Freebies… Final Episode (for now)

I have dedicated this post and the previous two blog posts to free products that might be useful in getting a educator started with mobile computing via text messaging (SMS). Textmarks.com and especially twitter are very popular because they are mobile and because they are social media in nature (real time micro-communi

cation). 

This post explores something a little different then there previous two SMS tools. Many educators have been using (or are thinking of using) clickers in their classroom. A clicker is an infrared or radio device that allows a student to vote a response to a question posed by the instructor. These devices come with software that will display results to a screen and in some cases capture responses to be used in assessment. The biggest plus is that these devices help practice active learning which is an excellent way of getting the student actively involved in the learning process for that content area.

The down side of clickers is that they do cost money and they have a tendency to get lost or broken in the classroom. Someone has to distribute and collect the devices before and after each class. They can get stolen and lost like socks in an electric dryer. There is a mobile alternative.

PollEverywhere.com provides support for clicker via a cell phone (with text message support), a smart phone (via a browser interface) and a PC (via a browser interface). The instructor can work from the polleverywhere.com web site to display questions and output or can build PowerPoint slides which can be connected to the polling process (real-time with hardly any delay). The student can use their cell phone as a clicker (if they can send text messages and yes, charges may apply if the student does not have an unlimted texting plan).   If in a classroom with computers, the student can use the web interface via a browser and participate in the same surveys as others using a smart phone or cell phone. 

The product may be used for free in a limited format and there are educational discounts available if you are interested in bringing the product into a class or school. The free version which can only collect responses from 30 respondents has most of the feature set available for testing and certainty enough for a test run in a class. They have an excellent FAQ and blog. The web site is easy to use and well organized.

When the student is presented a question, they respond by sending text message to the polleverywhere.com gateway and the number that corresponds to their selection.

 

Surveys can by multiple choice, text and goal based. There are some report tools available with the free edition and even more with the paid edition. You can also have PollEverywhere.com create html for the poll questions or poll results to it can be placed on a web site or embedded in a another web page or blog.  This embedded web page survey would be the approach taken if the student had access to a classroom PC connected to the Internet.

Polleverywhere.com is free to try and another great tool to get starting with mobile learning in the classroom.

Next up on the blog.... Using MLEX to create one web page that displays on a PC or mobile device.