Contact Chris Carter Hertfordshire Development Centre Tel: 01438 843918 Email: chris.carter @hertscc.gov.uk

Case Studies
Voting systems in the classroom Herts ACTIVote Pilot Cunningham Hill Infants Colney Heath School Presdales School St Lukes School
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What is a Voting System?

With a voting system, each student gets a handset and can feedback views, answers or data to a receiver and software on your computer. Simple systems are a bit like the audience poll on “Who wants to be a millionaire?” .

More sophisticated versions allow the user to type free text and numbers.

The software records the students’ responses. It produces and can present reports, graphs and marksheets.

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What Can a Voting System do?

With a voting system, you can:

• involve a whole class in questions and answers;
• get instant responses;
• produce graphs and charts of responses;
• measure response times;
• set up sequences, presentations and quizzes within lessons.

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What Do You Get?

A typical system comes with:

• a number of handsets (8, 16, 24, 32);
• software to make questions and connect with the hardware.

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How Can You Use Them?

The only limit to their use is your imagination. They probably work best in small doses. For example:

• formative assessment;
• summative assessment (with care) – quick quiz;
• quick feedback on verbal questions;
• polling of views – on a story, pieces of work, current affairs et al;
• emotional wellbeing – confidential instant measure of how children are feeling.

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What is Available?

There are a few systems on the market. Some of these are:

• Activote (Promethean)
• ACTIV-Expression (Promethean)
• Ezclickpro
• Genee Pad
• Ombea new
• Optivote
• Powervote
• Qwizdom
• RM Easi-respond

• Smart Response updated

• Turningpoint

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Are They All the Same?

No. They have different features which may suit your needs and desires. Things to look out for are:

• The symbols on each voting button. They may be letters, numbers or symbols.

• Does it have free text input or only multiple choice?
• size of handset
• right/wrong feedback on handset
• import of powerpoint and export to Excel
• will it run as a toolbar (in verbal mode)
• response time measurement
• charting features
• price.

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How Much Do They Cost?

It varies between systems and on the number of handsets. A 32 handset system costs between £500 and £2000.

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Software Based Response Systems

With mobile devices becoming more popular and ICT suites offering one-to-one pupil access to computers, many response system companies are now making software versions which allow you to vote from your existing technology, eg a netbook, laptop, ipod or even desktop computer. This saves you the need for dedicated voting hardware. Example of software based systems include:

• Promethean ACTIV-Engage
• Smart Response CE
• TurningPoint ResponseWare

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Using iPod or iPads New

A number of apps are available that can turn your set of iPod Touch or iPads into a response system. These vary in price and functionality and some include systems for delivering content to all the devices in your classroom. Examples include:

• Socrative
• eClicker
• Nearpod

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Try it for Yourself

There is a loan system available from the Hertfordshire Development Centre. Contact Chris Carter if you would like to try it out in your school.

This system is very popular so there is a waiting list of interested schools. If you would like a quick demonstration of a system at Hertfordshire Development Centre, please contact Chris Carter.

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Contact

For more information or help, please contact Chris Carter at Hertfordshire Development Centre.

Tel: 01438 843918
Email: chris.carter@hertscc.gov.uk

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