We all hope to be able to easily answer a resounding YES to this question.  After caring for my grandson for a week this past holiday, however, I'm not even sure that I'm smarter than a 2 year old!

Wouldn't it be fun to let students test others on what they've been learning in your class?  Now it's easy to do with a FREE online application called Poll Everywhere.  Poll Everywhere is completely online, so there's no installation necessary.  You will set up an account (do not set up accounts for students, please), and the screen will prompt you to complete the multiple choice question for polling in easy on-screen steps.  Participants will have the opportunity to answer questions by web, text message, or SmartPhone, but with the free application you will be limited to 30 responses for each question.  Each time you log on, you will be taken to your poll page with a link to the polls you've created.  You can edit, clear results, close, or delete a poll any time you choose, and the results are downloadable to Excel where you can make graphs and charts with your students or use the data in other ways.  Let me know if you'd like help with this part.  Even easier, the application will create a graph for you, and by clicking on a link at the right side of the page, it will create a PowerPoint slide for you with the graph that you can save to your files--so cool!

In the Account Information area of the application, there's a field where you can add email addresses to add participants who may respond to the poll.  The next step is to send the invitation.  Whom might we list?  Try sending it out to the other classes in your grade level as a challenge via the teacher's email, or send them to parents who are willing to participate.  Think of the discussions these poll questions could generate at home.  How fun would that be?

Please be aware that the invitations could go to junk mail if you're sending the message to a private address, so it might be smart to give parents a heads up that you're going to do this.  That way they'll know it's okay to open the invitation message and register as a voter.

There are so many ways to use the data in class.  First, students will learn to develop good questions (a great way to reinforce their own knowledge) to see whether the participants are as smart as they are, and that should be fun.  Second, they can learn how to create graphs and charts using Excel.  Remember to talk through what you are doing as you go through the steps with them.  Can they create a word problem with the data?  For example, if you polled favorite kinds of pets, what fraction of pets in a pet store should be represented by cats, by dogs, etc., based on the participant responses?

After I send out the invitation to read this blog, I'm going to send you an invitation to answer my poll.  I'll display a graph of the responses on this blog site next time.

Remember to have fun with technology.  Students love to use new tools, and it's these experiences that help to make lessons more engaging while introducing 21st Century skills.