NetSupport School Question and Answer Mode The Question and Answer module is a unique collaborative tool that enables teachers to reinforce key learning points and instantly gauge student understanding during a lesson. Assessment of student understanding is a key strand within education. It is well recognised that there are many approaches that can be employed to gauge student understanding and progress. NetSupport School already provides a number of tools to aid in the process, these are: The Testing module that facilitates tests containing text, imagery, video and audio content to be included within a traditional exam environment and where the teacher can monitor in real-time progress and results achieved. Survey Mode that allows for simple questions to be asked and a selection of answers in multiple choice format to be presented to the student so they can vote on the correct answer or statement. Again, student responses are automatically collated and, where appropriate, groups can be created based on their responses, so a teacher can revisit a topic with just those students who provided incorrect answers. Both these modules add significant value to a classroom, but both have a limitation that prevents instant assessment. Both Tests and Surveys require teachers to plan and pre-enter questions for assessment; involve individual assessment; and do not automatically cater for a topic to be expanded instantly based on responses. With that in mind, NetSupport has worked with educators to develop our new Question and Answer module. It removes the necessity for prior preparation, allows a teacher to develop a questioning theme and crucially, develops both individual and peer assessment in the classroom. The Question and Answer module aids effective questioning, helps to promote learning and foster higher order thinking. The module is designed to allow a teacher to maintain the flow of learning within the lesson, ensure all students are engaged, assess quickly what has been learned, gauge levels of understanding, test student memory and comprehension and create a sense of shared learning. Based on well respected education standards, the Question and Answer module is built around the concept of Pose, Pause, Pounce and Bounce - a strategy for structuring questions in the classroom, ensuring thinking time, selecting students to answer and collaborative sharing of ideas and response. (1) Pose teacher poses the question for all to consider (2) Pause teacher provides thinking time to consider (3) Pounce a student is selected to provide an answer (4) Bounce the answers are bounced from student to student to develop the idea Pose NetSupport Question and Answer mode is designed to facilitate verbal questioning - the teacher does not need to prepare or enter any content. One question type does allow for an answer to be entered, typically for quick assessment of simple maths questions or perhaps spelling tests. Initially they simply choose a question type (random selection, first student to answer, first team member to answer or auto-mark entered answers). Once a question type is set, a teacher can then decide whether points will be awarded for correct answers, whether they wish to select multiple students to automatically bounce the question, and much more. The question criteria only needs to be selected once - from then on, a teacher can pose question after question of the same type with a single click or, when required, switch to a different question style.
Pause The teacher can specify thinking time before the students are able to respond, as well as specify a time window when answers can be given. This allows a teacher to manage the pace of the session and adjust based on the ability of their students. Based on a game show-style theme, students see a countdown clock when answering questions. Pounce the Question and Answer mode does the pouncing for the teacher. In random selection mode, the selector randomly moves between all student screens for a few seconds, before randomly selecting a student. The purpose of this mode is to ensure students don t feel they are being singled out but, more importantly, it is well evidenced that when a class of students understand that anyone may be selected to answer the next question, there is an improved level of attention. This feature removes the tendency of some students to stay quietly below the radar of the lesson. The second question type uses response speed to select the students, allowing the top X fastest respondents to be selected. This introduces a level of competition and is most notably a positive impact with boys engagement in the exercise. When selecting say, the top 5 fastest responses, it allows the teacher to develop the question between each selected student and develop the questioning. In enter the answer questions, the teacher enters the answer on their screen (which is masked in case the teacher s screen is visible on a whiteboard) and then proceeds to ask the question, for example, what is 8 x 8. The students enter their response on their screen and those that are correct are awarded a star. Finally team mode is offered where students can be automatically grouped, randomly grouped, or grouped in pre-set teams such as their school house. In this mode, points are awarded to the teams and students can see a running total. Bounce the final part of the process and without doubt the key to the product. Once a question has been answered by a student, the teacher can bounce the question to a second student and develop the question or ask them to assess the response of the first student. The question can be bounced any number of times. The beauty of this approach, linking verbal questions with an electronic module, is that the teacher can refine their questions depending on the each recipient and their academic ability. Let s share an example: Teacher What is the largest planet in the solar system? Student 1 It s Venus << Bounce Question to Student 2 >> Teacher Student 2, is Student 1 correct? Student 2 Yes sir, it s definitely Venus Teacher Ok, well done. If Venus is the largest, which is the smallest? << Bounce Question to Student 3 >> Student 3 It s Pluto sir! << Bounce Question to Student 4 >> Teacher Student 4, is she right? Student 4 No sir, Pluto isn t classed as a planet any more The Question and Answer module also allows the teacher at anytime to undertake a full Peer Assessment from the whole class: Teacher All Students Ok Class, student 4 says Pluto isn t a planet any more.who thinks he is right? Presented with a thumbs up / thumbs down response box. The Question and Answer module delivers huge flexibility, but underpinning this is its structure - to be simple and quick to use by teachers and, of course, to engage students. The student interface is presented in a game show-style to encourage participation and engagement. Scores are recorded and, as with all features in NetSupport School, can be recorded in the Student Journals. Where greater management is required, it also provides a selection of more detailed options such as excluding students who answered correctly from taking part in the next round(s) another way of ensuring all students get an opportunity to be included.
