The coolest bits of classroom tech I've ever seen

I met with a representative from Turning Technologies today. While many of you may have had the opportunity to use interactive response systems (so-called "clickers"), we're finally moving into the 21st century; now that we have reasonable computing facilities at all of our schools, our goal is to fully utilize them and add interactivity.

Thus, these interactive response systems that allow students to answer questions and take surveys in class with their aggregated responses displayed within a PowerPoint presentation or on a standalone unit. The real beauty of Turning's system is its direct integration with PowerPoint (sorry, no OpenOffice integration, although the software can be superimposed over any Mac or Windows software). It includes a dedicated toolbar and a series of macros for automating the creation of interactive slides.

In fact, the software includes 30,000 questions aligned with state frameworks so that canned interactive presentations take only minutes to create. I hate to sound like the sales presentation I just heard, but I was able to create (and then take, and then export data to Excel from) a presentation based on the Massachusetts Commonwealth frameworks for 5th grade math in about 5 minutes using simple macro-based wizards.

The systems aren't free, of course, but I have to say that they are remarkably inexpensive considering the quality of the software and the ease of use for students and teachers. I won't disclose our quoted price, but I think that 5 classroom sets (that can be combined, by the way, and include a USB transmitter that attaches to a computer, enough clickers for a class, a carrying case, and all of the software) are well within our budget. In fact, I think the price is quite small to keep kids' hands off of their cell phones and on their clickers.

If I can swing it in my budget, a full review will follow. I'll keep you posted. Talk back below with any experiences you've had with interactive response systems.