Enhancing classroom interaction: the integration of image-sharing projection software in social science and humanities classrooms

ABSTRACT

Fostering student-student and student–faculty interactions involves not only pedagogical design but also classroom technology. Image-sharing projection software, which allows multiple students to simultaneously share images from their electronic devices to the classroom's screens, offers a new form of communication in medium to large-size social science and humanities classes. While there is a body of literature that analyzes the effectiveness and best practices of clickers and image-sharing software in STEM classes, few studies have evaluated the potential of image-sharing projection software and its impact on student engagement in social science and humanities undergraduate courses. Based on a case study of a general education introductory social science course, this paper demonstrates how giving undergraduate students the ability to share visual depictions of their ideas increased engagement among those students who report not feeling comfortable interacting in medium to large-size class discussions. Overall, this case study illustrates the potential of image-sharing projection software to simultaneously address several known challenges to collaborative learning and to increase the types of students who participate in “the doing” of active-learning pedagogy, especially the idea-sharing component.

KEYWORDS:

• Collaborative learning
• active learning
• personal response systems
• networked learning technology
• student engagement
• clickers

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 This software was used because this was what was available at the university. To avoid appearing bias to any one software, I will refer to Mersive Solstice generically as image-sharing projection software after the initial introduction.

2 Following Barkley, Major, and Cross (2014, p. 4), I approach collaborative learning “as an umbrella term for interactive group work that has three essential elements: intentional design, co-laboring, and meaningful learning.” This definition by Barkley et al. 2014 builds on the work of Smith and MacGregor (1992).

3 Not all lower performing students are in a lower level of Perry's Scheme of Intellectual and Ethical Development, but students who struggle with application questions like those featured in the Peer Instruction clicker questions may do so because they are more accustom to a “black and white” viewpoint on knowledge as well as passive learning. Relatedly, it can be initially harder for such students to find their voices and defend their positions. While Perry's original study was based on white male students, the model’s different perspectives on learning can help capture some of the observed variation in students’ approaches to knowledge within the same class (Moore, 1989).

4 This is particularly the case in the absence of a shared rite of passage or bonding experience, like the student-teaching case study featured in Bowskill (2017), that can function as a temporary link across racial, religious, and political differences.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Indiana University’s Mosaic Faculty Fellows Program.