Community Review of Poll Everywhere | Common Sense Education

My Rating

Engagement

Pedagogy

Supports

My Take

As a teaching tool, I think that Poll Everywhere is very effective for gaining formative feedback from students, and students are often very engaged in this activity. However, it is not always user-friendly and can take a bit of time to figure out how to set it up. Many features also require subscriptions, although for occasional use the free subscription is sufficient. This tool is simply a convenient way to see where your students are at in their understanding of concepts. It may serve students better if there was a collaborative feature where students could make constructive comments on constructed responses and submit any questions or uncertainties they may have. Adding those features would make distance learning easier using this tool as well.

How I Use It

I would use this tool as a quick check for understanding and as a chance for students to practice and test themselves. This is a useful tool for individual responses, but is a bit complicated for group work. I would use this at the end of a lesson to check for basic understanding, and at the beginning of a class as a refresher of what we did the previous day. It can also be used as a quick pre-assessment to see how much students know about a topic before diving into the lesson. Using the tech tool is mostly a substitute for a traditional informal quiz, but the positive side of using this tool is that students can easily see other's responses, so they can gauge how their thinking compares to others.

More community reviews for Poll Everywhere

Vanessa A. Teacher Redlands East Valley High School Redlands, CA

August 21, 2017

If you ask it, they will engage. From openers to assessments, validate every student response with speed and ease.

I consider this a "necessary and proper" app. It has become an essential part of my classroom, but like many tools, the value of Poll Everywhere depends on how the teacher chooses to use it, as well as parameters established for student use. I started using the free Poll Everywhere version about seven years ago and have been using it ever since, regardless of grade level or content of my classes. I can even look back to the very first question I posted, as well as the students' responses (who are probably graduated from college by now). Poll Everywhere is something I find myself constantly pulling out of the "teacher tool kit" because of the high level of engagement and critical thinking that it can encourage. I love that it makes every student feel like their voice is safely being heard, even if only for a few seconds. Of course, insightful responses are not always guaranteed, as that often depends on the question generated by the teacher. Poll Everywhere spices up lessons with a "hook" for students and provides me insight on student understanding that I otherwise may not have obtained in such a fast and efficient manner. Acknowledging that not every student carries a cell phone, I would use it more if I were in a classroom where every student had a laptop in front of them. Of course, the anonymity has allowed some inappropriate responses which have dampened a few lessons, but that can also be akin to someone verbally blurting out an inappropriate remark; it happens. With Poll Everywhere, however, I feel positive engagement happens a lot more.

J A. New York, NY

April 27, 2017

Great tool to review material in a digital format and to promote collaborative work!

Overall, I like the tool. I feel that it can work in any setting and with any demographic from advanced to special needs students. It is the educator's responsibility to use the tool in a manner that it will meet the students where they are academically.

Mark L.

December 8, 2016

Teachers need a variety of techniques to encourage engagement. One of my favourites is Audience Response Systems.

It is fairly easy to start, although for some the technology is daunting. I've written a long guide on <a href="https://productivephysician.com/poll-everywhere/">getting started</a> which I hope people will find helpful.

See 39 reviews

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