ON THE USE OF A MULTIPLE DISPLAY, IN-ROOM COLLABORATION SYSTEM TO PROMOTE FREE RESPONSE FORMATIVE DISCUSSION BETWEEN LEARNERS AND TUTORS IN SMALL GROUP SEMINARS

Classroom technologies, such as interactive whiteboards and voting systems, have been extensively used within primary and secondary education to mediate local discourse between students and tutors in classroom situations. However, research around the use of such technologies within higher education settings indicates a lower level of utilisation, both quantitatively and in terms of the complexity of pedagogic use for teaching. The aim of the study reported here is to examine the affordances and constraints of a new kind of technological response system, compared with these more established solutions. The Thunder system, designed for business deployment, allows multiple screens of information to be displayed simultaneously, while input is distributed across a central easel and tablet PCs running client software. We consider whether the modes of free-response interaction supported by the system allow a meaningful cycle of formative feedback to develop between learners and tutors, initiated in flexible ways by different participants within the lesson. A series of learning scenarios was designed, in which a cohort of students on a masters course, who had an interest in investigating the technological augmentation of learnin