One thing leads to another on the MSc!
Tue, 15 May 2012 13:13:00 BST
Martin Charlesworth, a technician specialising in ICT and Science in the School of Education and Professional Development, started training students and staff about classroom response systems and this has led to the presentation of papers at conferences and a chapter of a book!
In the School he developed expertise in classroom response systems, as they were being used in teacher training courses to demonstrate different teaching methodologies. Over time his skills developed to the stage where he regularly provided staff development sessions across the University.
Martin studied the MSc Multimedia and E-learning which was highly relevant to his work, but he hadn’t any experience of writing papers for conferences or publication. As part of his course he produced assessments on using technology in teaching and this led to the conference paper at CELMA’11.
As his skills have become known he has gradually been asked to develop his publications and expertise, to the point where he was asked to contribute to a book.
The first stage was his work in developing, with the School of Computing and Engineering wanted to develop a mobile phone version of classroom response systems. The developers were software engineers who needed Martin’s expertise in using these systems from a user perspective and his knowledge of the pedagogy behind their use.
To produce the chapter he worked with PGCE maths and science secondary teacher training students, applied science students and University staff. It was published in April 2012 and is about the benefits of using classroom response systems and how they can be used for teaching and learning.
As Martin says, ‘Anyone who teaches would find it useful as it’s a great way of understanding how well a group understand their learning and to get feedback from large groups of people. The next stage I am working on with Computing and Engineering students is to develop the system for use in collecting data, processing responses and reducing the burden of marking by tutors. I am working on ways of integrating student responses into a mark scheme and potentially even directly into a student’s mark portfolio. ‘
The book is called ‘Learning with Mobile Technologies, Handheld Devices, and Smart Phones: Innovative Methods’ and is published by IGC Global.
