With new students coming in 2015, now is the time to prepare for the tech savvy Millennials or Generation Y teens heading to your class. This means you will need to upgrade some of your dated technology. If you are looking to keep your students’ attention, gone are the days of overhead projectors and VHS tapes. So it’s time to plug in and get connected.

Online Polling Quizzes

As an instructor, I am always looking for a “cool” way to quiz my students. I came across a great interactive tool that utilizes text messaging. I know the old school thought process of “turn off the cell phone in class” but this exercise in revisiting information has shown to be easy and effective.

Materials:          

• Polling website link https://www.polleverywhere.com/login


• Web access


• List of questions


• Either students can use their individual phones or combine students into small groups of 4 to 6

Delivery:

Prior to class, sign up on your preferred polling site. Enter all of your review questions on the site and obtain your “text to” number from the polling site. As class is delivered, ask your students a question and bring up the polling site. The students can then text the answer to the “text to” number and the poll results can be seen in real time on the polling site displayed on the screen. This type of exercise is a great, fun way to review/revisit information utilizing the tools teens have available to them today.