I may have been lecturing for a long time, but I am still willing to try to new things - indeed, I am quite keen to do so if I think they will bring benefits.  Tomorrow I am going to try to use the voting system by which students can express their opinions on particular issues by voting in class and seeing the results come up instantly: their collective views can then be used a basis for class discussion.  I've seen the system used - indeed we use it in the University's Risk Review Group to vote on what we think are the biggest risks the university is facing each yera. But I have never set it up and used it myself.

So today I downloaded the relevant programme, 'TurningPoint', and set to work producing the questions I want to put to the students.  I was a little surprised to be confronted with a variant of Powerpoint, since I was expecting something different, but I progressed through my questions and ended up with something close to what I want.  Then I went on to the next step, 'creating a participant list'.  At this point I wondered why such a thing was needed - the participants would be those in the room who had voting boxes.  So I went to the help button and was provided with a manual.  This is where I do start to sound very elderly.  I would much prefer to have a manual in front of me whilst working on a programme, rather than having to switch between screens.  Nevertheless I think I worked out that I don't really need a participant list at all and that there are a number of things in the manual that are really 'bangs and whistles' and  aren't needed for a simple use of the programme.  And that's another feature of systems these days - they are so complex in many cases that it is very difficult to start out on them because the user is provided with too many options at the outset.  It is more useful when one is offered a 'basic use', 'intermediate use' and 'advanced use' option at the outset.  

Anyway, I worked on this stuff until about 8 p.m. this evening and then set off for home.  But to run the whole thing I am going to need support from CiCS colleagues.  Wish me luck.

I can see why many people are nervous about trying new ways of doing things.  Risking something with a first year class of 300 is a very adrenalin-producing experience.  Anyone lacking confidence in handling an audience can easily have their level of self-assurance further dented if things go wrong.  My approach is generally to tell students that I am doing an experiment, and that usually brings them on side and makes them tolerant if things go wrong.  With the voting exercise tomorrow my fall back position will, of course, be to get them to vote by raising their hands.  It might be back to the simplest of technology after all.