Twitter has launched their Twitter Polls feature, and it is currently only accessed by using Twitter on a laptop or desktop computer. The function will soon roll out to iOS and Android platforms. I think this is awesome!
As I’ve stated in Gamification training over the past year, your students are looking at their phones during your training. I don’t care if you’re the most engaging instructor in the world, most of the people in your workplace are using their smartphone to carry out work-related and personal or social tasks during your class. According to a study by a marketing agency in the UK, the average person picks up their smartphone over 1500 times each week!
I’ve advised safety professionals not to compete with social media and smartphones in their classroom. Instead, trainers must leverage the technology to help students achieve learning objectives. Here’s five simple ideas you can use in your classroom today:
- If you have a Twitter account, try the Twitter Polls feature! I posted my first poll today, check it out. The cool thing about this feature is that poll answers are anonymous.
- If you like the idea of using polls, but do not like the idea of bringing Twitter into your classroom, check out polleverywhere.com. You can use it from your laptop or download the app to your smartphone or tablet. Students can participate in the poll via special link, text to vote, or twitter hashtag vote. You choose how your students participate.
- Ask students to conduct a quick online search to gain basic knowledge of a new topic. For example, if you’re refreshing students on cold weather safety tips, give them three minutes at the start of the class or tailgate meeting to find a reputable piece of information to share with their coworkers. Remember how people learn more when they teach others? This incorporates technology as well, win-win!
- If the topic you are teaching the class about has a reputable app associated with it, ask the students to download the app and demonstrate how they would use it in the workplace. A couple of great examples are the NIOSH Ladder Safety app and OSHA’s popular Heat Stress app.
- Share links to safety-related Twitter and Facebook pages that apply to the training topic. When the students “like” or follow the pages, they will receive safety information whether they’re on the job or off the clock. A holistic safety program values employee safety off the job as well as in the workplace, this can be a sneaky way to get info out in addition to official company communication like emails, SharePoint posts, bulletin boards, and newsletters. The National Safety Council, OSHA, and ASSE pages are great places to start.
So, what do you think? Will you use any of these techniques? If you’re an avid Twitter user, vote in my poll here.