The field of IT is highly multidisciplinary, and the student body is very diverse. Topics that may be clear to some may be confusing to others. In a classroom setting, it may be hard for teachers to gauge whether or not students are actually getting lost.
- I try to read faces, but there are too many faces to read, says James Wen, Professor in HCI and lecturer at Molde University College.
This is the reasoning behind James’ new classroom technology, which gives students the chance to tell the teacher when they're lost or confused by just tapping their phone. He built it himself based on the experiences from teaching.
- It’s a way for me to make sure that we’re all on the same page”, says James. “My goal as a teacher is to explain concepts so that the students succeed in their studies. I have lots of different ways of explaining things but I don’t know if I need to tap into different perspectives if things are not resonating with some students or just move on, if everybody is with me. This tool helps my students and I to stay in sync at all times.
Confusion scale
This new way of classroom communication is all happening through the students' phones and the teacher's computer. Once the students are logged on, they can communicate with the teacher. With the tap of a button, students can anonymously express their confusion.
The teacher sees the confusion scale in real time, represented by different emojis ranging from smiley faces to frowning faces, depending on the number of students who press the button.
Students positive to the technology
The students in his course IBE320 have been using this technology in many of his lectures. “It’s nice to be able to speak directly to the teacher, without being singled out in the classroom”, says one of the students.
In addition to the confused-button, the student appreciates the second feature the technology provides, which is to ask anonymous questions directly to the teacher. When a question is being asked by one student, the teacher will instantly receive it on a separate screen. By keeping the question only on the teacher's screen gives them the opportunity to seamlessly integrate the students' questions into the lecture.
“I can’t believe why this hasn’t been a thing before”, says student Anna Indridadottir.
Read more
- james.c.wen@himolde.no
- Phone
- +47 71 21 40 99