Links

This page is offered to help you search for more information about audience response technology.

Unfortunately, the field has not yet moved toward a single label for the technology.

Search Terms

Terms to search on:

  1. audience response systems
  2. student response systems
  3. classroom response systems
  4. clickers (most hits on Google, but unfortunately associated with animal training)

Best Websites for Unbiased Information

Books

Manufacturers/Developers:

Note: Some offer clickers; Some offer technology where clickers aren’t needed.

IMPORTANT NOTE: In addition to these websites there are dozens of cell-phone apps that you can find for use on iPhone or Android phones.

In no particular order:

What are Audience Response Systems?

Classroom audience response systems provide learners with handsets (or other input devices) that enable them to respond to instructor questions or other queries. Learner inputs are typically compiled in a database and are displayed through a projection system so that learners and instructors can see the results. Today’s audience response systems typically include (a) handsets, (b) a receiver to gather learner inputs, and (c) software to compile, capture, and display learner inputs. In addition, these systems require (d) a computer, and (e) a projection system. When used for data gathering, the systems can by augmented with (f) spreadsheet software. Older response systems were often hardwired, whereas most current systems are portable and wireless.

The following graphic diagram shows the most critical elements of audience response learning.

 

ARS-Graphic_png2

Although others who have diagrammed these systems often omit the instructor—probably to avoid cluttering the diagram—I include the instructor to highlight the importance of instructor facilitation, question development, and session organization. One thing that is critical, but hidden in the diagram, is the software that runs the audience response interface. Note that some instructors prefer two projectors/screens, using one screen to show the question and one to display either (a) the acknowledgement of handset responses and/or (b) the graph of the answer results. Finally, note that due to space limitations the graphic above does not depict the learners working in groups or involved in discussion, a key component of the learning process.

Welcome

Hi. This is Dr. Will Thalheimer.

I’ve created this website to support the emerging community of professionals who utilize, develop, purchase, administer, or do research on audience response systems as they are used in classrooms to improve learning.

This site specifically offers a free research-to-practice report on how to utilize audience response systems to bolster learning.

Click here to download the report.

It also offers a central place from which you may search for additional trusted information as well as providing a perspective on the field from an unbiased source. I am a researcher and consultant in the workplace learning-and-performance field, and I receive zero percentage of my income from audience response learning consulting. I took an interest in the field several years ago when I was approached by Dr. Steve Huff who worked for eInstruction. He liked my research reporting on learning, and asked whether I would look at audience response technology in terms of learning. The result is the report above.

I continue to maintain this website because I am concerned that people sell and see audience response technology as a quick fix to maintain learner interest. While interest may be temporarily raised, if this is all you do with audience response technology, you are committing educational malpractice. The research report will give you a much deeper insight into the many ways that well-designed audience response learning can support deep and meaningful learning.

 

 

Join me in Will’s Book Project !!

Update 2014

As many of you know, I’ve been working on THE book for over 15 years, compiling research from the world’s preeminent refereed journals on learning, memory, and instruction—and refining my research analysis as a consultant and instructional designer involved with clients facing real-world challenges.

Since 1998, I’ve been implementing what I’ve learned and sharing practical recommendations with a wide variety of clients, including folks like Walgreens, ADP, Novartis, MIT, Tufts University, Allen Interactions, Pfizer, Microsoft, The Defense Intelligence Agency, and many others. By putting the research to the test in a wide variety of real-world situations, I’ve been able to derive research-based recommendations that work for learning professionals.

After exhaustive efforts, THE book is now well over 700 pages, but it’s still not near being done. Given this hard reality–and the wisdom that nobody really wants to read a 900-page book, I’ve decided to start publishing short books based on the big book. I’ve got a completed draft of the first one, and should have that published by the end of the year.

With the big book, I had hoped to share research-based insights at the same time I challenged the field to take giant leaps toward more-effective practices. With the small books, I will endeavor to do the same. I’ll tell you this–the draft of the first book is freakin’ awesome–even if for now I have to just say so myself.

If you’re interested in being one of the first to know what’s happening, sign up for my newsletter list. Also, swing by my book blog from time to time as I release short nuggets from the coming book stream.

Thanks for your interest!!

 

= Will

 

Where is Will?

Hello!!

I'm still alive and kicking but I have found it necessary to decouple myself from public speaking engagements and from my blog and twitter as I continue to work on the following main events:

  • working with my core clients
  • writing and researching my magnum opus (a book focused on channeling research-based evidence into practical learning approaches and one intended to get us workplace learning professionals to take to the streets and storm the fortresses of mediocrity that we have built)
  • working as a volunteer at my daughter's elementary school as we create a new school design
  • coaching my daughter's soccer team, the Huskies

I am still here, and am available for:

  1. short consulting engagements
  2. e-learning critiques (a research-benchmarking process)
  3. keynote or other paid speaking engagements
  4. online workshops on research-based instructional design and/or learning measurement

I'd also be delighted to talk about coaching strategies for youth soccer. SMILE

Unfortunately I am not able to be very active with my blog, nor can I accept any public speaking engagements.

If you need to get in touch with me, you can contact me in the following ways:

  • email: info at work-learning dot com
  • phone: 888-579-9814

Thanks for your patience,

–Will

Will Thalheimer, PhD
President
Work-Learning Research, Inc.

