It can be difficult for a teacher to provide a truly
interactive learning environment. Teachers often end up resorting to the
standard lecture format that has the teacher saying the information and the
students simply jotting it down in their notes. This isn't due to lazy teachers
or disinterested students, but rather, to the structural difficulties inherent
in a classroom setting. The teacher needs to communicate knowledge that the students
need to remember and the most direct way to do this is to merely present the
information to them. That said, most teachers and students would prefer, and
would do better with, a more interactive learning environment.
Students are better able to grasp concepts and ideas when
they can interact with those ideas. Teachers had, until only recently, relied
entirely on things like polling students by having them raise their hands to
get their feedback and participation. While this is a great way for the more
outgoing students to participate, it does favor those who are willing to speak
out in front of their peers. Time constraints also make it hard for all
students to engage in the discussion.
With the introduction of classroom
response system, also called clicker response systems, teachers can use
technology to overcome some of the obstacles to better interaction. Teachers
can present a question to the class and students can respond instantly by
entering their answers into their personal clicker devices. The responses they
enter are recorded by a computer which can instantly generate graphs of the
students' aggregated responses. Each student can answer the question safe in
the knowledge that their peers will not be able to see how they responded,
while still providing teachers with the specific information on each student's
performance.
Students benefit from this type of instruction in several
ways. Students can join in the discussion and offer their responses without having
those responses linked to them by their peers. It also gives all students a
chance to weigh in, even if time is limited. Students who participate in the
discussion have a larger stake in the lesson and demonstrate a better
understanding of the material presented to them.
It's also better for teachers, as the socrative system provides
real-time feedback on the effectiveness of a lesson. Teachers can judge whether
the majority of the students are following and understanding the information
presented to them. If most of the students do not understand the material, the
teacher can switch to a different approach right away, instead of waiting to
see how well the students perform on a test later. The information provided by
the students that is stored by the computer can be used to further refine the
lessons, prepare student-specific help for those who aren't understanding the
material or online slideshow,
and provide an easy way to grade students on participation as well as
understanding of the material.
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