• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

AT&T to Deliver Mobile Student Response Solution, Enhancing Higher Education Classroom Experience

Posted on: Tuesday, 26 August 2008, 12:00 CDT

DALLAS, Aug. 26 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Demonstrating its commitment to serve the needs of higher education, AT&T Inc. today announced the certification and availability of popular mobile student interactive response technology on its wireless smartphones. Designed to heighten the classroom experience and enhance learning at colleges and universities, the Web-based polling solution can be enabled using an AT&T-powered wireless device, such as an iPhone, BlackBerry(R) or other smartphone.

A rapidly growing technology in higher education, interactive student response systems allow educators to go beyond traditional classroom lectures and teaching methods. Systems enable real-time student polling and offer in-depth analysis of responses, including tracking demographic information, ranking against criteria for decision making, analyzing comparative results that facilitate pre- and post-assessment and more.

The mobile student interactive response solution from Turning Technologies, a developer of interactive response systems, actively enhances the classroom experience for both students and educators. The solution can work within a traditional classroom environment or remotely for distance learning. Additionally, the mobile application can be used on Web-enabled AT&T smartphones, eliminating the need for clickers or other peripheral classroom equipment.

The interactive student response systems also offer the ability to: -- Create a dynamic, interactive classroom experiences, increasing student attentiveness and comprehension. -- Immediately address misconceptions of instruction, allowing for on-the-fly customized knowledge construction experiences. -- Seamlessly combine instruction with assessment, including the cumulative tracking of class and individual student results. -- Allow everyone, even the shyest of students, to become equally involved in honest, no-risk answering. -- Reinforce content via instant polling.

Poll results can then be stored for future analysis or aggregated and displayed in chart or graph form so instructors can assess student comprehension and/or gather valuable real-time feedback.

The mobile student response application, powered by ResponseWare(TM) Web software, has been certified for use on AT&T's third-generation (3G) and EDGE wireless data networks, and it is well-positioned within the AT&T portfolio of certified applications for the higher education sector. The browser-based student response application is available on Windows-enabled smartphones, BlackBerry handsets, iPhones and laptops.

AT&T's 3G network is the nation's fastest, according to third-party data, and is available today in more than 310 major U.S. metropolitan areas, and by year-end, AT&T expects to offer the service in nearly 350 major metro areas. The AT&T EDGE network is available in more than 13,000 cities and towns and along some 40,000 miles of major highways across the U.S.

"The faculty and IT professionals at Abilene Christian University (ACU) are always looking for tools to enhance the educational and practical use of mobile devices in higher education," said Dr. Kyle Dickson, associate professor of English and scholar in residence in the Adams Center for Teaching and Learning at ACU. "AT&T and Turning Technologies share our commitment in enabling an improved teaching and learning experience using powerful mobile learning technologies."

The solution is available online or at campus bookstores through a subscription-based service that students or institutions can activate on their mobile device.

"AT&T's network and strategic relationships with technology suppliers, such as Turning Technologies, enable delivery of superior applications designed to enhance a learning institution's overall education process as well as secure its network," said Carl Done, vice president of Sales, Education for AT&T. "As federal and state dollars become harder to come by, higher education is looking to technology to play a major role in helping provide the highest-quality learning experience at the lowest possible cost. The interactive response system is the latest example of our commitment to bring innovative technologies into the classroom for practical use by professors, teachers and students."

Turning Technologies is the industry leader of student response systems for interactive learning, providing engagement, feedback and assessment in the classroom, with more than 1,700 colleges and universities using TurningPoint(R) student response systems, including large-scale implementations at some 200 campuses. For more information, please visit http://www.turningtechnologies.com/.

For more information about AT&T products and services for the education market, including K-12 and higher education, please visit http://www.att.com/edu.

About AT&T

AT&T Inc. is a premier communications holding company. Its subsidiaries and affiliates, AT&T operating companies, are the providers of AT&T services in the United States and around the world. Among their offerings are the world's most advanced IP-based business communications services and the nation's leading wireless, high speed Internet access and voice services. In domestic markets, AT&T is known for the directory publishing and advertising sales leadership of its Yellow Pages and YELLOWPAGES.COM organizations, and the AT&T brand is licensed to innovators in such fields as communications equipment. As part of its three-screen integration strategy, AT&T is expanding its TV entertainment offerings. In 2008, AT&T again ranked No. 1 on Fortune magazine's World's Most Admired Telecommunications Company list and No. 1 on America's Most Admired Telecommunications Company list. Additional information about AT&T Inc. and the products and services provided by AT&T subsidiaries and affiliates is available at http://www.att.com/.

(C) 2008 AT&T Intellectual Property. All rights reserved. AT&T, the AT&T logo and all other AT&T marks contained herein are trademarks of AT&T Intellectual Property and/or AT&T affiliated companies. All other marks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.

Note: This AT&T news release and other announcements are available as part of an RSS feed at http://www.att.com/rss. For more information, please review this announcement in the AT&T newsroom at http://www.att.com/newsroom.

AT&T Inc.

CONTACT: Vijoy Rao of AT&T Inc., +1-314-982-7745, vrao@attnews.us

Web site: http://www.att.com/

Source: PRNewswire-FirstCall

More News in this Category