A Classroom Response System for Pre-K

I read a lot of blogs and articles about technology and education.  Unfortunately, the majority of these sites focus on integrating technology in upper grade levels.  There are very few sites that provide information about integrating technology in the lower grades, especially Kindergarten or pre-K.

Ironically, in my experience, the teachers who are most excited about technology and most willing to experiment with it are elementary teachers.  Typically, middle and high school teachers are reluctant to give up control or allow a student-centered classroom that works best with technology.  Elementary teachers are much more adaptable.

So, for today's post, I am focusing on a classroom response system that can work all the way down to the pre-K level.

InfuseLearning

Since discovering InfuseLearning 2 years ago, I have become a huge fan of the platform.  InfuseLearning is a web-based response platform that works on any modern web-connected device (Android, iOS, Mac, Windows, desktop, laptop, Chromebook, etc.)  The platform is very simple.

Teacher View

Once you sign up, you log into the teacher side of the platform.  Students navigate to www.infuselearning.com and click the student login.  They will enter the room number found in the upper left of your screen.  Once students have entered, they will be presented with a blank screen.

When you are ready, you can choose a quick assessment from the left-hand side and the student will be given answer options on his screen to answer your oral question.  You also have the choice to set up quizzes ahead of time that you can send to students.  

The platform offers much more, but I am going to focus on using it for pre-K.

Pre-K Classroom

For pre-K uses, we are going to focus on the quick assessment "Draw Response"  The Draw Response allows students to draw answers to any question that the teacher asks.  For this use, it is best to have a tablet (such as an iPad) for each student.

1.  Before class begins, log into the teacher InfuseLearning account.

2.  Take all of the tablets being used for the lesson and use the browser to navigate to www.infuselearning.com  

3.  Log the tablet into the room number from the teacher account and enter the student's name.  The screen will appear as shown.

4.  Explain that students will be using the tablet to draw a response for you.  Make sure to demonstrate how to draw on the tablet.

5.  Give out the tablets to the students.

6.  Ask students a question or give them a task (e.g. draw a square, or what does a square look like).  As the teacher, you will see the student names with green circles on your screen.  When the green circle grays out, the student has finished the question

7.  Show them how to submit when they are finished.  The submit button is the downward facing arrow at the bottom of the toolbar.

8.  Using a projector show the student responses so that they can see each other's work.  You can also save the results.  The results will download as a pdf.

Think of all the ways that students can respond since they are able to draw their responses!  Writing ability is no longer a limiting factor.  They can practice drawing letters, shapes, using colors, counting, etc.