Cindy B. Allen

Session 6 - Hardware - Classroom Response System

Description: 

     A Classroom Response System (CRS) is a type of hardware (supplemented by software) used in colleges and elementary to high school classrooms today to measure how well students understand what is being taught in class.  With the CRS, students are given (or purchase) what looks like a television remote (also known as a keypad).  When a teacher asks a question, students can submit their answers via the remote and the teacher instantly can see student results about whether or not they understood the concept he/she is teaching.

Key findings from readings: ?Get Answers ? Using Student Response Systems to See Students? Thinking?, by David Johnson and Scott McLeod

     In this article the authors discussed all the different teaching strategies that teachers could use in the classroom with CRS, besides just asking questions.  Two CRS introduced were the Discourse System and TurningPoint System. 

     The teacher using the Discourse System played games with her students incorporating vocabulary.  A student would leave the room, she would give a word to the class, the student would return, and his/her classmates would give hints about the word via their keyboard with their hints displayed on the TV monitor.  Another teacher had students journal for ten minutes, she could see their writings and correct their work as they wrote.  Both these examples were in elementary schools.

     The teacher using TurningPoint was in a college setting.  Using PowerPoint, he could give a presentation, incorporate ?question? slides, ask students to respond and discuss their answers with each other prior to showing the class? answer, and then give the results.

     The benefits to this software are: (1) helps focus attention for students with attention deficit disorders, (2) increases student to teacher communication, (3) encourages ?shy? student participation, (4) gives students and teachers quick feedback which allows timely remediation, (5) teachers have less paperwork because scores can be recorded automatically, and (6) stimulates a classroom community.

     To utilize a CRS, schools need to purchase hardware and software.  Hardware includes the keypads (or remotes for each student) and a receiver hooked to the teachers? computer to receive answers.  Software is the CRS and teachers could choose according to their needs.  CRS vary in price from free to $8,499, the article compared different types of CRS and keypad efficiency.

Cindy?s ideas to apply in my own teaching:

     There are several ways I could apply CRS in my classroom.  First, I have students? record VoCATS questions everyday in their notebooks and answer a ?Thought for the Day?.  If students submitted their work through this system I could easily see if they had taken shortcuts, answered the ?Thought for the Day?, make comments to them, and have the system record their work.

   Next, when I give PowerPoint presentations that are included in my curriculum, I could incorporate ?question? slides, have students respond and discuss their answers with each other, and then display the class? results.

     Finally, the CRS would be helpful when reviewing for exams or tests.  I could instantly see what concepts the students did and did not understand and discuss the material right then instead of waiting to see where their weaknesses are on the exam (which is normally too late).

Posted at 04:40AM Jun 09, 2006 by cballen3 in General  |  Comments[0]