Question:

Has anyone used polling throughout their forum, particularly on the issue, “Preparing Today’s Youth for Tomorrow’s Jobs” to collect data and stimulate deliberation?

Background:

One of my frequent and long-term co-sponsors for National Issues Forums on health care has offered to loan 100 Option Finder polling key pads for an upcoming forum (February 4, 11 – YIKES!) using the NIF issue book, Preparing Today’s Youth for Tomorrow’s Jobs. Since we will have 100 people deliberating in small groups of 12 throughout the high school cafeteria, this technology which will project the results of our survey questions immediately, could be a great strategy to keep people engaged and aware that they are part of a larger group.

We always kick off these deliberative forums with the “virally popular” YouTube video, “Did You Know” which is an alarming portrait of the challenges of preparing today’s youth for “jobs that don’t exist using technologies that have not been invented.” (See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpEnFwiqdx8 for one iteration.) The keypads seem like another good way to introduce each of the approaches and give people a sense of the varied perspectives in the room.

I’ve got a short lead time, so I’d love to get your thoughts about how I can use this technology effectively.

Thanks!
Taylor