Built around current teaching practices for the continual assessment of learning, the feature allows a teacher to verbally ask questions to the class, gauge student answers and understanding, introduce new questioning styles to the lesson (such as basketball questioning), develop peer assessment opportunities, as well as track rewards against both the individual and, where appropriate, teams. To summarise, the Question and Answer module provides the following options: First to Answer When the question has been asked, the teacher can set 'thinking time', after which students can indicate whether they know the answer and the teacher's desktop shows the order in which students answered. The teacher can choose the 'top x' fastest respondents and the quickest student is then asked for their answer. Teacher confirms if right or wrong and has the option to bounce the question to subsequent students. Points can be awarded or deducted. Enter an Answer The teacher enters the answer to a question in advance and students are prompted for their response. Results are instantly displayed to the class and points awarded or deducted. Pot Luck An alternative to First to Answer, the teacher can involve a number of randomly selected students. Team Mode Students can be placed in teams allowing them to compete for rewards as a group. Teams can be created randomly or students can pick a team to join. Each team member enters their answer and the group s combined total is displayed. Peer Assessment This encourages students to give feedback on an answer given by one of their classmates. They indicate if the answer given was correct or incorrect and the teacher's screen displays the results.
Just a few of our loyal NetSupport School customers...
Real world feedback on NetSupport School... After trialling 3 products we chose NetSupport because its overall feature set was much more advanced and relevant for teaching and learning. Any Classroom Management product worth its salt allows you to view and take control of student screens but the ICT landscape has evolved and NetSupport has proved that it has too. It has a much larger range of features beyond the basics that are much more useful in today's modern learning environments. Winchester High School for Boys NetSupport School is easy enough for anybody to use...the teachers love it. All of our experiences have been positive. Once NetSupport is set up, it requires very little attention. As a technician, if I reimage a computer I do it remotely. NetSupport School allows considerable flexibility in setting up a computer lab, making it quick and easy for the tech group. At times, I have performed deployments from my office without visiting the classroom. San Angelo Independent School District The best software purchase we've ever made for our computer lab? NetSupport School! With the purchase of NetSupport School, Zurich International School has achieved radical changes in their computer lab. The difference before and after the installation of NetSupport School has been simply enormous. The teachers can now dedicate more time to teaching and less time policing the students. Zurich International School A number of products were tested but NetSupport School provided the best fit in terms of the class management functionality it provided as well as being the only product that was fully compatible with our NComputing virtual desktop environment. NetSupport School has greatly improved the interaction between instructors and students. This has proved to be particularly useful in the computer science department where instructors frequently need to troubleshoot problems that students encounter in their programming and other projects. With NetSupport School's range of collaboration tools, the entire class can participate in this process. University of St Thomas East Hampstead Park Community School has been using NetSupport for some time now, primarily using the functionality of remotely monitoring students and 'helping them' stay on track when distracted! We had then branched out into designing and using the Testing Console in order to re-stream an entire year group in Science. With the new version and the ability to integrate audio into the control and interaction abilities, we have seen the potential to have ad hoc language labs using our existing ICT infrastructure with nothing more than an appropriate headset. The product and support are both excellent and mean my support department can function effectively covering 6 ICT suites with just one technician sat at his desk - priceless! East Hampstead Park Community School Implementing NetSupport School in our building had helped us tremendously. We are now able to log web/print usage, lock computers when we need for security and student focus, provide IT support from a central location, and save time while students are on the net by giving them links to the websites we want them to go to. Students are now able to spend more time working productively. La Fayette Intermediate School In addition to the obvious educational value of the software, which