Product Review
Smartroom’s Beyond Question
System
By Mitchell Levine
If there’s anything that the technology ramp-up process
that’s occurred over the last several years in the New
York Schools has proven, it’s that just spending money
on products alone will accomplish nothing to improve student
learning in itself. I’ve stated it repeatedly in the
past, but despite that fact, I’ll repeat it again: buying
gargantuan amounts of hardware, and even tutorial software,
won’t raise testing scores or grades or even student
interest.
A complete system that brings together teaching and learning
is necessary, and in the absence of that, nothing special can
be expected to happen. Using fancy multimedia packages with
drill instruction or laboratory simulations as a babysitter
will produce short-term results, but unless it’s integrated
into a scheme of goals, that’s exactly what those results
will be – short-term.
Developing an enterprise system is a trial and error process,
however, and a full-time job few teachers in our schools have
time for. Neither do BOCES nor even our technology managers
now so busy simply deploying the software the Department of
Education has purchased. Smartroom Technologies, with their
Beyond Question Student Response System, has fortunately taken
all of the guesswork out of building an interactive technology
system in the classroom. Using wireless handheld devices, students
can respond to quizzes or program materials displayed on what
the company refers to as “intuitive viewing screens,” with
those responses collected on the classroom PC with installed
software.
Using the software, the instructor using Beyond Question can
open up a quiz or group exercise stored in electronic file
format, including Powerpoint, then create a roster for their
students to make use of it. After presenting it in class, student
answers can be tabulated in graph format and analyzed statistically.
In this way, teachers gain instant feedback as to homework
completion and student understanding. Students are automatically
engaged in class work.
Although the system couldn’t be said to set up itself,
I was able to master it within an hour, create a class roster
and a short practice quiz. With my pseudo-class in place, I
was able to capture the attention of staff members, always
a great test scenario.
While my “pilot” might have been informal, it
greatly illustrates the value the product: interactivity, involvement,
and feedback, the key points for the successful use of not
only technology, but class time as well. Education Update highly
recommends that early adopters and tech novices alike log on
to the company’s site at www.smartroom.com.#
