You gotta get Geddit

So I came across Geddit through Twitter the other day and I'm glad I did. Everyone is looking for reliable apps that gathers student feedback during class. It's easy to see the benefit of anonymous comprehension check-ins. Geddit will do that for you. Easily. And free. 

Visit Geddit to get started. The first thing you'll do is create a teacher account. Enter your school email and set up a password (one you won't forget, or write it down). Now you can begin to create your classes. Students will need to have their own Geddit accounts. If you work with students over 13, they can create their own accounts. If you work with younger students, or just want to manage your student accounts to avoid headaches, you can create student accounts for them. Elementary teachers can simply hand enter student usernames. Or if you have a large number of students, you can upload a class list. Students who create their own accounts can easily join your class with an enrollment code that Geddit generates for you. 

Once you have your students enrolled, start creating your lessons. Each lesson can include "topics" and "questions". Topics are general areas that you'll move through during the lesson. It's a nice idea to use topics because students will be able to check-in during the topics to assess their understanding. So a student can be identified as having trouble in one topic, but be fully up to speed with another. As you move through the topics in each lesson, the topic name is displayed on the students' devices. Teachers can also create specific questions ahead of time to ask during the lesson. Just pop them on the student devices at the appropriate time. Or if your lesson is going in an unforeseen direction, you can add questions on the fly. 

Lesson view with topic and prepared questions

Student check-in with free comments

Here's what students see on their devices. They'll be able to see the topic that you are currently discussing. At any time, they can check in with their level of understanding. A nice feature of Geddit is that students can check in multiple times. So at the beginning of the topic, the student may not get it. But once you do some more work, he or she could check-in again to say they are all caught up. And they can add comments or questions with each check in. Again, all anonymous. 

As you are teaching, you'll see an updated, color-coded view of the class check-ins. That gives you the ability to decide in the moment whether you need to spend more time on a topic or move on to something else. At the end of the lesson, teachers can see a detailed report of the check-ins and answers to the questions. It even shows you a list of students who you might want to touch base with. I tested it by changing my check-in from "unsure" to "I get it". Even though I changed my comfort level, I was still marked as someone to follow up with. Nice feature. 

Lesson summary with responses and "challenged students"

Lessons can be copied and run again in the same class or moved to other classes. Another cool feature is that you can email your lessons to colleagues. It will automatically remove all student information and data when it's sent. Pretty slick.

Sharing your lesson with another teacher

Now, that description is just enough to get you going. There's a lot more the app can do. But at the simplest level, it's a super easy way to guide your way through lessons more efficiently. Who doesn't like instantaneous feedback? 

Finally, Geddit support is great. There are a number of video tutorials and printable posters to use in your room for getting students started. Team Geddit is quick to respond to requests as is Justin Mann, the app's developer. That's always a plus. Give Geddit a shot and let me know how it works for you.