Analysis of a Technology Innovation
Overview:
Student Response Systems are among some of the latest technological devices to make an appearance on the educational scene. With companies like eLearning, Qwizdom, Turning Point technologies, and Smart Technologies, these little devices have made quite a debut in both K-12 and higher learning institutions. Students call them clickers, many educators call them a God-send. In this piece, I will take a look at this innovation and attempt to assess its worth for increasing student achievement as measured by research based effective teaching strategies. Is this just the latest fad or does its merits warrant it taking up permanent residence in the classroom.
Student response systems (SRS) are in-class polling devices designed to create an interactive and engaging learning environment (Lowery). They are typically used in the following way:
1. During class discussion or lecture, the instructor displays or verbalizes a question or problem previously prepared or spontaneously generated “on the fly”.
2. Students use their wireless key pads to key in their answers.
3. Responses are received by a receiver connected to the teachers computer or teacher SRS device, aggregated, and displayed on both the instructor’s computer monitor and/or are displayed for students to see via a projector. (Lowery)
Some systems only allow students to enter multiple-choice answers. Other systems allow the students to key in numeric answers. The teacher, then, immediately has access to the students’ thinking and he/she can tailor the lesson to the needs of all students or use the responses to generate more discussion around a particular topic. In many cases, individual student answers can be recorded and documented allowing the teacher to analyze how individual students responded and what they might need help with.
Problem of practice:
In the piece entitled “Teaching” by Jere Brophy, Dr. Brophy outlines the ten most effective classroom process that lead to student achievement. In the classroom, teachers should be poised and ready to subscribe to as many of these teaching practices to promote student achievement. Below, I’ll state a few of these processes and talk a bit about how the use of Student Response systems can help teachers implement these processes.
1) Supportive Classroom Climate
Problem: When students do not feel comfortable or when they feel at risk of being ridiculed, they do not fully engage, answer questions, or ask for help with understanding (Brophy). This leads to a decrease in achievement.
Innovative Solution: Brophy says that learning is maximized when students are encouraged to ask questions without embarrassment and can contribute to lessons without fear of their ideas being ridiculed (Brophy). Clickers promote active participation, engagement, and discussion among all students, even those who might not participate in typical class-wide discussions. (Bruff). They can anonymously give their input and evaluate their understanding.
2) Thoughtful Discourse (planned questions)
Problem: The teacher has tried to anticipate and develop good questions to help facilitate a lesson. He/she poses the questions to students as the lesson progresses, but it only able to hear the responses of a few students. The silence in the room or the 1 or 2 correct responses given may lead the teacher to believe that no one has any additional questions or need for clarification.
Innovative Solution: The teacher has planned questions that are designed to develop the content systematically and that help students construct understandings of it by relating it to their prior knowledge and collaborating in dialogue about it (Brophy). However, typical classroom constraints prohibit the instructor from knowing what all students are thinking and how they are making sense of the concept. Posing questions via a student response system would allow not only the teacher, but the other students to benefit from the thinking of others. Often times, discussion is generated around the wrong answers as much as they are the correct answers. This created dialogue and increases the understanding of all students (Turpen).
3) Practice and Application activities (improvement-oriented feedback)
Problem: The traditional way of assessing students via pencil and paper quizzes and tests, homework, or projects have proven to be relatively effective and is definitely the most common method of assessing students. One of the issues, however, is that teachers often take several days to go through all of the quizzes, tests, homework assignments, and such and are not able to give students immediate feedback. In order for students to be successful they need sufficient opportunities to practice and apply what they are learning, and to receive improvement-oriented feedback (Brophy).
Innovative solution: SRS operating system software typically automates data collection and report writing in a user-friendly fashion. In addition, most systems output data files to the standard database, spreadsheet, and statistical analysis packages (Lowery). This allows teachers more time to give students constructive feedback and make suggestions about how to proceed without the hassle of tedious grading and computing. Teachers can now communicate with students and parents about the strengths and weaknesses of learning targets.
