When I attended PETE & C (Pennsylvania Educational Technology Expo and Conference) in February, I began a list of apps and resources that presenters mentioned or used. One tool that I noticed presenters using was called Poll Everywhere. This tool allowed them to include questions in their presentation that their audience could answer via SMS (text message), Twitter or their web browser. It was engaging as well as (somewhat) formative, and the audience got really invested in answering the questions correctly (one session even included prizes for correct answers!)
Socrative does most of the same things that Poll Everywhere does - but it does them for free. Poll Everywhere does have a free option, but it is somewhat limited; many of the things it omits from its free package are available through Socrative. Socrative is, however, much more K-12 centered, whereas Poll Everywhere has packages for businesses & non-profits and higher ed institutions. Poll Everywhere also seems to integrate with presentation software (i.e. PowerPoint) so that the question is a part of the presentation while Socrative has presenters leave the presentation in order to administer the quiz. These differences mean that the user's decision is mainly personal preference, since they share many of the same features and ultimately serve the same purpose: to elicit an audience response.
This is a screenshot of sample polls from www.polleverywhere.com/how-it-works.
Socrative also allows for many types of polls; this Quick Question (a screenshot from http://garden.socrative.com/?p=1852) is an example of a formative assessment that could act as an entrance or exit ticket.
Where:
Poll Everywhere - www.polleverywhere.com
Socrative - www.socrative.com
Cost:
Poll Everywhere - limited free use; paid upgrade with varying price points
Socrative - free
What: audience polling app that uses text messages or web based responses (Poll Everywhere also allows for Twitter input)
Students! Try these one of these programs if you want to...
increase audience engagement during a presentation
create a digital poll/survey for primary research
understand your audience in advance of a project or presentation
Teachers! Try these one of these programs if you want to...
increase classroom engagement
create digital formative assessment
get instant feedback about student understanding of a topic
collect data to drive differentiated instruction
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