Steve Draper on possible uses for PRS technology.
Assessment
As a substitute for a paper test.
Instant feedback on learning
With this, the lecturer can thus discover which points have already been understood by the students and which may need some further clarification.
Instant feedback to the lecturer on teaching skills
Particularly brave lecturers could ask what the best and worst aspects of his or her teaching were, and attempt to correct them immediately.
Peer assessment
Students who are giving presentations could be graded instantly by their peers on the quality of their work.
Demonstrating human response experiments
When illustrating conformity, for example, the responses to early questions could be faked in order to see whether the class would change their answers later.
Community building
General questions, for example why students chose this class, would create a sense of mutual awareness within the group.
Encouraging debate
Students who have had to commit privately to a definite opinion are much more likely to feel the need to justify their answer in peer discussion, particularly if the lecturer does not indicate which answer was ”correct”. —