Part D - Findings and Implications

As we wrap up the end of the WPP project I am pleased to say that I have found a tool to help with the lack of classroom participation and discussion.  The use of Poll Everywhere in the classroom helped to spark interest in classroom discussions and also helped with the percentage of students participating in discussions.  I will definitely continue to use Poll Everywhere as a tool to help improve classroom discussions and get immediate feedback from the students.

Overall, the project was implemented as planned and the findings were similar to what I had hoped for.  As I have stated, I hoped that using Poll Everywhere would help to increase participation and get immediate feedback from the students in classroom discussions.  I found this tool to be successful in meeting its goal because nearly every student in class was participating in providing thoughtful feedback to the discussion questions.  Below I have embedded a screenshot of a classroom discussion using poll everywhere that shows evidence of the projects success.

There are certainly other problems that occur in the classroom that I could address as a teacher in a similar type of project.  After having completed this project I think one thing that I may approach differently as a teacher with other problems in the classroom is to research technological tools and resources that may prove to be beneficial in these other situations.  I learned some valuable lessons in this project with using technology to improve discussions.  Of course, I would let others know about the awesome capabilities of using classroom polls to improve discussion and get immediate feedback.  Another thing I might let other teachers know about is how the students are able to answer questions anonymously using this technology.  As a result, I think I would tell them that it may be something worth addressing before using the technology.  If I were to use this resource in class again I think that I would point out the importance of having real, quality responses to the discussion questions as a way of improving everyone's understanding.  I definitely will continue to use Poll Everywhere as a resource in the classroom and I think I will explore some other online polling programs as well to continue to improve classroom discussion and feedback.