My conjecture is that individual keypad-response units will encourage more active participation during lectures. It will provide both the students and myself with immediate feedback. The lecture remains our most cost-effective and widely used means of teaching, yet little has been done to support the lecture with technology. The conventional lecture has the lecturer as the focus.
Students often become passive note takers.
In the demonstration, I will use 16 radio keypad-response units to illustrate their potential. Students then choose an answer and the computer collects, by radio, these responses from the whole class. Once the class has had an opportunity to respond, everyone may then see, on the next slide, a histogram of the responses. I can then explain why a particular answer is right or wrong. Students are then able to compare their own response with this explanation.