Polling in the classroom

The audience response systems known as "Clickers" have become increasingly popular as learning tools in large classrooms. The only drawback is that you have to purchase the technology - the transmitter and the individual clickers for each student. Now there has been some move toward developing a lower-cost alternative by using cellphones as clickers. The Chronicle of Higher Education's Wired Campus blog wrote about an iPhone app that can be used in the same way as clickers, and cellphones in learning has a post - as does e-learning acupuncture blogpost - about a company called Poll Everywhere that provides an Audience Response System by using text messaging on a cellphone instead of clickers. It is free for using with an audience of 30 or fewer, larger audiences require subscriptions.