Poll anywhere with Poll Everywhere
We've all seen the cool "clickers" at conferences (really known as Classroom Responders). I had a set of these in my classroom last year. They were awesome! Kids loved them, and were excited about answering questions on them. But there is always a catch. In this case: $$$$$$$$$$. Normal classroom responders run at least $2,000 a pop, so getting one in every teacher's hands is not realistic for most schools.
If only there were a way to leverage something students are bringing to class with them anyway as a "poor 1man's classroom responder. What do all of our students bring to class? Pencils...no. Paper...no. Backpacks...no. Textbooks, definitely no. Hmmm....... CELL PHONES. Every student has a cell phone in their pocket, despite the best efforts of education policy makers. Poll Everywhere (http://www.polleverywhere.com) meets this need perfectly. It allows you to put up a multiple choice (or free response) question, and have students TEXT in their answers. Let's try it (don't worry - it's anonymous). Since WordPress is being annoying and not letting me embed the poll directly, click to go to the poll and vote.
When you text your answer, they are automatically displayed in real time. Of course, Poll Everywhere also lets you vote via Smartphone, web page (for computer users), and Twitter. Obviously, there are a few caveats. You are going to have to monitor your classes twenty times more closely than normal to make sure students are on task. This isn't for the "crazy class". Your school or district may have policies in place preventing this. Don't get in trouble.
