App of the Week: Cell phone/web clicker

Submitted by behrendtb on Sat, 02/28/2009 - 17:47.

http://www.polleverywhere.com.

Clicker technology is fast becoming one of the new must have technology for schools, however there is a large upfront cost for the hardware.  Polleverywhere allows students to use their cell phones or any internet acceptable computer at a fraction of the cost.
‹ Hi from the Teaching with Technology program at Marlboro College VT and OK Collaboration and news video link ›

Clickers are a better solution than cell phones

Submitted by Steve Barner on Mon, 03/02/2009 - 22:54.

Cell phones as clicker replacement seems cheap, but only in terms of direct costs to the school.  If you include costs to the cell phone subscriber, they can go up, dramatically.  Add in the issues around equity and the bloom might well be off the rose.  What we really need is more affordable clicker technology.  It will come.

Steve Barner

polleverywere

Submitted by behrendtb on Tue, 03/03/2009 - 10:25.

Polleverywhere can also be used with a comptuer/laptop, which should help with the cost and equity (and just another reason why I believe in one-2-ones.   Below is a post I made to a forum in class.  I think it nicely outlines the capabilities of a cellphone and it's potential use.   

Here is another comment by one of our colligues when I suggested a cell phone lab:
The other side of this is that really kids are getting no education in cell phone use, etiquette, or boundaries.  We are going to eventually be the folks teaching them the ethics. 
Froum Post by me:

New technology Banned from schools!!!!
There is a new low cost technology which business cannot adopt fast enough yet are being baned from schools everywhere. The new item is smaller then the palm of your hand hand has features which include:

Camera
Video recording
GPS
Calculator
Instant Text Communication
Music player (podcasting)
Video player
Voice recorder
notepad
calendar scheduling agent
clickers
numerous add-on applications.

Newer Models include:
internet access
Compass
Language translators an programs
Quiz's
paint program
Periodic Table of Elements
Historical documents
Atlas
Weather Radar
Tide levels

Accessories can include:
computer snyc cable
Microscope

The technology is a cell phone.

When you add up the cost of buying all the features a cell phone provides separately for every student, It may be cheaper for schools to provide them, and in doing so they would have greater control on how they are used.