High-tech teaching tool hits New Zealand shores

Students at Southland Girls High School using the Activexpression.

It seems everywhere we turn, kids are texting non-stop. Some say it’s a curse, signalling the end of verbal communication as we know it.

Others, like those in the education technology sector, have found a way to turn it around and use this ‘text frenzy’ as a revolutionary classroom tool.

Welcome to the world of Activexpression. This is learning technology quite unlike anything ever seen before in NZ.

The cellphone-styled student response system is the latest addition to NZ’s digital classrooms. It has been designed after consultation with educators in over 70 countries.

Officially launched at the Ulearn schools conference in Christchurch on 8th October, each unit can connect to an interactive whiteboard where students’ responses are displayed. This gives the whole class the opportunity to respond to questions from the teacher at the same time. Putting your hand up to give the answer is ‘so last century’.

Teachers can input questions into the whiteboard via a computer before class or on the fly during the lesson. It is set up so the questions can be multi-choice true/false, rank and rate, gap-fills, sliding scales and other options.

When it comes time in the lesson, students can respond to the questions through their ‘texting’ devices. This means they can respond instantly, simultaneously and when permitted, anonymously.

The software can then instantly produce a graph or a chart on the board of who chose which answer or how many got it right or wrong.

This is extremely useful for teachers who can now assess at a glance how well lessons are being understood and focus attention where it’s needed at the time, rather than the next day after the marking is done. And it’s not just responding true/false or a, b or c – students can now even text whole sentence answers, opening up a whole new world of expression.

What do the students and teachers think?

It’s a huge hit. There is a class using the device at Southland Girls’ High School in Invercargill and if their response is anything to go by, it’s going to be extremely popular with students and a very powerful tool for educators.

Rather than ‘just following instructions’, students claim to feel more involved in their learning and respond more thoughtfully.

In anonymous mode they are more willing to take risks in their responses, resulting in a more honest and meaningful learning environment.

It unleashes a whole new level of confidence and enables teachers to really understand what their students are thinking.
Gone are the days of rolling your eyes when that smarty-pants puts his hand up and answers the question correctly for the 20th time. Now you just text your answer – it’s far cooler.