I've discovered and am quickly falling in love with a cool tool called Poll Everywhere. It allows for people to respond to questions using narrative, by using the tools that they almost certainly have on hand anyway.
You just create a poll online by typing in a question, and then project that question on the screen. The audience simply sends an SMS with the text "Cast (and your keyword)" plus their questions, suggestions, responses or input, to a constant number.
There is little one can do to synthesize the information once received, but it does create reports in Excel, and it's free or virtually free for an upgrade. There are more robust polling options, but they usually require specialized devices. This requires an internet connection, and wireless devices that are present in every meeting room, for better or for worse.
The advantage is that people can provide anonymous feedback in the moment. It can also help presenters to steer presentations in the direction that that is required of the audience. There are also multiple choice polling options.
The danger of course, is encouraging people to interact with a device that usually signifies a dying meeting or disengagement.
4 comments:
I can see that an advantage to this type of anonymous polling means instant insight into how the group is interpreting presentations. On the other side, would this detract from social interaction between parties present, as people can simply vote as opposed to engaging in discussion about issues?
How do you, the speaker, receive the questions/feedback? Are you logged onto the site during the presentation?
Chad, this is only appropriate to certain formats. You don't want the medium to dominate the message. When a speaker wants anonymous feedback or an audience is too large to profile accurately without technology, then it may be an option.
Done well, voting should stimulate discussion, not replace it. By surfacing issues candidly using audience response, there can be open discussion around the results.
Courtney,
Yes, you are logged on to the site. The feedback pops up on a full screen and even tell you how long ago they were registered.
I can't give much more detail and hope that it's accurate though, because they update the damn thing every day!
As with any tool, you've got to experiment with this one to get a feel for it and then creatively evaluate how it might be applied. There's no risk in experimenting with this because it is so easy and so free.
Post a Comment