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Active Interaction, Graphical “Polling”, and Smart Note Taking with DyKnow Software
by Jim Vanides

Do you want your students to take smarter notes, instead of simply transcribing what you say? Would you like to poll your students and SEE their thinking, rather than simply getting a graph of their multiple-guess responses? It’s possible now – with software tools like DyKnow...

DyKnow software is a great way to: 
  • broadcast a presentation to everyone’s laptop/tablet, so students can take notes next to or on top of the presentation (no more copying the slides!)
  • do classroom polling, but also enable sharing of graphical responses to open ended questions (much more powerful than clickers)
  • monitor or control student access to other applications or websites
  • have students collaborate in virtual break-out teams
If you want to see what this looks like, some students at DePauw University created an 9 minute “documentary” that includes teachers and students talking and showing how this type of interaction changed teaching and learning. It features three examples – chemistry, Japanese, and computer science, and is relevant for any age (middle school through college) where 1:1 tablet computing is in place:
 
 
There is also a tongue-in-cheek “newsreel” about DyKnow, “There is a better way”:
 
 
Enjoy!
 

 

Jim Vanides is currently a Program Manager in Philanthropy for Hewlett-Packard, responsible for worldwide higher education grant initiatives (www.hp.com/go/hied-blog). He also teaches an online course offered through Montana State University for elementary teachers on the Science of Sound (www.scienceteacher.org). He holds a BS in Engineering and a MA in Education, both from Stanford University.

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