As a professor, I was always asking students to tell me what they were thinking. I would look at them carefully to see if they were getting what I was saying. I have been thinking about inventing a "clicker" that would enable students to tell you what they are feeling and thinking. I looked on the web and found out that they already exist. But, of course, they are completely wrong. A company named Meridiaars makes them and touts them as helping with: Assessing Knowledge Increasing Engagement Documenting Attendance Monitoring Progress Measuring Performance Quizzing, Testing & Grading Increasing Content Retention Reinforcing Key Issues Recording Progress Eliminating Inefficiency This is what teachers worry about. Could we possibly be student-centric? Students want to tell a teacher that they are bored, or that they don't see the point of what the teachers is droning on about. Could we build a clicker that would let the students say: I don't need this I don't want to know about this there is too much info for me to absorb I need more show me something else I am bored what's the use of this? It is time to focus on letting kids say what they are feeling about the class. We need to stop focussing on measuring kids. #education #teaching
Reminds me of the idea of a WTF indicator in a synchronous online class.
Great idea except teachers generally have no idea how to respond to "I don't need this" or "I'm bored." In fact, they're trained to dismiss these remarks and reinforce obedience and compliance, the almighty "classroom management." No point in students giving real feedback unless adults can respond appropriately.
I think I’ll paste your post into the Zoom chat for my next class and see what my learners have to say.
Great idea, Roger! I am not bored with this. I want to know more about this. I see the use of this!
Yes. This is the need of the time. But can we cater to individual learners when in a group / classroom? It’ll be limited. Personalised learning either with an individual tutor or a machine is the solution.
The technology exists but as you say, it's not student-centric: China’s Efforts to Lead the Way in AI Start in Its Classrooms https://www.wsj.com/articles/chinas-efforts-to-lead-the-way-in-ai-start-in-its-classrooms-11571958181
Roger, I agree whole heartedly. We are repeatedly told that "soft skills" and "Emotional Intelligence" are prized attributes ... and yet schooling (at all levels) grinds feelings, wants, and desires out of students. Absent the support for emotional agency in learning yields students as automatons.
Learning Lead in Data Analytics & Visualization
2yReport
Report
Can't be done with an online survey system?