How to get instant feedback from your students

Occasionally you come across a tool that gets you excited, gets you flowing with ideas and this next one certainly fits the criteria

www.polleverywhere.com

Once signing up for a free account this website allows you to create online polls using a multiple choice format. Within a few minutes you will have created your first poll, ready for download via a PowerPoint slideshow document.

So how do you Vote?

1) Via a computer. When you have generated your poll you are given a website link that you can give to your students, who then simply click on their choice on the poll.

2) Via SMS. This one is super exciting, once your poll has been generated it gives you a number and a keyword for each of the choices on your poll, all you do is SMS the keyword of your choice to the phone number on the top of the slideshow

Now i have used this a few times in classroom and the most engaging aspect of the entire process happens after voting. Within real time the poll (which is being displayed on your projector) updates right before your eyes, displayed as a bar or column graph.

So why is this super exciting? Well it is really engaging, students in my classes have loved completing the polls regardless of what they are polling about. The second thing is the instant feedback that it provides, what a wonderful feature this is and certainly worth raving about as a teacher.