Online Voting open
The Weigle Information Commons has conducted annual mashup contests for many years now. We’ve just opened up online voting for the 18 videos in this year’s Mashup Contest.
You can view the videos and vote for your favorite three mashups online through May 23.
The rules for our contest are simple – make a mashup video that is attractive, engaging, technically savvy and no more than two minutes long. All Penn students are welcome to submit entries, and the world is welcome to vote online for the Popular Choice award.
Personally, I’ve enjoyed watching the videos over the years – I find our expectations for fancy editing grow higher each year!
I first learned about Poll Everywhere from John MacDermott several months back as an alternative to clickers for situations where personal cell phones might work better. In March, I saw this in action at the ACRL annual conference where dozens of text messages scrolled away on a large lecture screen. I liked the element of suspense and surprise when a new message showed up on the big screen, and decided to try it out sooner rather than later. Chatting with Anne Schwieger, Coordinator, Academically Based Community Service (ABCS) at the Netter Center for Community Partnerships led to my first test run of Poll Everywhere at their ABCS Summit on April 29. Anne and I asked a small group of undergraduates to walk around the poster session, ask visitors for their comments and then text their responses in to the online polls. We asked two simple questions: What do you like best about ABCS? and This poster helps me by… and left each question open on the big screen in Hall of Flags for about a half-hour.
Overall, I thought the technology worked quite well! We received 19 responses to the first question and 23 to the second. One highlight was students giving “shout out” messages to their favorite professors. Another was the surprising depth and thoughtfulness of the texts received! Here are two examples in response to the second question:
“Its important for us to think about the power of the individual to solve the problems society faces. Democratic devolution is pivotal.”
“…highlighting the importance of lead poisoning testing for kids since the symptoms are so typical of other illnesses.”
I see this type of open-ended response as potentially much more powerful than the multiple-choice options that clickers offer. Texts could be sent in by cellphone or through a web form that worked well on the iPad from our Media Lab. With more than 60 people in the room at one point, and a browse-and-wander structure, the Poll Everywhere solution was also a cleaner one that trying to give out, and later collect, clickers. I think I will try this technology again.
