App Reviews

ISTE Standard-Facilitator

Educators facilitate learning with technology to support student achievement of the ISTE Standards for Students. Educators

6a Foster a culture where students take ownership of their learning goals and outcomes in both independent and group settings.

1. Socrative

Socrative is an app that can be either student paced or teacher paced. It has a good variety of questions that it allows the teacher to tweak as needed. This app gives that teacher immediate feedback as soon as the students answer a question. You also have the ability to create your own polls or quizzes with Socrative. Teachers can allow students to work alone or with partners/teams. This app is one that teachers must stay on top of to gauge a students progress. Socrative is compatible with all web or app enabled devices. The review for Socrative were mixed and it was given an overall 4.5 Stars by EdSurge which I felt was credible because they do not limit their reviews to a specific group, anyone who uses the app is able to write a review and EdSurge’s goal is to focus on trustworthy and accurate content. Socrative is an app that can be used by ages K-Higher Ed/Corporate. The cost for Socrative varies. There is a free version that allows you 50 students/session and 1 public room, a Pro for K-12 version for $59.99/year that offers 50 students/session, but allows you up to 10 private/public rooms and then a Pro for Higher Ed/Corporate version for $99.99 that offers 150 students/session and up to 10 private/public rooms.

2. Kahoot!

Kahoot! is an app the for the most part is teacher paced. Kahoot! has an abundance of pre-built quizzes that can be used as they are, or you can tweak them. You are also able to produce your own Kahoot! if needed. Kahoot! is mostly used as a type of game app in the classroom, with questions projected onto a screen and then students answer on their devices. Teachers using Kahoot! can allow students to work alone or together when playing the Kahoot!. This app does give feedback to the teacher but it can sometimes be difficult to make sense of the feedback. Kahoot! is compatible with any web or app enabled device. The reviews for Kahoot! were mixed, but were mostly 3 Stars and above. Kahoot! was rated 4 Stars overall by CommonSense.org. I felt CommonSense.org was credible because they also do not limit their review responses. They allow anyone to post a review that has used the app. I also felt that with them being a non-profit focused on education and being advocates for safe technology and media was important as well. I have also seen them referred to many times before when talking about technology in schools. Kahoot! is an app that I feel is best suited for middle-high school, but could also be used in certain situations in an elementary setting. There is no cost to use Kahoot! in the classroom. There are some options that are available for purchase, but those are for settings outside of the classroom.

3. KhanAcademy

Khan Academy is an app that is mostly student paced. Khan Academy offers a variety of different course options as well as test preparation for students to work on. Teachers and parents can keep up with their student(s) progress to see if the student(s) is struggling or is moving ahead of a set pace. Khan Academy is compatible with any web or app based device. Khan Academy had mixed reviews from students, parents and teachers, but was rated 4.6 Stars overall by g2crowd.com. Looking at the reviews I felt that g2crowd.com could be considered credible because they also do not limit their responses to a particular group of people. Khan Academy is probably best suited for middle-high school, but they also have a few options that could be used in the elementary setting. Khan Academy does not have any cost associated with it in regard to its use in schools.

When looking at these three apps the one that I feel that Khan Academy is probably the best. Just looking at all the different course options that this app offers and the ability to get the feedback that is needed is very important in today’s schools. Almost every student of every learning level can find courses that will help them on Khan Academy. We have used Khan Academy at my school and have seen some of our students grow and bring their grades up based on what they were able to learn.