This first post is, heh, "alarming"

I sit down to write the very first post of a brand new blog and the fire alarm immediately begins to ring. My colleagues and I troop outside and soon find out it was a false (or very minor) alarm.  Some might see this as a sign from above, before I launch this new blog: "Stop now before it's too late!" But instead I spend the time outside thinking about the blog, so when I get back to my desk I dive right back in again.

With so many options now available for in-class student polling, I am constantly being asked by my faculty "What do you know about XYZ polling?"  We officially support only one polling option on our campus, that of Turning Technologies, but faculty are free to use any other product they wish. We can't promise technical support for any of these other products, but inevitably I am asked about them, so I do try to keep up to speed with new and emerging polling products.

And "speed" is the key word here, because there seems to be a new polling option flying onto the landscape every day. All the new ones seem to be free for faculty, which is certainly enticing, but many are incredibly expensive for the student. And most of the new ones are web-based. I love that idea, except that it means they rely on a wireless infrastructure that was designed for traffic that is the Internet equivalent of a lazy Sunday afternoon drive in the country, and not the full on interstate of fast cars and big trucks, otherwise known as YouTube and Facebook, plus active polling applications.

This is an incredibly exciting time to be working with student engagement tools. Keeping up with the latest ones is a challenge, but when I see the dedication and commitment of faculty who are looking at these products in search of ways to better reach their students while also lifting up their own teaching skills -- it's a challenge that's worth the effort. So I am constantly looking into new instructional technology tools -- and old. Because that fire drill at the beginning of this blog reminds me that technology is a fickle thing. No amount of flashy new polling tools will replace the need for good instruction and the ability to teach -- or blog -- on the fly.