Robert Jones\’s Interactive Maths

I was using the ActiVote pads with an S4 Foundation/General class yesterday, and noticed that one of the students wasn’t very enthusiastic. Today he/she came in before the rest of the class and said, as he/she passed the storage box “Is that those voting things - I don’t like them”. I took the chance to ask him/her why, and he/she reminded me about one of the first lessons that we had used them.

He/She said that I had showed the whole class what everyone had voted. I was very surprised that I had done this, then remembered that I had flashed the results up really briefly to name-and-shame the two pupils that had pressed “F” when the options were only “A” to “D”! I asked the student if he/she would enjoy using the voting pads if I solemnly promised never to show the results with names again. He/she brightened up immediately and said that would be fine.

This encounter left me suitably shamefaced. It brought it home to me how easy it would be to squander the opportunity offered by the voting pads simply by succumbing once or twice to requests from confident students to show how everyone voted. They WILL ask. It’s so easy to do. One click - there are all the names on the screen with a summary of what they voted in each question and which they got right and wrong. One click and the voting pads have become just more instruments of humiliation. Learn from my mistake. DON’T DO IT!