How'd you like to give an instant survey in your classroom? There's new Palm software that can do just that: NinePoll from Ninelocks.com. NinePoll allows for a Palm user to create a poll, collect votes, and view the results.

A teacher or student creates a survey question with up to for responses. Then, the poll can be conducted in one of two different ways. The poll question can be beamed to other handhelds. The other handheld users make a selection and the original handheld collects the votes back by another beam. The results are updated as the votes come in. In addition, NinePoll can collect votes on the same handheld. This is handy if only one handheld is available. Perhaps that one handheld could be passed around the class or group. Again, the results are tallied and a percentage given. There are also colorful bar and pie graphs displaying the results. The results can even be exported to Memos for safe keeping, syncing, and printing. Be sure to check out the help menus to learn how to use NinePoll. But, like the developer says, the best way to learn to use NinePoll is to try using it.

Taking classroom polls are great for so many reasons. It helps students understand mathematical concepts like sample size, percentages, and graphs. Also, polls can help teachers check for understanding, opinions, and interests. NinePoll is a great application and I can't wait to see the different ways teachers use it!

Jon Trinder was gracious enough to create NinePoll because of a request posted on my Software Wish List. Thanks so much Jon for making this available to anyone and everyone for free!