are learning or missing.  Then I can modify my teaching "in the moment" to better meet my students needs.   I tend to get a lot of responses this way (as opposed to asking them to share aloud) because it is anonymous.


5)  For Absent Students
When students are absent, they can download the PowerPoint Lecture, but they miss the collaboration that occurred in class.  When I use Socrative for group work and brainstorming in class, the absent students can benefit from the exported spreadsheets to see the thoughts communicated in class.

How do you use Socrative?