Using Interactive Polls To Teach Research Skills
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I like to use technology to support learning and engage my students where it is practical, relevant and serves a purpose. Having experimented with wikis (great for encouraging collaboration and ensuring accountability for individuals taking part in group tasks and assessments) and virtual walls (like wallwisher and linoit), I recently turned my attention to interactive polling site PollEverywhere to encourage student feedback, gauge opinion and initiate discussions. They can also be used to teach students how to conduct effective research, which could be useful for any subject area.
It is free to register with PollEverywhere. Polls are easy to set up and can take the form of multiple choice (here’s an example I used when teaching the marketing mix to business students) or free text response polls. Anyone can answer the poll using their mobile phone (standard rate text with no follow up spam texts) or the internet and polls can be set to end at a certain time/date.
Many subjects and courses require students to conduct research and analyse the findings. You could use interactive polls to bring this to life as follows:
Set a multiple choice question for the students on PollEverywhere and ask them to text their choice (or choose online if using an ICT room) and then show the results on the interactive whiteboard - the results appear in real time and as a bar chart (I prefer to hide the results and go for the big reveal but you can have the poll on display and let the students see the answers as they come in if you wish)
Discuss the outcome of the poll and use it to get a debate going in the classroom - Was it what the students expected? Why did they choose that answer? Would they have given a different answer on reflection?
Ask the class to consider the validity of the results and potential bias of the data - What was the sample size? How might this affect any conclusions to be drawn from the result of the poll? What is the target market? Was the sample representative? Was the question clear enough or appropriate?
Challenge students (in groups) to devise better/alternative questions to generate the information required to complete the project and then share their ideas with the others - great for differentiation and an opportunity for peer review/assessment and reflection.
Why not Give It A Go?
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