I am a new member with a question and/or a proposal. I teach chemistry,
computer repair and electronics at a high school in Utah. I have recently
purchased a classroom response system. It is great but costs about $1000 for
the cheapest systems. Does anyone know of an open source initiative to create
a system like this? Here is what I have done to date.
I am working on a cheap hardware platform to do the same thing using modified
universal remote controls that can be had for $1 to $5 each at wal mart or
the dollar store. Using off the shelf components you could put together a
classroom response system for $80-$200, instead of $800-$2000 for a comercial
sytstem. I have tested modifications to various cheap TV remotes and found it
to be simple and cheap to modify a universal remote to perform the function
of a student response device. (send a unique ID and an answer, then stop
transmitting to allow others to answer)
The next step is to find or build the receiver, which would be a simple
infrared receiver connected to the computer.
The thing I am not able to do is program an application or plug-in for the
open office presentation program. It is my hope to be able to find a group
that might have developer talent willing to take on that project.
For those of you not familiar with CRS's they are basically a way to gather
answers from each student during a lecture and display a bar chart of how
many answered what. Each student gets a remote response device which is
generally an infrared or radio transmitter. They look like TV remote
controls. A question is asked on the powerpoint and each child can transmit
their answer to the computer through a receiver on the computer. The bar
chart is then displayed to show how many students are understanding the
concept. This allows formative assesment to be used during a lecture. It is
an exciting technology that is catching on in high schools and colleges
around the country.
Thanks
Bryan Jackson
Springville High School
Springville UT