Implications:
SRSs have proven to be a tool that allows teachers to focus on the craft of teaching and promote positive learning outcomes in the classroom. This is an innovation that will allow teachers to improve their craft with relatively little more time investment. SRSs can be easily integrated into classrooms whether the teacher traditionally lectures students or uses a variety of teaching methods. Students are engaged and on task and often ask for teachers to pose questions beyond that of rote memory and recall (Turpen).
I have ever intention to implement this innovation in my 9th grade mathematics classes. Our school has just recently purchased a few sets of the Qwizdom student response system. Every school year, I struggle to stay on top of grading and wish that I could give parents and students more meaningful feedback about their progress. There are three ways that I plan to use the system: 1) posing prepared and “on the fly” questions during lecture to check in with students and to see where they are in their understanding of concepts, 2) to poll students at the start of class ask questions with no right answer intended to provoke discussion and, 3) to quiz students and provide immediate feedback. I am looking to have this new form of data collection inform my teaching so that I can make decisions in programming that lead to better student learning outcomes and to engage more students in the learning process in the classroom.
Bibliography:
Brophy, J. Teaching. International Academy of Education: Educational Practice Series-1 (Switzerland)
http://www.ibe.unesco.org/en/services/publications/educational-practices.html
Bruff, Derek. "Clickers: A classroom innovation”. National Education Association: Higher Education Advocate 25.1 (2007): p. 5-8
http://www.ctl.calpoly.edu/workshops/fliers/08_Sp_AcademeClickers.pdf
Lowery, Roger C. (2005). Teaching and Learning with Interactive Student Response Systems: A Comparison of Commercial Products in the Higher-Education Market. Prepared for presentation at the annual meeting of the Southwestern Social Science Association (Wilmington, NC)
http://people.uncw.edu/lowery/swssa ms.pdf
Turpen, Chandra. Geekgirl54. (2009, November 12). Clickers in the Classroom: The Research. Do clickers help students learn?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxKHXyVtVIA
Student Response Systems are among some of the latest technological devices to make an appearance on the educational scene. With companies like eLearning, Qwizdom, Turning Point technologies, and Smart Technologies, these little devices have made quite a debut in both K-12 and higher learning institutions. Students call them clickers, many educators call them a God-send. In this piece, I will take a look at this innovation and attempt to assess its worth for increasing student achievement as measured by research based effective teaching strategies. Is this just the latest fad or does its merits warrant it taking up permanent residence in the classroom.
Student response systems (SRS) are in-class polling devices designed to create an interactive and engaging learning environment (Lowery). They are typically used in the following way:
1. During class discussion or lecture, the instructor displays or verbalizes a question or problem previously prepared or spontaneously generated “on the fly”.
2. Students use their wireless key pads to key in their answers.
3. Responses are received by a receiver connected to the teachers computer or teacher SRS device, aggregated, and displayed on both the instructor’s computer monitor and/or are displayed for students to see via a projector. (Lowery)
Some systems only allow students to enter multiple-choice answers. Other systems allow the students to key in numeric answers. The teacher, then, immediately has access to the students’ thinking and he/she can tailor the lesson to the needs of all students or use the responses to generate more discussion around a particular topic. In many cases, individual student answers can be recorded and documented allowing the teacher to analyze how individual students responded and what they might need help with.
Problem of practice:
In the piece entitled “Teaching” by Jere Brophy, Dr. Brophy outlines the ten most effective classroom process that lead to student achievement. In the classroom, teachers should be poised and ready to subscribe to as many of these teaching practices to promote student achievement. Below, I’ll state a few of these processes and talk a bit about how the use of Student Response systems can help teachers implement these processes.
1) Supportive Classroom Climate
Problem: When students do not feel comfortable or when they feel at risk of being ridiculed, they do not fully engage, answer questions, or ask for help with understanding (Brophy). This leads to a decrease in achievement.