allows immediate and constant interaction between the students and their teacher, the technology support group in also appreciative of the 'technician mode' which allows monitoring of strategic campus assets for inappropriate use and security challenges. As a K-12 institution, some students find the district computer network as a challenge to 'beat the system' as per Ferris Bueller. Our computer labs and libraries are often the spot of highest inappropriate activity. The NetSupport Technician console is a tool to hugely reduce the probability of inappropriate use. Big Brother is watching. Oxford Area School District Just to let you know, we got a Grade1 for safeguarding during our Ofsted inspection. They were particularly impressed with our e-safety policies and procedures etc - of which NetSupport School plays a pivotal role. Warrington Collegiate
NetSupport School has proved to be an excellent purchase. We utilize the product in two ways; while teaching, it allows the Instructor to focus the students on what is being taught by limiting their own computer access. Secondly, NetSupport School allows the Computer Lab Technicians to restrict the websites and applications the students use in the open labs to reduce the number of viruses and spyware infections as well as assisting in sending messages and enforcing the Open Lab guidelines. The Customer Service from NetSupport has also been fantastic. Whether by phone or e-mail the staff are courteous and very helpful, resolving any questions we have in a timely fashion. Prince George s College NetSupport School has not only allowed us to regain our students focus on assignments instead of the distractions of the internet, but it has also succeeded in areas that many overlook, such as printing. We were wasting a lot of paper due to papers being printed to the wrong printers, students printing more than one copy by accident, etc. With NetSupport School, we are able to approve or deny print jobs before they get sent to the printer. We also evaluated other classroom solutions, however, NetSupport School in our opinion, was way ahead of the rest. We have been using the software for a few months now and we love everything it has to offer. Howe Military School NSS has been added to the computers in the lab and the result is dramatic. I can now control 'where' the students go on the internet, the use of computers in general and the information flow to/from the students. FANTASTIC! TR Robinson High School We use it in our Digital Studios. Our Digital Media and Animation program demands software that can keep up with our high resolution graphics, video and animation. We chose NetSupport School because it handled these issues better than any of the other solutions available. Alfred State College After using a whole range of pupil management software I was seriously disillusioned with claims companies made about their software. We needed something that was easy to use for everyone, not just qualified IT personnel. As an MCSA there are not many programs that make me look twice. But from the first time I saw NetSupport School working it made me look again, after an hour of seeing what it could do and how EASY it is to use, not only for myself but for the teachers too, I knew I had to have this program (our headteacher never sees me this excited about software). We found NetSupport School could provide us with a long term solution while keeping the price very competitive. I would highly recommend this product to anyone in the market for a quality classroom management solution. Aveland School Installing NetSupport School in our classrooms has been a great help to both our IT staff and our instructors. It was a simple quick installation and was easy to configure. United States Airforce I use your product every day!!!! I also work under contract for Oracle. I am a cadre leader for 30 teachers...and while in LA a month or so ago with them, they were using NetSupport during their training sessions. Although they had a NEWER version than mine in the training lab, I was still able to dazzle those teachers with your product. Lecanto High School We have been using NetSupport School at Finchley Catholic High School for two years and remain extremely pleased with it. It gives us the ability to handle large ICT rooms effectively. The demonstration mode runs very smoothly and is, for us, preferable to demonstrating ICT skills on a whiteboard. All of the tools have been very carefully designed with classrooms in mind: blanking screens, disabling internet access and exhibiting one student's work to the rest of the class are just some of the very handy features. Our technicians have been able to install and manage it easily and we've found the official technical support very helpful, as well as our dedicated account manager, although we have hardly had to make use of them given how stable the package is. I really would not want to go back to teaching ICT without NetSupport School; crass as it may sound, it has definitely become our 'killer app' for teaching ICT. Finchley Catholic High School