Technology Integration
Electronic Response Systems
Electronic Response Systems are not particularly foreign to the instructional setting. Since the 1960s, this hardware has been used in many college lecture halls. Electronic Response Systems can simply be described as a buzzer (without the sound) or a stimulus-response device. Its early use merely recorded answers from the students in a classroom and other systems provided a count of the total number of responses to every question posed by the teacher. The most recent versions are wireless, portable and even carry the ability to graph and project histograms of entire classrooms? responses. Despite the changes in the design of electronic response systems, the focus behind their use remains unchanged ? to provide immediate feedback to multiple-choice questions and inform the instructor of student understanding.
The major finding in research conducted in the 1960s and 1970s indicate no significant correlation between student academic achievement and a stimulus-response system. Along with that finding are a few positive attributes from more recent research. Among them include: an increase of attentiveness and personal understanding along with increased student discussion. To avoid the initial downfall of early studies, I plan to place more emphasis on my pedagogical practice when using classroom response systems. As stated in the Judson article, an electronic response system does not come prepackaged with interactive engagement. I believe that is important to keep in mind for all software and hardware that a teacher uses in his/her classroom. It will primarily be my method and delivery of instruction, with the use of a response system as simply an aid, which will promote the student academic achievement that was missing in early use of electronic response systems.
There are two main reasons why I want and plan to implement the use of classroom response systems. (1) So that I am aware of which students are not fully grasping concepts presented in class. If I am more aware of these individual students, then I can quickly adapt my instruction to accommodate their needs, to further explain, demonstrate, and affirm what it is that they are missing. Too many students are left to fall between the cracks when their lack of understanding is not addressed, and addressed immediately. (2) So that I can encourage and foster productive student discussion. An electronic response system has the potential to eliminate the unnecessary chattering/ gossiping amongst students that occur in nearly all classrooms. That excessive talking can be redirected in meaningful discussion of material being presented during a lecture. I also believe that stimulus-response devices will prove to be particularly useful in my Accounting classes. Despite many misconceptions that Accounting is about nothing but equations and preparing financial statements, my students have to be knowledgeable of many theory-based concepts and business principles in order to be able to analyze transactions and events. The implementation of electronic response systems can make learning those concepts more engaging. For example, I plan to divide my class into small groups during random class lectures. Periodically, I will pose a multiple-choice question to the entire class. Rather than simply accepting a response of A, B, C, or D and proceeding to the next, each group will be required to have discussed their response with each group member before ?buzzing in?. The discussion of their response before answering and not just afterward hearing everyone?s responses will require a consensus ? encouraging the group members of every group to re-teach material to each other. After sufficient time of allowing the groups to decide on their answer, I will randomly choose one person to give an explanation for why their group chose their response. My random selection of one student to respond will avoid one or two students from answering all of the time and most importantly, will cause each group to work more closely to ensure that ALL group members have a clear understanding. Stronger students will have the challenge of teaching what they know to the weaker students, and the weaker students will have the opportunity to have material presented to them again for a deeper understanding. They will also have to be able to tell me why they chose to eliminate the other three possible answers. My goal is that the aid of electronic response systems in the context in which I plan to use them will ultimately increase student academic achievement, not just their attentiveness.
Natasha Deese
Posted at 07:37PM Jun 16, 2006 by nvivey in General | Comments[0]