The Human Voice Box as a Tool for Interactive Learning
One student-centered strategy in
the classroom is to organize students into small groups and to
encourage these small groups to engage in collaborative
small-group activities such as discussions and problem solving.
There are several flavors of this approach, with names such as
active learning, collaborative learning, cooperative learning,
guided inquiry classes, interactive learning, peer-lead team
learning, and student-focused learning.
Go to
Interactive Human
Voice
Hand-Held
Student Response System (SRS) Devices
Hand-held
devices that communicate with a computer add
interactive-learning options not available by using just the
human voice. A well-know example is the Ask the Audience
Lifeline on the ABC television quiz show
Who Wants To Be a Millionaire?, in which
each member of the audience answers the multiple-choice question
at the request of the contestant. Most of the time, the answer
chosen by the majority is the correct one. I do not know if the
devices in the ABC studio are hard-wired or use wireless
connections to the computer. Without the deep pockets of a
television network, it is impractical to retrofit a classroom
for hard-wired devices. I will only discuss wireless options.
Go to
Hand-Held SRS Devices
Notebook Computers with Wireless LAN Connections
The
picture shows my students in a freshman chemistry honors course
in 2001 using wirelessly connected notebook PCs in the classroom
to observe a computer simulation of the conversion of a gas into
a condensed phase.
Needless to say, notebook PCs
with wireless LAN connections, in the hands of students, greatly
increase the options for interactive research-style learning in
the classroom. A variety of examples are given, taken from my
research project on this topic funded by the Camille & Henry
Dreyfus Foundation.
An earlier presentation:
“Wireless LAN Technology Promotes Research-Style Learning in
Introductory Chemistry Lecture Courses”
(5,635 KB)
Presented by Adam Allerhand at the 16th Biennial Conference in Chemical Education,
August 2000
For a discussion of
wireless LAN technology itself, see the chapter on “Wireless
Internet”
Go to
Notebook PCs & Wireless LAN
