New Zealand Experience with MagiClass™

Feb 27, 2010

In 2009, Training Systems New Zealand provided equipment and support for a number of trials of the magiClass™ classroom response system in a New Zealand secondary school. The school subsequently purchased a class set late last year.

The technology is designed to actively engage and involve pupils in a classroom situation and to provide immediate feedback on each student’s understanding.

magiClass™ utilises PowerPoint^® presentations with selected slides containing up to 5 multi-choice questions. Each student clicks their answer and a bar chart or pie chart overlaid on the presentation shows the distribution of answers. Individual answers are anonymous but the system keeps a record which the teacher can analyse later.

The teacher who ran one of the trials did so in a revision lesson found the following

• Preparation was quick and the technology was simple to use with no technical problems.

• The method appealed to students with a wide range of abilities.

• Participation was almost 100% and some students who normally would never participate in class became involved in class discussions held to analyse answers. The teacher concluded that these students had gained confidence when they supplied a correct answer.

• The records collected during the class showed that some areas required further teaching and identified students who needed additional assistance.

The teacher also ran a control trial with another class with the same topic and year using the same slides without magiClass™. Participation was based on a show of hands and usually less than one-third of the class responded. Mostly, it was the same few who contributed to discussion.

The key advantage of magiClass™ is clearly the ability to engage all students.