I recently learned of PollEverywhere at the recent Council of EM Residency Directors conference when it was used during a lecture on Web 2.0 (how appropriate!). PollEverywhere allows audience members to use their mobile phone or laptop computer to vote and/or comment on questions posed by the speaker. Information can be send via text message, online, and even by Twitter!
You can equate this to having an Audience Response System (ARS) setup without having to purchase all of the hardware equipment, such as a receiver and individual remote "clickers".
Although most plans have a monthly service fee, there is a free plan option. I like free. This option allows you to pose one multiple-choice or free-text question and to get up to 30 responses. This can definitely get the job done for residency and medical student talks.
Here's the link to build a poll for free:
http://www.polleverywhere.com/my/polls/new
I do not have any financial affiliations with PollEverywhere. Just a fan.
This is so awesome! Better Mac support would make it the awesom-ist, but I can't wait to try it!
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't seem to require much setup so hopefully having a Mac won't be too much a burden. It indeed is pretty awesome.
ReplyDeleteI personally use this tool and i am very satisfied with this tool.
ReplyDeleteJust used this for a mixed group of 30+ at the poison center. About 20 people sat on their hands despite my smiling plee for people to help me try it.
ReplyDeleteObservations:
1) Texting is still an age-dependent phenomenom
2) Just with other real-time polls, you have to be willing to wait a minute for people to enter their choices
I'm planning to use this in future small group lectures for students/residents, but will mix it in with other ways to engage/pimp the audience
@SF Tox- Hmm, that is a risk that we all take in launching a new teaching technique. I think your observations are spot-on. I had a recent lecturer say that she uses the 8-second rule. After posing a question, she waits up to 8 seconds in awkward silence. Someone always will pipe up with a comment. That's a hard yet effective way to get participation!
ReplyDeleteWhen I tried a different innovation (building concept maps on Google Docs in real time during residency conference on septic arthritis), I got very mediocre evals. I think what might have helped was to spend some time a few days or few hours before explaining that I was going to trying this out. Perhaps you could have prepped the learners that you were going to try PollEverywhere. Sometimes a little heads-up is all you need.
Keep on innovating! Thanks for letting know about your experience with Polleverywhere.