Cool new tool for distance learning: polling via Twitter or web
As I was reading Mashable, the blog that identifies anything and everything connected to social media, I came across a cool polling tool that has some huge applications for either distance learning or even conference-style presentations and meetings. The tool is called Polls Everywhere and it makes it easy for you to set up polls that respondents can reply to via Twitter, texting, or the web. So…you can ask a question in an audience of several hundred people, folks can text a response, and then see an immediate (2 to 5 seconds) update of the results. Here’s the video demo:
Anyone who has taught a distance learning class or session knows that audience participation is key to the success of the session. Polling offers a great way to engage people – during the live session or in between live sessions. This tool makes it easy to generate these polls and provide immediate feedback to respondents.
I wanted to try this out so I signed up for a free account with Polls Everywhere so I could test it out. You can only have 30 respondents on the “free” account; after that, you have to pay a monthly fee to get more responses. You’ll have to decide if this monthly plan is worth it for you.
If you’d like to take a poll to try this out, here’s the question I came up with:
What kind of blog reader are you?
You can respond in three ways:
1) Text a response to 99503 and enter one of these response codes:
- Daily reader (CODE: 34508)
- Weekly reader (CODE: 34509)
- Only read them when I am researching a specific topic (CODE: 34501)
- Occasional reader (checking in 1x or 2x month to see what’s new (CODE: 31739)
2) Use Twitter, and tweet a response to tweet@poll, along with one of the above codes.
3) Use the web. Click the web link and select the response you want.
http://www.polleverywhere.com/multiple_choice_polls/LTE5ODU0ODM0Ng/web
Happy voting. I’ll post a graphic with the updated results as we go. PollEverywhere allows you to download a PPT slide that you can insert into your presentations on the fly as results come in.
If this turns out to be a dud tool…I’ll let you know that too!
Results Thus Far