And the survey says

By Isolde Raftery
The Columbian
October 21, 2007

  

 

 

Keygan Waliezer, a second-grader at the Green Mountain School, thinks about the answer to a grammar question before voting with her Activote transmitter. Teacher Dawn Shinn uses the interactive computer voting system to judge whether her students understand the material. (Photo by: STEVEN LANE/The Columbian)

The Green Mountain School is remote, tucked away in the county's northern most corner, only about a mile away from Lake Merwin.

Yet while the school may exude an aura of quaintness, its teachers are using cutting edge technology. In Dawn Shinn's second- and third-grade class, 25 students gripped Activotes - small, egg-shaped gadgets that allow them to vote on an answer to the teacher's question.

The Activotes are like remote controls; they're connected to the teacher's computer, which in turn is linked to a large white screen at the front of the classroom.

On the screen, the students' names are listed and become highlighted as they vote. When they've all voted, Shinn and the students view how the class voted. That helps her to see whether students understood the material.

"If you stand in front of a classroom and say, 'Ready to go on?' They nod their heads yes," Shinn said. "They may not know themselves that they don't know."

The votes are anonymous, so students can't tell whether their classmates got the answer. That appeals to the students.

"I feel better using the Activote than raising my hand," Kathryn Foley, 7, said.

Kathryn, so shy she spoke in a whisper, said she probably wouldn't raise her hand in class.

Mariah Malinowski, 8, said the Activotes and the Activboard keep class interesting.