The Seville Santa Maria State School is now using PowerVote's interactive keypads in its classrooms. This tool is designed to stimulate the pupils' participation, motivation and attention in class.
When teachers wants to check on their pupils' level of knowledge or if they have fully understood a certain point in class, all they have to do is pose a series of questions with multiple choice answers. With a keypad, the pupils then choose the answer they think is correct, which allows the teachers to determine how much more work may be needed or if they can move on to another topic.
The idea to introduce the use of the keypads at the Santa Maria State School stemmed from the search for a tool that allowed teachers to complement the school's internal assessment procedures.
According to Maria Egea Romero, the school's headmistress, the keypads are being used at all levels of education, with a special emphasis on natural sciences, social sciences, language and English. "We are going to design a programme keyed to implementing the use of the keypads for teaching the majority of subjects in a more suitable and useful way for the pupils," Egea said. The Santa Maria State School currently has 25 interactive keypads, although the aim is have a kit for each course taught at the school in the future.
The reaction of both pupils and teachers has been very positive. According to Egea, for the pupils it is a very innovative tool "that grabs their attention and allows them to improve their level of concentration and attention in class. For the teachers, the keypads are a great help because they allow them to check if pupils have understood their explications and, if necessary, recap on the subject matter."
