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. 

PollDaddy and SoftChalk

  The past two weeks, I used clickers (TurningPoint) in class and the students really liked the anonymous polling.  I decided to try to have a few online class meetings in my legal and ethical issues class - so how to replicate that experience? 

All of my face-to-face classes are "hybrid" classes, meaning that the course resources are all in a learning management system.  I had designed the lessons using SoftChalk, so I needed an online polling solution.  I decided to use PollDaddy.  I selected a court case study from the textbook and entered the questions into PollDaddy - along with some choices for answers.  PollDaddy provides the "code" that you can copy/paste for web pages.  I copied the code and then opened my course lesson in the HTML view - and copied the code.  All I could see in SoftChalk was "Script" buttons.  However, when I previewed the poll in a web browser it looked PERFECT!!  Yesterday I made the announcement to the students that the poll was open.  Today a third of the students have already take the poll and are split 50/50 on the answers.  They are looking forward to hearing feedback about how the case was decided in court. 

Polling, whether done in the classroom or online is phenomenal resource! 

Webinar and Polling Software

I have been exploring the use of webinar and polling software for the past several months.  Some of the grad students in the Integrating Technology in the Health Science Educator Role have not had any experience with webinar software.  It is a concept that some of the informatics students had difficulty understanding, too.

Many of the colleges and universities in the University System of Georgia (USG) use Wimba; however, GCSU does not.  I would like to use webinar software for:

• Online course orientations
• Student "oral" class presentations
• Assissting one or more students who need guidance to resolve a technology issue
• Collaborate with students on course projects
• Online meetings

I am familiar with Wimba and Elluminate from a participant and speaker's perspective, but what about free solutions?  I discovered DimDim (http://www.dimdim.com/ ) this past weekend. It is free for up to 20 users.  It has all of the features that were on my "want" list:  videoconferencing, ability to use presentatiaon and polling software, and the ability to share desktops. 

Next, I explored using Poll Daddy software (http://polldaddy.com/ ).  It could be useful for formative assessments for a lesson or course.  So far, I have experimented with the use of polling software in email. My next step is to include it on a web site or this blog.

I am working on course prep for my Integrating Technology into the Healthcare Educator Role class.  I reflected on the polling software that was used in yesterday's webinar and decided to do some additional exploration.  I reviewed the Digital Inspiration web site at http://www.labnol.org/internet/best-web-polling-software/6207/ which provided a summary about a number of polling software solutions.  The polling software that I have explored to date include:

• Micropoll http://www.micropoll.com/
• Poll Everwhere http://www.polleverywhere.com/
• Toluna  http://www.toluna.com/
• Poll Daddy http://www.polldaddy.com/

I also explored Jane Hart's web site that lists the Top 100 Tools for Learning 2009.  Using the resources on that site, I explored DimDim online meeting software.  It is free for up to 25 users.  You can anticipate watching me experiment with some of these software solutions.  I welcome hearing about your experiences and recommendations.