Emerging Technology

From the raising of hands to the click of a button

For centuries students and participants responded to the teacher’s or presenter’s questions by raising their hand. Teachers would quiz their students utilizing multiple methods such as quizzes, tests, tickets out the door, or by having students respond to questions at the end of sections of the text. New technology has been developed to now provide teachers and students instant feedback; these devices are called student response devices. Teachers or presenters can provide students or participants with a question; each individual can respond to the question utilizing the method the method provided likert, multiple choice, numeric, sequential order, and others.

There are many companies that provide student response devices: SMART, Promethean, Qwizdom, H-itt, eInstruction, and many more. These companies provide these devices at varying price points. Some of these companies also provide professional development to help new users effectively utilize these new educational tools.

This technology also has research and articles to support its use with participants or students such as:

Educause Learning Initiative. (2005, May). 7 things you should know about...Clickers. Retrieved from University of Wisconsin Milwaukee: http://www4.uwm.edu/Itc/srs/faculty/docs/7things.pdf

Immerwahr, J. (2012, June 12). "Clicker"--Student Response Devices. Retrieved from Teach Philosophy 101: http://www.teachphilosophy101.org/Default.aspx?tabid=155

Manzo, K. K. (2009, June 17). Student-Response Systems Provide Instant Classroom Feedback. Retrieved from Education Week Digital Directions: http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2009/06/17/04feedback.h02.html

Roger C. Lowery, P. (2005, March 16). Retrieved from Teaching and learning with Interactive Student Response Systems: A Comparison of Commercial Products in the Higher-Education Market: http://people.uncw.edu/lowery/swssa%20ms.pdf

William R. Penuel, V. C. (n.d.). sri.com. Retrieved from Teaching with Student Response System Technology: A Survey of K-12 Teachers: http://www.ctl.sri.com/publications/downloads/Teaching_with_Audience_Response_Systems_Brief_Report.pdf