Student-response Systems Offer Immediate Feedback

Oct 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Linda Seid Frembes

Student-response systems have gained popularity in recent years especially with the trend of increased student-teacher interaction and the need to establish measureable goals under the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. The technology powering response systems have changed rapidly since the 1960s, when audience- (or personal-) response systems first debuted. Today, response system manufacturers such as Turning Technologies of Youngstown, Ohio, serve the education, corporate, and government markets with their products.

“The student-response systems are our core products,” says Turning Technologies' Vice President of Education Sales Brad Gant, who oversees the sales and marketing to both K-12 and higher-education market segments. “We are installed in 2,200 universities and in 10,000 K-12 classrooms.”

Student-response systems offer an immediate feedback loop in which the teacher knows if the class understands the material he or she just presented to them. Studies published in journals such as The Psychological Record have shown that “immediate, rather than delayed, feedback results in the greatest increases in retention, confidence, and ability to identify initially correct responses, and the greatest decreases in preservative incorrect responding.” (Dihoff, R. E., Brosvic, G. M., Epstein, M. L., and Cook, M. J. [2004])

“Students are using technology at home, and have it in the form of video games and cell phones,” Gant says. “However, many classrooms lack the proper technology to foster student engagement.” However, Turning Technologies products can be seamlessly integrated into any classroom environment. TurningPoint, the company’s flagship product, is native to Microsoft PowerPoint and features plug-and-play hardware setup. TurningPoint also includes a list of state and national standards as well as supports remote polling via its RemotePoll feature that is best for applications such as videoconferencing for remote campuses.