Turning Technologies, maker of the student response system, TurningPoint Cloud, will be here to demonstrate and discuss the new version of their software. Feel free to drop in at anytime.
8/27/14 – Melville Library Classroom A – 9:00am – 12:00pm
FAQ — when getting your participant list through TurningPoint Cloud – the server address at Stony Brook University is https://blackboard.stonybrook.edu
This letter went out to all SBU students that had previously registered clickers (and were registered for class in the Fall 14 semester) from within our Blackboard system:
Dear Student
As a previously registered clicker user you are receiving this code so that you can have a free Turning Account and ResponseWare license which will last without further payment for 4 years (48 months).
This license code is for you, do not share this with anyone else.
To Create an Account and Activate License:
Create an Account and Register Devices:
1. Log into https://blackboard.stonybrook.edu – go into any course, then Tools -> Turning Account Registration. You will be taken to the Turning Account Registration website.
2. Complete the necessary fields below Sign Up and click Create Account.
3. Complete additional information and click Save.
4. Sign in with Username and password.
5. Click License tab.
6. Click Purchase.
7. Enter 4SBU and submit.
8. Enter your license code: fakecode
9. Click Redeem.
Any questions can be directed to our Technical Support Team at support@turningtechnologies.com or 866.746.3015.
You need to create an account if you are an instructor using clickers.
If you are a student buying a new clicker – the box should contain a code so that there is no charge to create an account.
If you are a student and have an existing registered clicker and are registered for the fall 2014 semester – you will be receiving a code via e-mail at your stonybrook.edu account. This code will get you a account and a year of responseware free. Do not pay for an account.
This Fall, Turning Technologies is changing their software to a cloud based registration system. This doesn’t change it’s functionality for it’s use in the classroom or class preparation, and the software is already available online here:
As an instructor, be sure to create a turning account that is an “Instructor” account.
We are still using Turningpoint 5 till the end of the Summer II session, and therefore do not have the new building block for the cloud version installed on Blackboard. (Getting a roster/uploading grades will not work in TurningPoint Cloud till the Fall semester.) Just tried – and you can get your roster from the new software with the current production server of Blackboard.
The only difference in functionality is that we are allowing the use of ResponseWare for iOS/Android/web. This will allow students to use their smart device or laptop instead of a physical clicker — if you allow it. There are things to consider beforehand; like whether you want them using their devices in the classroom, the fact that they can poll in from remote locations (with assistance from a student in the class feeding them info), possible saturation of our wireless infrastructure and possible lack of cell service penetration.
Call me if you have any questions and here is a video showing how to download the new software and create your cloud account:
Faculty using low tech response cubes during a presentation
Attending the Summer Institute here on campus this week, primarily in the role of technology support and as a representative of TLT, was a really great experience. There were many informative presentations given to prime the participating faculty for the workshop work that they would be diving into, including one given by Jennifer Frederick from Yale University’s Center for Scientific Teaching. The possibly confusing point here, is that while these Summer Institute sessions are all aimed at the departments involved in STEM education, and so therefore you are addressing a room filled with Biologists, Physicists, Mathematicians, Computer Scientists, Chemists, Engineers, etc…. “scientific teaching’ is not about teaching science, but rather teaching using effective methods that have been proven using scientific methodology.
It makes a lot of sense. These are primarily researchers. Don’t stand in front of them and tell them what they are doing wrong in the classroom and how to change it. Show them what years of data have to say about different aspects and strategies in teaching. Show them where they can find out data about the schools that their students are coming from (a great reason to hold these events at an individual institution or region is how you can really drill down to local issues – did you know that no schools in the Bronx even offer Physics in high school? (other than a charter school that doesn’t count because the students that go to that school don’t actually live in the Bronx)).
As soon as studies and data started to be presented to the faculty participating, I could feel them losing up and the defences coming down. They became more comfortable and realized that they were home among their peers.
Structure of the Summer Institutes
Participants:
Engage in teaching and learning through interactive presentations, mini-seminars, group work, and discussions
Work in small groups to develop instructional materials for a general topic area
Design and adapt instructional materials that integrate active learning, assessment, and diversity and that have clear learning goals
Present and revise instructional materials based on fellow participants’ review and feedback
Three tenets of scientific teaching were explored everyday.
Active Learning (or Teaching)
Diversity
Assessment
Common activity teaching techniques that were demonstrated and then used in the faculty presentations included:
Think – Pair – Share
Student Response Systems (traditional clickers and low tech response cubes)
POE (Predict Observe Explain)
Demonstrations
IMHO the event went very well and CESAME did a great job bring it to SBU. I hope everyone involved was happy with the outcomes and that the participants feel a bit revitalized the next time they are stepping into a classroom.
Here is a draft of a low tech clicker I am bring to the Summer Institute on Undergraduate STEM Education the week of July 7th.
draft of low tech clicker
When assembled, the students will have a cube that allows them to chose from 6 possible answers. The instructor in the room can easily see where the students are at by quickly scanning the colors being displayed. It is also possible to show student confidence by encouraging them to hold them high if they are very confident and lower if less so.
Clickers are used to gain student involvement in even the largest classrooms. At Stony Brook University, a lot of our instructors will assign points to the students whether they get the question right or not. Sometimes the same amount of points, sometimes not – and sometimes those grades make it to the grade book and sometimes, they only measure whether the students were responsive enough to merit attendance for the day.
So what does it mean if the results manager shows a 0 in the situation where the instructor gives points whether the students got the answers wrong or not? First, make sure that the instructor marked something as correct. If most students have a grade of some sort – but one or two students have zeros across the board, this isn’t likely the issue. You can double check that something was marked as correct, by going to the Turningpoint Manage tab selecting a session, and clicking Edit Session.
example of the edit session window
In the above picture you can see that answer 1 is marked correct and that both incorrect and correct answers would get a value of 1. So this doesn’t account for the 0 in the results manager or grade book.
The next thing that could be wrong, could be that the student unwittingly was in “Send Message” mode, rather than just in the regular polling mode. To find out if this is the case, go to Manage tab, then while having a session highlighted, click the Reports button.
where to find the Session Log report
Then for the type of report, choose “Session Log.” Here is where Turningpoint keeps messages that were sent to you when polls were open. You can see below, someone did in fact send “Hi.”
Session Log from Turningpoint
However, you can also see that two students were sending in what they thought were answers to the polls. If these students have zeros – you now know why.
Students could use laptops, ipod touches, or smart phones in class to respond to questions from the instructor. If you keep the “poll” or quiz open, you can also collect answers asynchronously for online/flipped learning. The answers are dumped to a spreadsheet, so you have all the data for assessment, attendance and participation.
