Discovering Polling Apps: Typeform 🔍⌨️
How have you been,
Joyers? I hope you are having a good week. ☺️
Today, I’ll review a
polling app. However, before diving into it, I’ll explain what polling apps
are, and their function in English Language Teaching (ELT).
Polling apps can bring out polls. You can integrate polls in your ELT sessions for the formative assessment, meaning that you use it to assess the teaching and learning process. By using polls, you don’t merely focus on grading your students since polls are actually used to check the success of the learning process. For instance, you may check your student's understanding of a concept in the middle of the lesson with a short and quick poll or ask their opinion as the class starter. Thus, you can use polls throughout the lesson; in the beginning, middle, or end.
Then for today’s blog. I
will proudly introduce you to a polling app named Typeform. It was established
in 2012 in Barcelona, Spain by David Okuniev and Robert Muñoz. This app is the best among the two other
polling apps I researched, Mentimeter and Poll Everywhere, so I think it’s best
for me to share it with you.
Compared with Mentimeter and Poll Everywhere, Typeform has the best
feature that the other apps don’t in which that we can connect our data Excel,
Google Docs, and Google Sheets. We can also link our polls with Canva and we
can even ask our participants to join into Zoom through the polls. The second-best
feature is in the matter of the side feature which is adding pictures/videos. We
can add video and control the position, size, and brightness of the added image
or video in Typeform, while in both Mentimeter and Poll Everywhere, there is a photo-adding
feature too, but we can’t add video there nor edit the position of the picture.
Furthermore, in the matter of design, you can design more than 20 poll
types. For more exact, you can create 23 different polls by using Typeform,
such as short text, long text, statement, picture choice, ranking, opinion
scale, and dropdown. It is different with Mentimeter as it has fewer polling
types, actually six (6) only; for example, word cloud, scales, ranking,
multiple choice, QnA, and open-ended questions, while Poll Everywhere only
provides one type of question.
Typeform is also excellent until the bits since in every question type,
there is still more specific settings for each. For example, there is maximum
character and required buttons that we can use to limit the words of the answer
in long and short text. In the multiple-choice poll type, we can also choose to
randomize the choices. Therefore, it is better than the other apps.
Moreover, in the matter of sharing the poll, in Typeform, we can use the
poll’s link, create a barcode of it, or share it through email, Facebook,
LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. The way for us to share the Typeform poll is absolutely
more varied than Mentimeter and Poll Everywhere as in Mentimeter, we can only
share it through a barcode, link, and code which expires in two (2) days, while
in Poll Everywhere, we can share it through a barcode.
In spite of everything, Typeform has an impactful weakness since it has
monthly paid plans feature which is Free, Basic, Plus, and Business. The paid
plans provide a plentiful quota to receive the response starting from hundreds
and thousands, and here is where the problem comes as I can’t be more regretful
than this that we can only accept 10 responses monthly by using the free plan.
It means that the number of participants of a poll made with the free plan in
Typeform is quite inapplicable to be used in a big class as a learning tool.
Thus, if you teach quite small classes, I suggest you to use Typeform
while teaching to give novelty and variation on the teaching. You can make your
class to be more student-centered since students can give their opinions
through the polls. Then, to give you an exact example, you may use the poll to
start your class.
Imagine that you teach 10th graders in a senior high school
and you want to teach about “Expressing an Invitation”. You may present a poll
in a short answer type to as a triggering question before the lesson starts. Provide
a picture of an invitation card and give a question such as “In what occasions
do people usually invite others?” They may answer. “a birthday, a party, a
dinner, a wedding, etc.” Therefore, your class will be started in a fun and
novel way since students can express their thought and are engaged with the
lesson’s topic since the beginning.
These are all I can share today about Typeform. Just try this polling
app out and take the benefits to improve your class!
Have and nice day and God bless you, Joyers! ✨
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