Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
in-depth research that analyzes the impact of specific types of questions on creating a
student-centered learning experience, the need for knowledge-rich learning that
builds a classroom community that can facilitate the expansion of PRS to include
social sciences subject areas and K-12 classrooms, and the necessity for more
research on the individual differences in the use of PRS focusing on gender, year
level, age, and learning style.
Several issues presented by these PRS literature provide evidence for this study.
First, most PRS facilities require students to have clickers of their own, which may be
purchased by the school and distributed to the class, or purchased/rented by the students
themselves. These options are neither convenient nor cheap (Briggs
2006
)forthe
schools and the students. Second, the clickers and receivers are usually infrared-based,
whichmanystudieshavefoundtobeunreliable, necessitating an upgrade to RFID-
based devices (Murphy
2008
). Owing to the limitations of infrared- or RFID-based
clickers, the questions are limited to true-or-false or multiple-choice questions
(Beuckman et al.
2006
). Third, operating and debugging the PRS are extra burdens
for the teachers (Hatch et al.
2005
). Fourth, many PRS servers and receivers are
installed in fixed locations in Taiwan. Thus, the technology is not applicable to general
classrooms or other locations, as commonly experienced in Taiwan.
9.3 Concept of Cloud Voting System
PRS would be more useful if it can be used anywhere and anytime without being
constrained by fixed locations. This leads to the concept of web-based, online, or
Internet-enabled cloud services. Slightly different from Fig.
9.1
, the cloud voting
service depicted in Fig.
9.2
illustrates that the PRS server and database facilities can
be accessed through the Internet via the teacher's notebook computer and students'
remote controls, as well as cell phones, PDAs, pads, and notebook computers.
The implementation of a cloud voting service depends on the availability of
student remote controls, which in general are purchased by the schools and
distributed to and collected from students. To remove this tedious procedure in
large-scale university implementation, students are required to rent, such as in
Florida State University (Briggs
2006
) or purchase, such as in University of West
Florida (
http://uwf.edu/its/instructionandresearch/classroomresponse.cfm
), from the
campus bookstores. In Taiwan, the only known large-scale implementing school is
TMU, which adopted a different strategy by purchasing the student remote controls
and loaning them for free to the students during their stay at Taipei Medical
¼
20
). Either way, PRS adoption depends on specialized student remote
controls, which is always a barrier for teachers and schools. In an effort to solve this
problem, Professor Junki of Erskine College in South Carolina negotiated a deal
with local SPRINT PCS provider to loan them 200 free cell phones and a temporary
cell phone tower on the campus (Carlson
2001
). This problem also created
opportunities for several service providers. According to “Audience Response”
¼
