Using PollEverywhere.com

Many of us who are in higher education have seen the use of ‘clickers’.  Some of the available commercial products include:

1. H-ITT:  http://www.h-itt.com/index.html
2. Know: http://www.renlearn.com/lp/2Know/default.asp?c=15939
3. Clickers for Training: http://store.clickertraining.com/newiclick.html?=google&gclid=CMedoZGk8p8CFQsMDQodsCWwYA

These clickers are part of a system in which you can get the group (class) involved in the lecture.  By possessing these clickers, and having special software on your computer, you can ask  a series of questions and have the students respond.  For example, if you wanted to get an idea on a topic (i.e., alcohol), you could ask a question like:

What is the official classification of alcohol?

1. Stimulant
2. Hallucinogen
3. Depressant
4. Narcotic

You then direct your students to press buttons corresponding to the options (a,b,c,d).  Within a few seconds you can see the results of ‘voting’.

They can be used to garner group participation in a number of issues.  The fact that health education often deals with sensitive issues can also support the idea to gather group opinions privately.

The drawback is that such a set up can be costly and cumbersome to operate.

Let me share with you a more recent web-based program that can do the same thing, but instead of requiring clickers, one can just use their cell phone.

Plethora of Cell Phones

First, it’s no secret that cell phones are everywhere.  Almost everybody has one.   Most adults and high school students possess cell phones, and it’s becoming more frequent for younger children to have one.  Despite personal opinions on whether such groups should have cell phones, the fact is that almost all have that cells phones and all cells phones have the capability of texting.

Polleverywhere.com is a web-based program that is free (with certain restrictions).  One can register and start creating ‘polls’.  These polls can be answered with one’s cell phone via texting.  Of course, if the person pays for sending texting this will cost them a few pennies.  However, most people have some amount of free texting on their phones, and many have unlimited texting.

You can poll people through a variety of ways:  1)  on-line (pull the poll up on-line);  2)  through a Power Point slide.  With the power point slide you do not need to be logged into the Polleverywhere.com site.  You will, however, need to have that Power Point program running in a system that has internet access.

Let me walk through the following…I’ll include a few snapshots of the strategies.  In addition, I will include a PPT presentation (with just one question) that you can actually respond to.  If you activate this Power Point slide show and vote, you’ll see your vote become tabulated to the results.

First, go to Polleverywhere.com and register.  Image 1 shows the web page. Note at the upper right you can ‘login’ or ‘register.’

Image 2 shows the page after you’ve logged in.  You’ll see a list of all of my polls.  Click ‘Create New Poll’ and you’ll get the page shown in Image 3.  There are three options…most often I use the ‘Multiple Choice’ poll.  Move your mouse over it and click.

Image 4 shows the skeleton framework of the multiple choice poll.  Image 5 shows the new poll I’m creating.  Note that by default there are three options…note that there is the button to add a response.  So my poll will have 5 options.   Click to save.

Image 6 is the screen after you’ve saved.  Note the number 99503…that is a code specific to my account.  That is the ‘address/number’ you will text your response.  Each of the five options will have a 5 digit code.  So, if you what you like most of the HEDIR is ‘Ease of Use’, you would text the number 11497 to my special 5 digit code (99503).

Also note on the right that you can identify ways for the people to respond.  By default I have it via ‘Text Messaging’.  However, you can also have people vote on-line, via their Smartphone (web) or through Twitter.

I like to download this poll into a Power Point slide.  On the right slide you click whether you want 2007 or 2003 PPT.  When you click it, you’ll have an opportunity to open/save the Power Point presentation with the poll embedded Image 7).

The Power Point presentation will actually consist of 6 slides, with the first five showing how to ‘vote’.  Image 8 and 9 show all of the slides (in the slide preview).  Slide 6 is the actual survey that you can’t see until you put it into a slide show (Image 10).

Ok, once you are ready to talk to your class (or whatever group), open up the Power Point and put into the slide show format.  It’ll take a second to load the Flashwave plug-in.  So click the PPT here and it’ll open up into a slide show on your computer.  Text your answer and you should see the results.  To see the results one must be connected to the internet (but chances are you are already on the internet reading this blog).

Potential Use:

I’ve alluded to a few ideas earlier.  Just to highlight, here are a few options I see:

In classrooms you could use this to get the class involved in the discussion:

Which of the following items are important for you to be able to do as a health educator?
i.     Plan Programs
ii.     Conduct Needs Assessment
iii.     Effectively Teach Materials
iv.     Use technology effectively
v.     Other

In an office (i.e., physician, health department) you could pose questions:

Which is the best way to prevent the flu?
i.     Get flu shot
ii.     Wash hands
iii.     Cover your mouth/nose when sneezing
iv.     Eat right/Exercise Regularly

At a professional meeting one could ask participants to identify an area of interest.

What has been your favorite activity at this professional conference?
i.     Meetings
ii.     Socials
iii.     Seeing old friends
iv.     Presentations

As of now, Pollsverywhere.com is free for educators.  Polls are restricted to approximately 30 responses.  For those who do not qualify, there is a series of prices that one can pay.  It’s an exciting program that with one’s imagination can be used for a variety of activities.