Classroom Communicator in Education for Development of Quality Teacher

Dates

Principal Investigator

Arif Nurahman

Fisika Bumi Siliwangi, Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia

&

MIT-Harvard Open Course Ware

Problem

Large lecture halls may inhibit student participation in class discussions if they fear a negative reaction from other students. Because of this pattern, faculty are not always in tune with student comprehension levels in large lectures.

Goal

To develop innovative technology—a cell phone equipped with a web browser—to enable instructors and students to communicate more comfortably and effectively in large classes.

Overview

The Classroom Communicator uses computer technology (a cell phone equipped with a web browser) to increase the level of interaction between students and professors. Typically, a lecturer spends most of the class time presenting material while allowing some time for answering questions. Students often have questions while the lecturer is presenting. Many of these questions may not be answered because the student forgets to ask, is afraid to ask, or there is not enough time to ask.

One aspect of the Classroom Communicator is to facilitate the question and answering session. While the lecturer is presenting, students can enter their questions into the system (possibly anonymously). When the lecturer reaches a reasonable break in material, he or she may retrieve a frequently asked questions (FAQ) report generated by the Classroom Communicator software.

The Classroom Communicator also gives lecturers a real-time quantitative measure of how well students understand the material presented. For example, a lecturer can incorporate "mini-quizzes" into his/her lecture. The quizzes could be a series of multiple choice questions loaded in the system before class. After presenting a particular topic, the lecturer can, at the press of a button, display a question on the students' units. If most students answer correctly, the lecturer may feel comfortable to proceed to the next topic. If most students answer incorrectly, the lecturer may want to spend more time on the current topic. In effect, the lecturer will be able to manage class time and address the needs of the students in real-time.

"Classroom Communication Systems (CCS) are effective pedagogical tools that allow the communication of new information between instructors and students during class. Most students who have been asked to compare this Classroom Communicator to other commercially available systems report that they like the Classroom Communicator as much, if not better than, the commercially available solutions." — Arif Nurahman, FiBuSi, Research Center