Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Fig. 9.1
PRS classroom facility
University of Wisconsin (Wiki
2012
), PRS improves attentiveness, increases
knowledge retention, polls anonymously, tracks individual responses, displays
polling results immediately, creates an interactive and fun learning environment,
confirms audience understanding of key points immediately, and gathers data for
reporting and analysis. Taking Florida State University (FSU) as an example,
Professor Calhoun demonstrated that the use of PRS increased student attendance
from 60 % to more than 85 % and increased the size of the Economics class,
resulting in the need for a larger classroom with 500 seats. Consequently, FSU
extended the facility to ten lecture halls to cover other subjects, such as physics,
economics, math, biology, geography, sociology, geology, nursing, and chemistry
(Briggs
2006
). Several universities in Taiwan have adopted the PRS technology, but
Taipei Medical University (TMU) has the largest scale of implementation (
http://
www.wretch.cc/blog/habook/9560532
)
because it fulfilled the one-remote-control-
per-student policy that approximates the ideal large-implementation approach of
universities in the West (
http://excellence.tmu.edu.tw/~TMU_TEACH/pro/super_
Although PRS technology has its pedagogical benefits in class interactions and
instructions, its applications are still limited by physical location due to the require-
ment of specialized equipment, such as the ten lecture halls in the case of FSU and
the student remote control policy in TMU. Internet technologies have started to
mature, and have achieved a stage where many innovative, insightful, and interest-
ing applications have become more feasible. Each technology has specific strengths
and applications, and maximizes its potential may create new emergent applications
with other technologies. PRS usage in college education is a good emergent
candidate for such an evolving state for a wider scope of innovative applications.
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