Polling in class

My students and I are trying a new version of use of the "Clickers" in class. The iPad adds a further function to the polling concept.

First of all, the students log into the site Poll Everywhere (http://www.polleverywhere.com). It lets you take live polls from your students by using the web or a cell phone. Most people have used it with cell phones, but we decided to push the iPad to its limits by responding through the web browser on the iPad. Students could watch the results build on their own iPad screens.

So far, all of this can be accomplished through cell phones and an instructor computer attached to an overhead projector.

The next step is where the iPad shines in this activity. Now that my students have voted based upon their opinions, they research the topic through newspapers and sites like Lexis/Nexis. Once they have spent 15-20 minutes looking up information, we take the same poll and see if an "informed society" (or in my case, a room full of students) has a different view of topics from those who simply voice their opinions without basing them upon facts.

My student journalists learn that not all words that come out of an interviewee's mouth are based upon facts. Great revelation :-). However, it brought the concept home as many felt their own views change once they got the facts.

We then talked about nationwide rumors that began from an individual's opinion without the research done first. It created a lively conversation because there are  many times in our society when rumors were accepted as facts. It was then the responsibility of good journalists to uncover fact from fiction and report it to the public to verify or negate a rumor that may have gotten out of hand.

It was a great practical lesson for these future journalists. This class lesson can be applied to many other disciplines. Give it a try. You will have very dynamic dialog in your classroom.