If you are not familiar with Faculty Focus I highly recommend it. It is full of great information and ideas for teaching. Today’s article by John Orlando, PhD is about Using Polling and Smartphones to Keep Students Engaged.
I was familiar with some of the polling software provided in the article, but many were new to me. I enjoyed reviewing the different recommendations. If you have considered using polling in your class but do not have access to iClickers (or other clicker technologies) or just want to try it out and see what you think of it, this may be a great option!
I am including a brief excerpt and the “Links” section from the article below.
While many instructors consider smartphones the bane of teaching—causing distraction and even cheating during a test—polling turns the technology into a teacher’s advantage by engaging students with the content.
Orlanda has also provided an informative screencast, demonstrating how easy it is to use polling software. Watch it here »
Links
- Poll Everywhere (http://www.polleverywhere.com)
Unlimited polls with up to 30 respondents on the free plan.
- Flisti (http://flisti.com)
Super easy polling system. No signup required.
- MicroPoll (http://www.micropoll.com)
Good for creating a poll to embed in a blog or some other website.
- Vorbeo (http://vorbeo.com)
Another system for creating a poll to embed in your website.
- BuzzDash (http://www.buzzdash.com)
Quite a few presentation formats.
- TextTheMob (http://textthemob.com)
Free plan allows for up to three questions with 50 responses.