SMART Notebook

At the beginning of the semester, I reached out to our University CIO to find resources that I could share with students in the Teaching and Technology course for nurse educators.  That is when I discovered new SMART Notebook features.  All of the classroom computers have SMART Notebook, but I had never used the software and now I know why.  What I did not know is about version 15, which provides a robust audience response system.  The new feature (a subscription) allows the instructor to ask polling questions and the students to answer the questions using their mobile devices, such as a cell phone, tablet, or laptop with an Internet connection.  It is so awesome and easy to use.

The nurse educator students are teaching College of Health Sciences faculty how to use the SMART audience response system.  The nurse educator students are integrating interactive learning into the classroom instruction with fantastic results.

The audience response system is useful for the face-to-face class, but it could also be used with webinar software, such as WebEx.  WebEx DOES have a polling feature, but it does not allow a response with a mobile device.

Two free polling solutions include Poll Everywhere and Socrative.  I have used Poll Everywhere for many years in our learning management system class lessons.  I tried Secrative, but prefer Poll Everywhere - maybe because I am more familiar with it.  There are limitations to the free solutions, such as the number of participants.

While free polling solutions are great, the SMART Notebook polling is better.  You can download a 90-day trial (what the nurse educator students are using) to learn more.  

New Poll Everywhere Feature - Google Slides and Chrome Web Browser

Poll Everywhere is now available to use with the Chrome web browser and Google Drive slides.  It works on Mac and Windows computers.  To learn more, go to https://www.polleverywhere.com/app/google-slides

The Poll Everywhere extension is available for Google Chrome.  When you open Google Drive slides, you will see Poll Everywhere in the menu.

When you click to insert a poll, you have several choices for types of polls.  After you are done, click on the Present button.  If the poll is locked, mouse over to the right side of the web browser and click the lock icon to unlock the poll.

When the poll participants see the poll, they go to their mobile phone messages app and enter the number 22333 in the "send to" window.  Next the participants enter the name of the poll.  In my example, they enter JEANNESEWELL.  Finally, the participant answers the poll, entering A, B, or other choices provided.

The poll results display on the presenters slide.

The Georgia College nurse educator students have been working with the College of Health Sciences faculty teaching SMART Notebook software.  The 15th edition of the software has a great built-in polling feature for mobile devices.  The downside of the software is that it is a subscription.  It must be installed on the presenter's computer (for the design) and on the classroom podium computer for the presentation (unless the presenter was using a laptop with the software to present).

SMART Notebook allows participants to use any type of computer with a web browser to answer a poll.  However, Google Slides and Poll Everywhere limit the response to polls using the messaging app.