PollEverywhere now embeds in Google Slides

There are lots of good tools out there for assessing and getting instant student/audience feedback via technology, but PollEverywhere has been around (probably) the longest.  They just announced today that you can now embed the results of a "poll" into a Google Slides presentation.  It's still in "Labs," but worth checking out.  Good to know, as we use Slides more and more in place Powerpoint.
Here's a how-to:


Gathering audience feedback directly from Google Slides from Poll Everywhere on Vimeo.

Socrative student response system

I've written before about PollEverywhere, which allows students to use their phones (or any internet-
connected device) to answer questions (and allows the teacher to see the results immediately--and display them, if desired).  This type of student response system is excellent for doing a quick check-in for understanding, taking a poll, or posting students' text responses to the screen.

There's another app out there that is geared more towards the educational setting.  It's called Socrative.  You can use it for "on the fly" type of questioning, quizzes including different types of questions, or exit tickets. We saw it in action on a recent visit to Burlington HS.  The teacher was looking at the results in real-time on his iPad as students worked their way through a formative assessment he had created. This is definitely worth trying.  It is free (for now, at least).

I'd be happy to help you get started!

Here's a quick look:

Teachers using Technology

Here are two ways that CVU teachers have used technology for instruction in their classes recently:

When Peter Booth was absent from his math class, he used EduCreations on his iPad to prepare his lesson for his students.  EduCreations allows you to narrate while you write, draw and manipulate images on your iPad.  Peter's substitute than played back the recorded lesson the classroom computer.  Students said afterwards that they found it enjoyable and helpful to have the lesson taught by Peter, even when he was out.  Here's the lesson:
http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/geometry-sub-plans-arc-length/5542446/?ref=link

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During her science class, Sarah Strack needed to check for understanding from students.  She used PollEverywhere, which allows students to use cell phones, laptops, tablets--basically, any device-- to provide answers to a question or poll.  She used AirServer (wirelessly sends your iPad or Mac screen to the projector) to project the poll from her iPad.  Compare this to asking students, "Does everyone get it?"  Here are the students' responses to one question.:

Cell phone surveys

(Originally posted 3/1/11)

At the last faculty meeting, we used a web site that allowed people to text their responses to a prompt and projected the results. You may have thought that such a thing is difficult to pull off. In fact, it's quite easy- and it's free (for up to 30 responses per question). The site is http://www.polleverywhere.com/ .

There are some things to consider when using this site, however:
1) Equity. Many kids have cell phones with unlimited text plans, but not all. One nice thing about polleverywhere is that they provide a URL for submission over the web. Students without cell phones (or with smartphones) can use this, instead.

2) Anonymity. You don't know who is submitting which response, so a conversation about appropriateness is probably a good idea beforehand.

You can create multiple-choice or text questions. You can also download the results afterward for future reference.