Poll Everywhere

As a Teacher Librarian and Technology Coordinator, I often have teachers ask about clickers or class responders--"Will you buy us some? How much do they cost?" That type of thing.

My response is: "You already have everything you need." With Poll Everywhere, teachers can use the students' cell phones as the clicking device for a web-based poll they can create/prepare ahead of time. Poll Everywhere even gives you an option to download the poll as a PowerPoint slide to add to a presentation. As the students send a text message to a number to vote, the poll shows real-time responses. For those students who are trying to vote more than once, they receive a message saying they've already voted.

I used this with a class of seniors in government. The minute the poll started moving in response to their votes I had the class's complete attention and a much more heated discussion about the role of government in people's lives and whether or note teachers should let students have their cell phones out.