One of the obstacles to instructional innovation in large introductory
science courses at the college level is the sheer number of students who are
taught at one time. How does an instructor provide an active learning
experience, provide feedback, accommodate different learning styles, make
students’ thinking visible, and provide scaffolding and tailored instruction to
meet specific student needs when facing more than 100 students at a time?
Classroom communication systems can help the instructor of a large class
accomplish these objectives. One such system, called Classtalk, consists of
both hardware and software that allows up to four students to share an input
device (e.g., a fairly inexpensive graphing calculator) to “sign on” to a classroom
communication network that permits the instructor to send questions
for students to work on and permits students to enter answers through their
input device. Answers can then be displayed anonymously in histogram
form to the class, and a permanent record of each student’s response is
recorded to help evaluate progress as well as the effectiveness of instruction.