To use these apps you firstly need to sign up (it's free) to Spiral and then you need to create a class and add your students. Then, when you have your students added and they are logged in, each time you launch one of these apps in your lesson they will be notified that the lesson has started and they participate via their device or computer.
There are four main parts to Quickfire.
1) The teacher asks a question - this can be displayed on the whiteboard or read aloud by the teacher. The teacher can set a timer to allow a certain amount of time to answer or leave that open.
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4) Results are graphed on a pie graph and can be shown to the class.
I can see this being used not only for whole class activities, but also for small group work. It provides a great way of hearing/seeing everyone's answers quickly without having to actually listen to each student one by one - so it gives every student a voice and an opportunity to provide an answer. It would make a fun pre assessment activity or NAPLAN style review. The teacher could read a passage and ask a question and each student could give their answer - have it quickly marked by the teacher, and the teacher can use those answers as a talking point to generate discussions about a topic.
I really like this app and I can see that I would be able to use this in my EAL/D teaching. When I do, I will share with you the way in which I use it and hopefully come up with sample lessons to show you.