I became interested in polling software when I started ranting about the problems with the typical use of PowerPoint and poor decisions made by presenters. [For more on this see: “Situational Qualities Exhibited by Exceptional Presenters,” “Improving the Design of PowerPoint Presentations,” & “Review of the book, The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint“]
But I teach mostly online so I began thinking about the value of polling and using “clickers” in the online classroom. Last year, Joni Dunlap and I contributed an idea about using polling software in the online classroom to Shank’s Online Learning Idea Book:
Lowenthal, P. R., & Dunlap, J. C. (2011). Online classroom clickers. In P. Shank (Ed.), The
online learning idea book: Proven ways to enhance technology-based and blended
learning(vol. 2; pp. 171-174). San Francisco: Pfeiffer.
I just found out (after reading EdSurge Newsletter 084) that Poll Everywhere has a comparison chart of various web-based “polling” software. EdSurge lists the main points of comparison:
Company Cost for average K-12 teacher (40 students)
- Poll Everywhere — Free or $50/yr depending on desired features
- Socrative — Free (beta)
- Top Hat Monocle — (Not intended for K12)
- SMSPoll.net — $15/mo with max of 1,000 student votes/mo
- ClickerSchool — $39/semester; $72/year
- Text The Mob — Free: 3 polls; $5/mo: 10 polls; $15/mo:100 polls
- Shakespeak — $3.96/one time use (24 hrs)
To see the complete list, visit: http://www.polleverywhere.com/vs