(2010) PRS @ LSE - why bother? Presentation slides

Editor's Notes

• #2: I don't really need you to tell you in great detail how we do our jobs, since we all do it pretty much in the same way, so I am just going to summarise a few key issues. What's the point of PRS? Is there a point? What’s the problem to which PRS is the solution, that kind of thing.
• #3: You know how introducing a classroom technology works, so I’ll do this quickly We identify a problem in the current HE setting: mass educational system bursting at the seams, for example retention: our keeping our students, students keeping information and learning in their heads. We hear that lectures are big, not engaging, boring. Students snore their way through a degree. Maybe conversations would make them engage with subject? But how can you enable conversations amongst 300 students in one hour?
• #4: Which is where we elearning people come in. We identified the problem (students are bored) We consider all relevant angles, literature, metaphors, diagrams, entrails we identify a theoretical solution and give it a name. INTERACTIVITY. As you can tell from this simple illustration, interactivity turns unhappy bunnies into star students. We get this by introducing PRS, or whatever you want to call it - EVS, or clickers or who wants to be a millionaire technology, or voting system or classroom conversation enabling system.
• #5: So far so brilliant. buy technology, test it, pilot it, cross our fingers, bring it to the academic staff and, Use evangelism, rhetoric, bribes for them to use it in their classrooms. We are dreamy, persuasive and the technology speaks for itself: There ARE good ways of using “clickers” to enhance the lecture learning experience for your students. * instant feedback on your teaching & their understanding * Grab attention * interactivity (!) “agile teaching”: fresh, quick, on your feet, instant response to the needs of the students there and then. And we know that students love having little devices to play with
• #6: We know this, because of course we ASK our students. The love for the new technology is instant and overwhelming. Typical quotes: “I thought the novelty would wear off, but it never did” “My friends in courses without clickers are, like, totally jealous”
• #7: Students are happy, Academics are happy, We did a good thing and we move on to solve the next pressing problem Creatively, Exuberantly, Excitingly. We really do have amazing jobs. Well, I do.
• #8: It’s not entirely untrue. New field, but preliminary research shows positive benefits: More fun, Breaks up lectures, keeps attention Students believe it enhances lectures I have found that they perceive the clickers to have enhanced their lectures. Obviously it depends on how the technology is used. Derek Bruff’s blog collects examples of good practice. So anything negative to report?
• #9: * the technology grabs attention and engages students in an interactive way – esp in increasing class sizes * Students focus when they know a question comes up * feedback: on student understanding, problems, directions, opinions. Data that teacher can work with there and then: AGILE, flexible, responsive. Feedback to inform next class anonymity can put students at ease - no fear of "being seen" to answer incorrectly or to admit not to have understood something
• #10: Before we hail PRS as the solution to everything, some questions: About student perception of their learning, the importance of interactivity, possiblity of agile teaching And let's not underestimate the cost of these systems either.
• #11: LSE bought initially 500 clickers for a new flagship course called LSE100. Each clicker costs round about 30 quid. So that's a million right there. To illustrate, that's equivalent to 4 highly trained nurses (I made that up) Or 4200 chocolate cakes (did not make that up, they retail at 3.69) In any case, that's a lot of money. Might be well worth it, might not. It's something to consider.
• #12: Here I haven’t got much to say. Just pressing a button to answer a question doesn’t seem awfully responsive. PRS can be used as instant assessment – that’s not interactive.
• #13: Agile teaching isn't easy, it's an art form (that I for one know very little about) It’s demanding - the possibility of teachers becoming super agile in a (LSE) research-led, research dominated institution... Is doubtful? Perhaps lectures don’t NEED to be interactive either? An academic – very good one, in favour of using classroom technologies – recently pointed out “when I’m giving a lecture, I do what I get paid to do: I speak and my students shut up. And if it’s about interaction, questioning, conversing in a large classroom – only collecting responses is not doing that either.
• #14: It comes down to the ability to write good questions (and that's not easy) How you use it = key If just used as a tool to gauge progress, the whole notion of engaging your Students with the subject matter might get lost again.