Truth, Lies
& Voting Systems
ESTICT, Edinburgh, April 2010
Engaging Students Through
In-Class Technology
Engaging Students Through In-Class Technology
(ESTICT) is a UK network of education
practitioners and learning technologists
interested in promoting good practice with
classroom technologies that can enhance faceto-face teaching.
Let’s Think About
Voting Systems
Little White Lies?
Or The Real Truth?
“... EVS encouraged active learning ... but this was only
apparent when questions were being posed during an
EVS lecture ... In the previous year’s final MCQ
examination ... there was no difference ... for students
attending EVS or traditional lectures and by this measure
there is no learning advantage of the EVS over traditional
lectures ...”
“... Research studies show that the use of clickers results
in measurable increases in student learning in some
cases and inconclusive results in other cases. In every
published report of student improvement with the use
of clickers, the course included student collaboration of
some form ...”
“... Students perceive value in the use of clickers and
would recommend their use in future classes.
Contrary to expectations, learning outcomes of
students using clickers did not improve more than the
traditional active learning approach of using class
discussion ...”
“ ... Students in clicker sections (compared to traditional
sections) did not report feeling significantly more
engaged during class. We suggest that future
researchers might combine clicker technology with
other, established pedagogical techniques ...”
Truth or Lies?
What’s Going on Here?
What Has Changed?
Is Our Pedagogical Research
Pseudo-Scientific?
A Simple Truth
Much, much, more meaningful classroom
research, based on modern educational
psychology, is needed to understand what
is the ‘good practice’ that can enhance
face-to-face teaching through in-class
technology (& voting systems in particular)
Have the Students Changed?
Another Simple Truth
We teach today’s
students, not yesterdays
Has the Technology, or Our Use of It,
Changed?
A Well Known Truth
“… for the computer to bring about a
revolution in higher education, its
introduction must be accompanied by
improvements in our understanding of
teaching and learning …”
Herbert Simon, Nobel Laureate, 1986
So ... what about our
understanding of teaching and
learning as it relates to the
‘technology’ of
voting systems?
Classroom Communication Systems (CCS)
Personal Response Systems (PRS)
Audience Response Systems (ARS)
Electronic Voting Systems (EVS)
Clickers (!)
ClassTalk & PRS were
developed as Classroom
Communication Systems,
NOT Voting Systems
Another Truth?
“ ... both the challenges (why use slideshows
& how is good teaching re-used?) imply we
don’t want a slideshow support like
PowerPoint but a palette-like toolbox for
creating activities on the spot) ...”
Steve Draper, ESTICT, Leicester, 2009
“ ... at the ESTICT event yesterday, Steve Draper threw
out some challenging comments, as expected. For me,
the most interesting was not about electronic voting
systems (EVS), but about PowerPoint.
One of the main reasons I’m not terribly interested in
EVS is because most of the systems I have used are so
tightly integrated with PowerPoint that inevitably they
fall down because of the limitations of PowerPoint ...”
Genetics News Blog 27th November 2009
One of the main contributors to student boredom is the use of PowerPoint
Space Shuttle Columbia Disaster
February 1st 2003
“ ... it is effective to speak to a diagram, because it presents
information in a different form. But it is not effective to
speak to the same words that are written, because it is
putting too much load on the mind and decreases your
ability to understand what is being presented ...”
“... the addition of redundant information can have
strong negative consequences ... If one form of
instruction is intelligible and adequate, providing the
same information in a different form will impose an
extraneous cognitive load ...”
“... Cognitive Load Theory has been designed to
provide guidelines intended to assist in the
presentation of information in a manner that
encourages learner activities that optimize intellectual
performance ...”
So, if you’re using EVS through
PowerPoint, what needs to be
changed?
A Final Truth
Dee Fink’s
Foundational
Knowledge
Learning How to Learn
•Becoming a better student
•Inquiring about a subject
Understanding and remembering:
•Information
•Ideas
•Self-directing learners
Integration
Connecting:
Caring
•Ideas
Developing new:
•People
•Feelings
•Realms of life
•Interests
•Values
Application
Human Dimension
Learning about:
•Oneself
•Others
•Skills
•Thinking:
Critical, creative and
practical thinking
•Managing projects
What’s the IMPACT during class?
Sweller et al: A change to long term memory
Fink: A significant learning experience
So, how should a lesson be
designed for EVS to help make that
IMPACT?