GoSoapBox

GoSoapBox is a great tool for polls and discussions with students that allow responses to questions through laptops, devices and phones.  It is quick and easy to set up your event for each class. Teachers simply give the students the event code and they join the class discussion.

The best part is that even though the students will provide their names in the event, they remain anonymous.  As we know middle school and high school students participate more when they can be anonymous.  The only person who knows who is who will be the teacher.

The teacher will have set up prior to class starting the questions/quizzes, polls, and discussions they would like to have occur.  

It is quick and easy to set up quizzes with multiple questions.  The only issue that was a little confusing is that after you set up the question and save it you have to go back into the question to add the multiple choice answers.  Creating polls are very easy and you can decide how you wish data to be displayed: pie chart or bar graph.  A big item is that you can determine whether you want the audience to be able to see the results or not.

One of the best parts of GoSoapBox is the Confusion Meter, it is basically the thumbs up/down Kagan strategy through technology.  Members simply respond "yes, I get it" or "no, I don't get it." The teacher can use this throughout the lesson to check for student understanding.

It is simple for the teacher to pose a question to the class simply by unlocking the question on the event page.

The student's online page changes to show the question or poll as it appears when the teacher unlocks the question.

Based on teacher preference, the results will show to the class if the teacher wishes them to appear.

The greatest thing about this program is that as the teacher is teaching the students can toggle between "I am getting it" and "I am confused".  This allows the teacher to see on the fly when they need to regroup and address issues in the class.  The other feature that is a biggie is the Moderation Panel that allows the teacher to be able to turn on Social Q&A so that students can post questions during the lesson and the students can tag the questions they like so that they will move to the top of the list.

The benefits of using GoSoapBox is the ability to get immediate real time responses from students. Within quizzes, polls, and discussions, the teacher may provide links to outside sources as well.