Case Study: Polleverywhere dot com 1

Case Study for Polleverywhere.com

Daniel Alvarez
Azusa Pacific University
July 27, 2014



Case Study: Polleverywhere dot com 2

Polleverywhere dot com is a website dedicated to creating polls in real time for quick
responses for a presentation, meeting, seminar, or for the subject of this class an education
classroom. This a a free text response poll in which respondents can reply using their phones,
twitter, or laptop. The idea behind using this website in a classroom is based on the rule that
students would not have or use cell phones in the classroom. The rules against cell phone use is
present and enforced in the classroom but studentts still use them. The idea is that if students are
still using their cell phones in the classroom them why not have them using their phones in an
educational way.
There are a number of ways to use this n the classroom. First, a teacher or presenter
should have the poll question written down somewhere so the whole class can see or have the
web page set up on the projector. Attached to the poll are are text numbers for particular
responses.
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In this screenshot, we can see the poll with the poll numbers and is now awaiting for responses.
THe screenshot also demonstrates one way teachers can implement this poll into their
curriculum. This poll question can be used as a check for understanding portion of their lesson
so the teacher can see if the students understood the ideas behind the lesson. Obviously, this
takes some planning but teachers can limit the number of responses on the website so students
can give their answers in a think-pair-share format or in a group format. This way students are
encouraged to communicate and discuss an idea and answer as opposed to simple individual
answers. Individual answers can all benefit English Language Learneres as well becasue they
may have difficulty verbalizing in a different language.In addition, individual answers can help
some shy students or students with disabilities. Teachers can also use polleverywhere to learn
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more about their students, parents on parent night, and involve other teachers in strategic
planning.
Parents will wonder about the implications of texting in the classroom. Students are
texting which can be frowned upon and this website can be seen a encouraging text messages in
the classroom. However, it should be emphasized to the parents that the polls would not lead to
any discrimination because the texts are free, the phone numbers are kept private by the website,
and will not be recieving any spam.
Teachers need to be aware of discrimination against students and their responses. This
means they need to inform the students on how to respond, how much time is available, and if it
is an individual response, partnered or group. Some students may be anti social, disabled, or
ELL. Other students may not have access to a personal phone or understand how the poll works.
In addition, the polls need to be as relevant to the class content as possible, otherwise students
lose focus of the lesson objective and become more concerned with the technology.
This technology for the classroom can be seen as evolving into a number of resources for
lesson planning. The technology should not be used as the lesson. A teacher can not give a
lesson based solely on polls from polleveryehere dot com. FOr teachers, this can blend in with
Prezi presentations, blogs, and twitter accounts so polls can be used to assess or summarize
something through different learning networks.