Is it realistic to think that a single instructional device can transform the learning process for primary and secondary students, university students and corporate or government trainees? Yes, it is.
Every day, a primary school student struggling to read, a secondary school student mastering algebra, a higher education student exploring physics, a corporate executive participating in a seminar on knowledge management, and a government employee participating in a workshop for emergency services training, can each hold the same instructional tool, which will allow for a highly individualised successful learning experience.
Response technology - commonly referred to as "audience response technology", "student response technology" or affectionately as "clickers" - is the technology that may be used across all of these learning environments. It is a straightforward technology where questions can be posed to a group of participants, they press a key on their clicker that matches their choice and the results of the entire group are displayed on a graph.
The technology has, in fact, been around since the 1960s but has significantly grown in popularity in the past 10 years as the technology has improved and become more affordable.
The growth is supported by a growing number of published research papers studying response technology across multiple environments and subject disciplines providing evidence supporting the validity of practices such as engagement, immediate feedback, assessment for learning, data-driving decision-making, peer instruction, active learning and agile teaching.
Few technologies exist with the flexibility to support such a diverse range of instructional models, which, in the past, have been nearly impossible to implement due to logistical constraints.
The primary school teacher, whose goal it is to practise assessments for learning, can progressively monitor student growth over time by asking five to 10 questions daily rather than one lengthy assessment every week, by utilising clickers to simplify the process. The technology reduces the time required of the teacher to grade papers, which in turn allows the teacher the ability to respond to the needs of the students as problems arise, avoiding delays in student understanding.
The high school teacher who has struggled to maintain the attention of teenage learners, realising the average attention span of students at this age is approximately seven minutes, can embed questions into instructions that require all students to respond. They can now engage each student throughout the lesson, when typically the students would have begun to disengage.
The university physics instructor who realises that students are passing his assessments, but not truly comprehending even the basic concepts, can use a clicker system to facilitate peer instruction by encouraging student interaction during lectures. The convince-your-neighbour discussions systematically increase both the percentage of correct answers and the confidence of the students.
The corporate trainer who poses difficult questions to a group of executives, who are reluctant to respond honestly, because it could impact how they are viewed by their peers or impact their future career, can benefit from the anonymous polling functionality of a TurningPoint system. The ability to promote honest dialogue and focus on the specific needs of a group leads to systematic change rather than superficial results.
The government trainer who needs to confirm mastery due to the critical nature of a topic, such as emergency evacuation plans, can value the use of a clicker system by efficiently administering both pre- and post- evaluation to determine immediately that the material has not merely been delivered but has been mastered by the trainees. Clickers can accomplish this regardless of group size or location, as the technology collects and collates this information instantly.
Participate is the proud South African distributor for Turning Technologies, the world leaders in response technology, with partners in over 90 countries and over five million devices in the market place.
Offering a comprehensive solution, Participate gives you the option to choose from a number of different clicker devices combined with an assortment of polling software to fit your unique requirements, including the use of mobile phones, wireless tablets and computers.
Our goal is to partner with schools, universities, corporations and governments to help enhance their teaching and learning processes, with prescriptive professional development and customised implementation plans.
Contact us for a complimentary needs assessment for your organisation.
We'd like to thank Tina Rooks Vice President & Chief Instructional Officer at Turning Technologies, contributing author to this article.
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