Using Audience Response Systems to Engage the Classroom
In the contemporary world of technology where every youngster possesses and is attached to their gadgets, it is very hard to manage a classroom effectively and keep everyone alert and engaged. For that very reason, teachers and instructors need to fight against the distraction and lack of interest among students with technology itself. Keep them busy with gadgets for the class purposes so that they will have an incentive to shy away from the class right into the class. Organize a class that requires a usage of gadgets for voting or reporting purposes and at the same time reap benefits for yourself.
Here are several ways to use the Audience Response Systems in a classroom and engage the students without any extra efforts.
1.The times of taking attendance on a paper are long gone and it is time for self-service. With audeince response systems, such as real-time polls, students can take attendance of themselves on their own.
The instructor needs to create a poll with each student’s name listed as a response option. During the class he/she needs to activate the poll, provide the link of it to students who then will click on their names as a sign of presence. After one short minute the instructor will need to deactivate the poll so that no one can check themselves as present if they are not in the class.
2. In case any one student does not understand the topic or has a question while others perfectly grasped it, he/she may send a question to the instructor throug the audience response system instead of openly asking it and free him/herself from further bullying and gossips. This way the class will be productive for each and every student.
Moreover, receiving questions right away is very effective because the instructor can answer those without being interrupted and can provide immediate responses. The class will very much benefit from this quick question-answer as well, as the topic explained will be fully exhausted.
3. Instructor may ask questions to students on any class related topic via audience response systems, i.e. live polls. The question could be about the newly explained material, to check how well students understood this or, or simply could be a midterm evaulation of the class. Students favor energizers like this, therefore, polls would be of a big help to have a class-related “two-minutes break” and then to take the class back to the lecture topic again.
On the other hand, the instructors benefit from the system also bacause the results of all the polls they ever conducted are being generated in one platform. Therefore, in the future if the instructor needs to make some comparison or make a classroom decision, they can always refer back to the data collected and make educated decisions.
Every pain has its painkiller, you just need to find the right remedy. The same goes with mobile usage during the lectures. Simply asking the students to put their phones on an airplane mode will not save the day. Instructors need a tech-based solution that will redirect students from social media sites to a class-related web page. An amazing solution to engaging the classroom via mobile devices is the usage of audience response systems in forms of taking attenddance, addressing and receiving questions and doing efficient midterm evaluations.
The world is full of solutions and all you need is to select the right key to enter the right door. Your door is open now!
