Polleverywhere.com as a Literacy Tool in Class

In terms of learning, the internet is the biggest double-edged sword that we have. The obvious advantage to allowing students to use online texts is the diversity of resources a student may have to learn that topic. A student can supplement a text by following links from an article, looking up a YouTube video to gain a visual, or simply search for another article online for a new explanation. The disadvantage to the internet, as McLaughlin writes in her text, is the massive amounts of data, which is possibly unreliable, that is at a student’s fingertips. As I have seen in class, it is very easy for a student to become overwhelmed and discouraged when confronted with a blank search bar. Part of a student’s technology literacy is that ability to search through a source and to evaluate a source effectively and efficiently for credibility. In my opinion, the best way to do this is through small groups or class discussion, where the students are able to show me and each other some of the “red flags” of questionable articles. This is where I think the website polleverywhere.com would be excellent. With poll everywhere, a student could find an article to share with the class. The article could then be shown on the projector or as a handout, and students could work in groups to decide if an article is based on scientific evidence, opinion, or a combination of the two. They would then ask students to vote, using a text message which is given on a screen, and the students can then watch the answers pop up live on the screen. Each article could be discussed as a class following the poll results. An activity like this could be useful because it would teach students to research articles properly, how to quickly tell if an article is biased, an opinion piece, or founded in scientific evidence, which is an important aspect of today’s technological literacy. If a student is unable to differentiate between fact and opinion efficiently and confidently, it could get them into a lot of trouble. Polleverywhere.com is a great tool for the live polling. However, I have run into problems in the past where students are able to display their interactions anonymously in the classroom. Google Docs have become a medium for “trolling” in my class before, and are now no longer allowed to be used during class time. I could see something similar, although limited to two or three multiple choices. However, if a student is purposefully choosing the wrong answer during class, that could quickly become a problem. I also am hesitant to allow the students to have their phones out during class. That could be a major distraction while the students are trying to work.

Teaching students to use technology PROPERLY!!

When I look at the Maryland standards for technology use, a number of things come to mind. I am lucky enough that our school lends itself to the state’s technology standards more than usual because each student is required to have a personal laptop. A program that I use regularly to integrate learning and positive use of personal technology is Remind.com. Remind is great. It is a program that allows teachers to communicate with students via texts to their phone, but everything is done through the app, which removes the need to exchange personal phone numbers, which in my opinion is unprofessional for a teacher to do. The program on the computer allows you to send messages at specific times, and also allows students to send messages to you, which you can choose to delay receiving during your preferred hours. There is even an option for parents to opt in on the texts from the teachers by scanning a QR code or logging a passcode into their phone. This program allows students to use their phones in a constructive, scheduling manner and prevents them from making excuses about forgetting critical assignments. One challenge that I have with students is their expectation that information should not need to be researched and that it should be instantly easy to find (such as on Wikipedia). Students complain that they cannot find answers to questions, mostly because they type in two or three key words, never phrases, and then give up when they cannot use Wikipedia. Proper research techniques are critical to the success of any modern course, and it is incredibly frustrating to have the students give up so easily. This is where the WebQuests quickly become useful. A WebQuest is a series of questions that lead a student to find resources and then report from those sources on a particular subject. In my class, students would be citing evidence from scientific and technical readings from our subscription based databases such and JSTOR. To do so, they would also have to outline what the papers and journals highlight, ideally using the abstract to gather the most essential information and applying it to the key terms and ideas to class in an abstract manner.