Improving Classroom Discussion

[dhinckley]

Hey Everyone, 

I need your help.  I was originally developing Attentiv to solve a business psychology problem, but the educators that have tested the software so far have given me such positive feedback that I wanted to reach out to you in case it was something that you thought was worth covering.

Classes have a problem.  Extroverted students dominate the conversation, but sometimes they don’t actually have anything productive to say.  Introverts’ good ideas stay in their heads instead of spurring discussion.  Quiet’s Susan Cain pointed out that “there's zero correlation between being the best talker and having the best ideas.” Students stay quiet to avoid criticism or even lie when they don’t want the teacher to know how they really feel. 

Attentiv enables students by allowing them to anonymously answer questions and discuss topics in real-time during classes.  Students can even participate remotely with results published back to the virtual class for all to see.  The instructor can work from attached documents, planned questions, and can add new questions or topics during classes.  Attentiv also saves the results for future reference.

We’re in an open-beta right now and our primary account is completely free. Here’s our website: attentiv.com.

Please let me know if you have any questions or if you'd like me to run through the software with you! I'd love to get everyone's thoughts and feedback here. Please kick the tires a bit and let us know how we can improve what we've built.

Thanks!

Dhinckley