Will 1 4x3 96dpi

 

 

Learning Language on the Web

The following provides a nice article of how people are learning language on the web.

NYTimes Article

From a learning standpoint, here are some research-based reasons that these interfaces might be good in helping people learn a language:

  1. Most of the learners are motivated to learn a language.
  2. Learners have to engage in retrieval practice, which research shows is a strong support for remembering, and also to test understanding.
  3. Learners get feedback on their retrieval-practice efforts.
  4. Learners are probably spacing repetitions over time.
  5. Learners in their practice are engaged in situations that are contextually similar to the way they might utilize a language–by actually engaging in a conversation.
  6. Because they provide a way for learners to overcome the fear of initially speaking to others in a foreign language, learners may be more willing to practice for real, which of course will aid their learning.

Learning about the Financial Crises. Michael Lewis Interviews…

Michael Lewis's new book, The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, sounds fascinating—and important.

Brad Pitt bought the movie rights, so it's clearly got an interesting story to tell.

Michael Lewis tells the story of the folks who first figured out that the financial disaster was coming (the one that caused our current Great Recession). Lewis shows how these oddball stock traders figured out how Wall Street was making huge mistakes—when no one else could see it coming.

The following two interviews are must reading if you want to know how we got into the economic mess we are in. They're also riveting storytelling for the most part.

Learning professionals should listen to the interviews—and read the book too—for two themes: (1) How do people's mental models make it hard for them to understand the changing landscape, (2) How attempts at persuasion often fail in the face of these mental models. You might also find it fun to consider how you would "train" the citizenry to have a better understanding of how its government and Wall Street tycoons failed, how financial markets work, etc. Finally, note how Michael Lewis (and the interviewers) set up the dialogue to make a very difficult topic understandable. Great stuff!!

Interview with Terry Gross of Fresh Aire
About 40 minutes.

Interview with All Things Considered
About 9 minutes.

Getting Journalist Skills (for us bloggers)

I'm thinking some of us bloggers ought to learn from journalists.

Here's a whole group dedicated to citizen journalism. AND, they have a book available to help us learn how to do it.

Great Educator Dies. Links to Howard Zinn Tributes

If you don't know Howard Zinn's work, you should. At least read yourself at least 50 pages of his book, People's History of the United States. You will be enlightened. (You can purchase it below.)

History usually tells the story of the powerful, of wars, of great intellects, of popular athletes and celebrities. History shines a light on those who fly above the hazy smoke that haunts the human hive.

History rarely tells us about regular folks. It rarely tells about workers fighting for better lives, for fair treatment, for moral principles. It rarely tells us about powerful institutions murdering the leaders of the low and luckless.

Zinn helped balance the scales of justice just a bit.

YouTube remembrance of Howard Zinn: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjn6rwKryWU

Two interviews with Howard Zinn: 

http://www.onpointradio.org/2010/01/listening-back-to-howard-zinn

Article Remembrances:

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20100215/zinn/single

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/30/opinion/30herbert.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alex-green/remembering-howard-zinn_b_439541.html

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion/522763/howard_zinn_the_historian_who_made_history

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/jan/29/howard-zinn-obituary

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jan/28/howard-zinn-america

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jan/29/howard-zinn-history-activism

Howard Zinn on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=subwDAZtEN0 (On human nature and aggression)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BydZv9ykJU (Interviewed by Woody Harrelson)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mebqz79O6AA (Taxes are a class discussion)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUBYI97cUgU (We can't say bad things about 3 U.S. wars)

Book: People's History of the United States

DVD: Recent Documentary about Howard Zinn (with Matt Damon and others)

Journalism’s Death Spiral–A Disaster for Learning? A Disaster for Democracy?

You've undoubtedly heard that newspapers are in trouble.

But think about it this way–this means stories aren't being written–or are being written by (1) amateurs who largely do a poor job and (2) financially-motivated people who often do a biased job. 

When less information is uncovered, or when more information is biased, we have a recipe for disaster in a citizen-governed democracy.

Read this article from the Los Angeles Times to see the extent that journalism is crashing.

In order for a democracy to work, its citizens have to be learning from good sources.

Some say that the blogosphere will compensate for journalism's rapid death spiral. I'm not at all confident of this. People have to put in substantial time to do good honest reporting (and good honest research, by the way). Putting in a lot of time generally requires some kind of payment so the reporter can afford the computer, the roof, and the food to keep doing the reporting. 

I just don't see 100 people doing shallow reporting equaling the quality of one person doing deep reporting.

A full-time reporter puts in 40 to 60 hours a week, allowing them to dig deeper, develop more insights, and do fact checking. Part-time bloggers may put in one to five hours, maybe ten. Having a salary also makes it less likely that financial incentives will bias the reporter's work (ignore this for Fox News). 

I try to make this obvious in the following graphic. You might have to click on it to expand it and see the details.

ReportersBetterThanBloggers

Eventually, poor information will lead to poor decisions. Eventually the democracy implodes. Some may see signs of this already. Certainly, most of us would like our democracy to be doing a better job.

But with journalism's problems, it is bound to get worse.