Promethean Unveils Self Paced Learner Response System

Released on: January 28, 2010, 4:18 am
Author: Promethean
Industry: Education

Promethean, a world leader in the rapidly growing global market for interactive learning technology, demonstrated the self-paced learning functionality of its popular ActivExpression Learner Response System at the British Education & Training (BETT) Show 2010. With its unique ability to allow each student to work through question sets at their own pace on individual handsets, while also allowing teachers to instantly view progress via a 'teacher dashboard', the self-paced learning proved an immediate hit with learners and educators of every age group.

Using self paced learning, teachers can pose a series of questions to the class, grouping them into categories, for example, by levels of ease. The system then automatically allows a learner to progress to the next level of difficulty if they correctly answer questions. Teachers can programme rules, determining the number of questions a learner needs to answer correctly before they are moved up to the next level or alternatively set the software to randomise questions and prevent learners from conferring on an answer.

Alison Lydon, Head of Junior School Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) at The Mary Erskine and Stewart's Melville Junior School, was involved in a pilot of the new self paced learning application. The response from the seven and eight year olds involved in the trial was extremely positive: "We had great fun," said Alison. "The children loved it, the ease of use was staggering, and the teaching and learning potential was massive.

"The children really were able to work at their own pace. Questions appeared quickly on their screens and children who were able to answer questions easily were not held back by others who took longer. Children could progress to harder questions when they were ready to, rather than when a teacher thought they should."

Margaret Allen, former teacher and Head of European Market Development at Promethean, comments: "ActivExpression has proved hugely popular in education environments. Learners respond well to the concept of 'texting in' answers from personal handsets, and teachers have found it an invaluable assessment and inclusion tool which enhances the communication and collaboration within the classroom."

The self-paced learning application is available to all users of ActivExpression through an upgrade to the latest Promethean ActivInspire software (1.3).

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Notes to the editor:
* Source: Futuresource Consulting, an independent research company

About ActivExpression
The ActivExpression learner response systems feature an alphanumeric keypad, allowing learners to respond using complete sentences, as well as numbers and symbols, and it supports a wide variety of questions sets, including Likert scales, free text and rank in order. The devices can be used at any point in a lesson to assess group understanding, gauge opinion or initiate discussion.

About Promethean
Promethean - Lighting the flame of learning
Promethean's aim is to unlock the potential of human achievement in education and training by creating, developing, supplying and supporting leading edge, interactive learning technology like its interactive whiteboard combined with its interactive whiteboard tools and by encouraging the growth of the world's largest online teacher community in this field.

Beyond the classroom, Promethean provides comprehensive training and support and, with over 500,000 members, the rapidly growing Promethean Planet is the world's largest online community for users of interactive whiteboards and learning technology, providing user-generated and premium content and is a forum for teachers to exchange ideas and experience.

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