The Beauty of Plickers and the Power of Google

Plickers can help you Teach!

To those who are not familiar with Plickers yet, it is an amazing application that is inexpensive and free at the same time. You can upgrade your experience but rest assured, it is very cheap. It is actually an educational tool that enables teachers to conduct real-time formative assessments without being problematic if the students don’t have devices or gadgets. You can simply use it in the classroom when it comes to pre-assessments, exit tickets, and class surveys.

After the presentation of the discussant and the demonstration she did, I’ve tried using it and exploring it to see and appreciate its beauty. Using my laptop and my android phone and of course the downloaded Plicker cards, I’ve tried mimicking a classroom scenario. It was hard since I didn’t get real participation from students because it was just a practice but I’ve found out that those cards will be used by the students to have their responses. All they have to do is to rotate the card to give their answer and the instructor will just scan the card to acquire the instant results. As simple as that.

Numerous studies have confirmed the efficacy of heightening student opportunities to respond to growing academically engaged attitudes. When it comes to the reliability of Plickers as an educational tool, there are also existing studies that exposed its splendor. In 2019, David Bradley Kent indicated in his paper that Plickers is an ultimate tool that can be used to engross students of all ages in formative assessment. He further emphasized that it is unique because it can do the assessment by taking technology out of the learner's hands while at the same time, assessing all students at once. In 2017, Morgan G. McCargo conducted a study about the effects of Plickers as response cards on academic engagement behavior in high school students. He hypothesized that the use of it will augment academically engaged behavior class-wide and minimize disorderly behavior among students. Thus, based on these two pieces of literature, we can say that Plickers can help empower student engagement at school.

What I love about Plickers is that is it is so enjoyable and easy to use. It boosts student engagement because no one will be left behind and everybody will be given a chance to stand and deliver. Moreover, it can be done in real-time and it will surely ease your burden in terms of getting the data of your assessments because it can give you automatic feedback. Furthermore, I love the fact that it uses online games and lessons in which it can really help me up as a college instructor, especially that our school is only catering to online learning.

I can’t wait to utilize this tool in the upcoming academic year. I know it will be difficult to orient or train my students to effectively use it because it is very simple to use if we look at the procedures. It is also accessible because it can be used by students of all ages and they don’t need extra efforts or modifications just to participate or be interactive in the class. I am hoping that my plan to use it will be put into action. I will do my best to make my class more engaging and enthusiastic so that my students can appreciate online learning. With the aid of these available applications or tools and with our undying passion for education, we can successfully thrive, prosper, survive, and get out one piece and triumphant from this maze-like predicament!

Google Suite Can Save the Day!

What makes Google dominating and rising? Is it because it controls the cloud? Is it because it powers up everything? Or is it because it is the most superb educational tool nowadays?

Did you know that it is not called Google Apps now? Ladies and gentlemen, let’s pave the way for the Google Suite! It’s creating a revolution in cyberspace because of its massive capabilities and the huge opportunities it brings. One of its servants is Google Forms. This tool helps people to go beyond the office suite. If you’re a teacher, this tool can give you advantages of efficiently doing assessments, especially in this new normal learning environment where most educators find it hard to handle online education. Aside from that, it can also your means to communicate, get feedback, and collaborate with students and colleagues for it will provide you real-time and quick results. If you are a researcher, this is a big hit for you because you don’t need to meet with your respondents in the far-flung areas just to administer your survey questionnaires and experience various risks. Through Google Forms, we can save time, space, effort, and money. It’s your best buddy when you think that the pandemic hits you hard!

I really consider myself a big fan of Google Forms because it can let me do a lot of things. In my work as an educator, I can make use of it to conduct quizzes or exams and give assignments or homework. It can also help me organize webinars and in-house training and symposiums. In fact, libraries nowadays even use Google Forms to acquire feedback from the users aside from using library management systems. It helps me and my students successfully conquer their research despite the restrictions of the pandemic. It can be our remedy in every pandemic’s misery!

Moreover, I also want to emphasize the superiority of the Google Suite as a whole. It is not only free for educational institutions; it can also help them handle gracefully the new normal education because of its known accessibility and functionality. Google Suite awes me so much because of how it effectively facilitates easy interaction, collaboration, learning, and teaching without being problematic in terms of cost and technicality. From the productive or office suite up to the high-end online experiences, Google Suite can really promise you one thing—awesomeness!

As to the existing studies on the usability of Google Suite, most of the results denote the majesty of this online universe. In the paper of E. Romero and colleagues (2018), it was highlighted that Google Suite for Education and ‘Google Universe’ in general is a prevailing group of combined tools that is worth utilizing. It is a boundless option if educators and learners want to work in the most engaging way using collaborative and easy-to-handle tools for enhancing their learning approaches. Aside from this piece of literature, there are massive studies about the Google Suite as an effective tool for teaching and learning. These studies can attest to how exceptional it is.

Definitely, I will continue enjoying the benefits of Google Suite. Without it, I can’t really imagine how things will work accordingly in my life as an educator and a regular individual in the darkest hours of the pandemic. Without it, the world will surely meet its downfall. Yes. It’s not an exaggeration but I think that could happen, especially that there are many learning institutions that rely on its mercy and compassion. I know that there is so much to explore because Google has lots and lots of features. Possibly, it will require so much from us, but one thing is for sure, Google Suite can always save the day!

Photo Credits: https://edtechreview.in/trends-insights/insights/1755-real-time-formative-assessment-without-the-need-for-student-devices

https://www.adhesion.co.nz/other/gmail-for-business