Mobile Learning Lab: Poll Everywhere

Having One-to-One schools is a tough goal to achieve. They require the investment of a tremendous amount of money, especially for larger districts. There has been some research recently regarding the effectiveness of schools achieving one-to-one environments by issuing all students smart phones. The trick is that many of the features of the cellphone are disabled. Phone companies have actually begun to partner with schools in order to do this. One such example is Verizon Wireless. I think that using cell phones as a gap to computers is an interesting idea, but obviously there are some limitations as to what one can do using a cellphone. From my own experience with both tools, I can say with certainty that a laptop is much more powerful and has much larger capabilities. If one were to consider the fees associated with access to the phones I would think that the dollar figure per year would be similar to the full cost of a low grade laptop. At any rate, I think cellphones do have some functionability in the classroom.

In a district like the one I work in, most students have a cell phone with them at all times. I decided to use the website "Poll Everywhere" to test out using cellphones in the classroom. Prior to using cellphones in my classroom, I polled students asking:

• First I asked how many students had phones either pocket or back packs at that very moment; about 2/3's of my students raised their hands. 
• I then asked any student who had a cell phone but did not have it in class to raise their hands. Only one student out of thirty did not have their hand raised at this time. Meaning, only one student does not have a cellphone.

At this point, I asked that each student bring their phone in the next class session, and for the student that did not have a phone, or those who are not allowed to, I provided a computer. Instead of giving a traditional quiz, I created one using "Poll Everywhere." I have helped others use the site before, but had not used it in my own classroom, and thus did not have instructional experience with it. I shared information about the website on MACUL Space back in November. On MACUL space I inadvertently called the website "Poll Anywhere." That is not the name of the website, but Poll Everywhere does own the domain name as well, so if anyone attempts to use it they will be routed to the correct site regardless.

See my post in the image below.

I ran into a problem the week I was going to use Poll Everywhere in my classroom...I use to have a projector in the room I teach my 8th grade US History course is in, but another teacher removed it from the room and hijacked it for their own use. Poll Everywhere displays the poll of quiz questions almost like a power point, and at the same time provides students with numerical and letter directions on how to participate and "login" to a specific quiz. As such, one needs a projector. For this reason I signed up for the computer lab so that I could take my class to a room with a projector. Our display (and my subsequent Google Drive lesson), went very well, but I ended up having one very big problem: the computer room is on the first floor, and thick cinder block walls, and no windows. Which is to say, my students could not get any reception in the room. We then had to scrap the project. I had created a small quiz for them to take, but due to the issues I ended up just getting eight volunteers to meet me at lunch in the commons (huge ceilings and windows!) in order to take the quiz while crowded around a laptop. It went well, but obviously I will have to find out if...

1. I get reception in the other classrooms I work in
2. where the LCD projector went, and if I can get it back before I invest time or money into his website.

From my results I tell my students know the US had conflict with Britain, but it is clear my students by and large are unaware of the problems that the United States had with other countries. to be fair it could just be that students were eagerly looking for the first "correct" answer they saw. Had I known this during class, it would have allowed me to address the issue right away. If I used this site more in the future, I could use it to inform my teaching and let me know when I need to go backwards and review some things in all my classes. Poll Everywhere is a good tool, but only if I can work out the other kinks.