Innovative Solution: Brophy says that learning is maximized when students are encouraged to ask questions without embarrassment and can contribute to lessons without fear of their ideas being ridiculed (Brophy). Clickers promote active participation, engagement, and discussion among all students, even those who might not participate in typical class-wide discussions. (Bruff). They can anonymously give their input and evaluate their understanding.
2) Thoughtful Discourse (planned questions)
Problem: The teacher has tried to anticipate and develop good questions to help facilitate a lesson. He/she poses the questions to students as the lesson progresses, but it only able to hear the responses of a few students. The silence in the room or the 1 or 2 correct responses given may lead the teacher to believe that no one has any additional questions or need for clarification.
Innovative Solution: The teacher has planned questions that are designed to develop the content systematically and that help students construct understandings of it by relating it to their prior knowledge and collaborating in dialogue about it (Brophy). However, typical classroom constraints prohibit the instructor from knowing what all students are thinking and how they are making sense of the concept. Posing questions via a student response system would allow not only the teacher, but the other students to benefit from the thinking of others. Often times, discussion is generated around the wrong answers as much as they are the correct answers. This created dialogue and increases the understanding of all students (Turpen).
3) Practice and Application activities (improvement-oriented feedback)
Problem: The traditional way of assessing students via pencil and paper quizzes and tests, homework, or projects have proven to be relatively effective and is definitely the most common method of assessing students. One of the issues, however, is that teachers often take several days to go through all of the quizzes, tests, homework assignments, and such and are not able to give students immediate feedback. In order for students to be successful they need sufficient opportunities to practice and apply what they are learning, and to receive improvement-oriented feedback (Brophy).
Innovative solution: SRS operating system software typically automates data collection and report writing in a user-friendly fashion. In addition, most systems output data files to the standard database, spreadsheet, and statistical analysis packages (Lowery). This allows teachers more time to give students constructive feedback and make suggestions about how to proceed without the hassle of tedious grading and computing. Teachers can now communicate with students and parents about the strengths and weaknesses of learning targets.
Implications:
SRSs have proven to be a tool that allows teachers to focus on the craft of teaching and promote positive learning outcomes in the classroom. This is an innovation that will allow teachers to improve their craft with relatively little more time investment. SRSs can be easily integrated into classrooms whether the teacher traditionally lectures students or uses a variety of teaching methods. Students are engaged and on task and often ask for teachers to pose questions beyond that of rote memory and recall (Turpen).
I have ever intention to implement this innovation in my 9th grade mathematics classes. Our school has just recently purchased a few sets of the Qwizdom student response system. Every school year, I struggle to stay on top of grading and wish that I could give parents and students more meaningful feedback about their progress. There are three ways that I plan to use the system: 1) posing prepared and “on the fly” questions during lecture to check in with students and to see where they are in their understanding of concepts, 2) to poll students at the start of class ask questions with no right answer intended to provoke discussion and, 3) to quiz students and provide immediate feedback. I am looking to have this new form of data collection inform my teaching so that I can make decisions in programming that lead to better student learning outcomes and to engage more students in the learning process in the classroom.
Bibliography:
Brophy, J. Teaching. International Academy of Education: Educational Practice Series-1 (Switzerland)
http://www.ibe.unesco.org/en/services/publications/educational-practices.html
Bruff, Derek. "Clickers: A classroom innovation”. National Education Association: Higher Education Advocate 25.1 (2007): p. 5-8
http://www.ctl.calpoly.edu/workshops/fliers/08_Sp_AcademeClickers.pdf
Lowery, Roger C. (2005). Teaching and Learning with Interactive Student Response Systems: A Comparison of Commercial Products in the Higher-Education Market. Prepared for presentation at the annual meeting of the Southwestern Social Science Association (Wilmington, NC)
http://people.uncw.edu/lowery/swssa ms.pdf
Turpen, Chandra. Geekgirl54. (2009, November 12). Clickers in the Classroom: The Research. Do clickers help students learn?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxKHXyVtVIA