Using Poll Everywhere, Wordle, and ISTE NETS-T

Poll Everywhere is a website where you can create a question using your computer or cell phone, and other people can answer the question by texting in or on the computer.  Wordle is a text analysis tool that you can use to create an image of responses to your Poll Everywhere question.  For example, in our class we used Poll Everywhere to find out interesting facts about our classmates and used Wordle to create a collage using the answers we received on Poll Everywhere.  On Wordle we got to customize our own collages with different color schemes and fonts, then posted it in our blogs.  It was a lot of fun and an interesting way to learn about my classmates. 

I read that a teacher once used Poll Everywhere to introduce a lesson for social media and networking.  By using Poll Everywhere she was able to create a multiple choice question asking her students which social networking website they use most often and the students were able to text in or answer using the computer during class.  The lesson was a huge success and had great positive feedback in terms for using it in future lessons.  The students were completely engaged in the lesson and excited to use their cell phones.  This teacher not only kept this classroom engaged and interested in the lesson but got them excited to learn, and isn't that the main objective of all teachers? My hats off to this teacher!

As a future educator I intend to use these websites as great learning tools in my classroom.  Technology is interesting to children because it’s something they use outside the classroom and I feel that using various forms of technology will keep students interested and engaged in whatever lesson I teach.  As a teacher I could for example use Poll Everywhere and Wordle to ask a question about a homework assignment that was given the day before which was read chapters 1-3 of a novel.  The students could answer my question about what their most interesting part of the three chapters was, then I could take all their responses and make a collage in Wordle.  The responses in the collage could be my topic points of the day to discuss.  Using these two websites, I met standard # 1 of the ISTE NETS-T by promoting and modeling creative and innovative thinking and inventiveness.  Technology is a huge part of today's society and I think it's extremely important that children have technology readily available at all times in the classroom and that they are well equipped on the knowledge front of using various forms of technology, websites, and programs.