educational software employing group competition using an interactive electronic whiteboard. - whiteboard connected to computer

This paper presents a design of an educational software employment group competition using a large interactive whiteboard, and studies its experimental use.
Group competition and cooperation are effective ways to develop creative and communication skills.
The same space, the same big screen, the same faceto-
In group competitions, face-to-face communication with others is very important.
By using a large interactive whiteboard, we can also introduce its benefits into this environment.
We designed the agroup contest app. e.
Chinese character matching software using interactive whiteboard.
Through applied experiments in two primary schools, we confirm the need to select competitive elements based on the child's personality, the teacher's leadership style and the potential to stimulate children's learning.
In addition, the children concentrate and the teacher masters the learning process of the children.
Therefore, we found that interactive whiteboard and group competition software can be effectively used in classroom learning.
In recent years, the importance of computer in primary education has been increasingly recognized.
For example, the revised curriculum introduced by Japanese primary schools in 1998 states: "In each course, teachers should, by introducing audio-visual and other necessary educational materials, familiarize children with the use of computers and information networks in their studies.
"In order to achieve this goal, primary schools are rapidly establishing computer laboratories and teachers are also working to acquire and hone their computer skills.
Many schools are working to incorporate computers into the teaching of various disciplines, several software systems in the field of computer-assisted teaching (CAI)
Developed to assist in this task.
Many of these systems are drills.
Based or tutorial-
According to the progress of the students, they show different adaptability (
Alexandria, 1998).
Recently, computer supports cooperative learning (CSCL)
It also proposes a system that allows students to collaborate with each other in a group (Strijbos, 2001).
However, there is little concern about the role of competition in learning.
While excessive emphasis on competition may put pressure on students, a degree of competition is necessary in order to motivate and motivate students.
If the competition is played between teams, then it will also promote cooperation among team members and facilitate improvisation.
Under appropriate supervision and guidance, teachers can also help the development of individual students.
Students can therefore achieve a sense of accomplishment and feel encouraged to learn further.
Bring computers into group competitions-
Basic Teaching reduces the time required for teacher preparation, which in turn makes teachers pay more attention to students and monitor the growth and development of students.
Teachers can check students' answers and discuss their results in groups to naturally encourage students' ideas.
In addition, schematic diagrams, animations, and other audio-visual materials can be used to promote students' understanding, as there are now software tools to prepare these materials.
The interactive whiteboard has been introduced into classroom teaching and shows many advantages.
The electronic whiteboard is a large whiteboard with a pen-
Input tablets and erasers that work like normal chalk and eraser.
We have developed several useful interfaces for electronic whiteboards [IFIP](
Nakagawa, Oguni & Yoshino, 1997, Nakagawa, Hotta, Bandou, Oguni, Kato and Sawada, 1999).
Recently, we have been working to integrate electronic whiteboards into classroom teaching to integrate the advantages of traditional classroom teaching and the use of computers in the classroom [ACM SIGCHI](
Sakurada, Bandoh, and Nakagawa, 1999, Bandoh, Nemoto Zetian, Indurkhya, and Nakagwa, 2000, Big Moon, Bandoh, Kato, and Nakagawa, 2001).
In this study, we focus on developing competition.
Use the basic learning environment of the electronic whiteboard in the classroom.
We believe that the use of electronic whiteboards can promote teamwork and face-to-face communication. to-
Face-to-face exchange
For this purpose, we show the design of the competition
Basic education software for learning Chinese characters pairs.
We also show the potential of the software, how it adjusts the competitive elements according to the student's personality, and how it helps teachers guide the teaching process.
In addition, we examined the effectiveness of the software in monitoring students' ability to improvise and collaborate.
The design of educational software based on group competition introduces two methods of group competition in educational software.
One way is the result.
Other process oriented.
We feel that education software for primary schools, a program --
The guiding method of process accompanying results is necessary.
Therefore, teachers should pay attention to how students approach, think and cooperate in learning.
In order to do this, the teacher must know the correct procedure for learning each subject so that the teacher can provide the students with a clear direction.
When designing our system, the following issues are considered core: * there is an environment that benefits team members to work together and improvise.
* There is an environment for teachers to give feedback on the methods used by students when solving problems.
Since our system is designed for classroom use, the following issues are also considered.
* Teachers can easily manage classes without extra preparation.
* Students should be able to apply their learning experience to future studies.
Each class has different features because each class is made up of students with different personalities.
An effective teacher must adjust the atmosphere and teaching skills according to the features of individual classes.
In particular, it is important to adjust the level of competition in group competition --
Based on educational technology.
For example, in classes where students have a wide range of abilities, only students with a strong ability can have a strong motivation.
This may limit the participation of other students when the software is such a clear identity.
On the other hand, in classes where all students are roughly at the same level, this same feature in the software may motivate students to plan winning strategies.
This sentence applies not only to students' learning ability, but also to their cooperation ability, positive thinking ability, etc.
When designing our system, we believe that the following set of competing elements can be set according to the features of a single category: * show winner * Show points earned in the game * reward points for the team who answered the first * limit the length of the game to the specified time or the number of correct answers select learning material we considered two ways to choose the subject material for this group competition --
Based on educational software.
One way is to delegate this task to the software.
This method of software playing the role of a teacher may be useful for personal learning software.
Another way to be useful in a classroom environment is to have the teacher choose the right material for each learning.
In our design, we follow the latter approach as our system is intended to be used in the classroom.
In other words, our design is based on the assumption that software is just a tool to help teachers manage the classroom, and all responsibility for choosing the right textbook is handed over to the teacher.
Classroom teachers who show incorrect answers are effective are always aware of the level of student understanding.
To this end, teachers should not only ask students to solve problems, but also explain the way they think about solving problems.
The wrong answers tend to be very helpful because they point out the wrong approach.
Teachers can adjust the teaching focus according to this information and correct students' wrong ideas.
Students can master the concept first and then learn the next step.
If the teacher skips the wronganswers, then the support software becomes a tool to measure the level of achievement.
So, to improve the educational effect, we have designed our software that not only shows the correct answers, but also the incorrect answers so that teachers can take advantage of this information. Handwriting-
Keyboard-based inputs are often used as input devices for personal computers.
The keyboard allows trained people to enter data quickly.
However, for Chinese characters in Japanese,
Dependence on the keyboard reduces one's ability to write Chinese characters, even if the same student can read them.
Especially in the primary school curriculum, the writing of Chinese characters is emphasized to a large extent, and the use of the keyboard will backfire.
The children of elementary school are also not familiar with entering Chinese characters with Roman characters, which is necessary when using the keyboard.
Also, it is difficult for children to type with a keyboard ---
It forces their attention away from the subject matter being studied and may even kill creativity.
For all these reasons, our system uses pens
Based on the input method, students are allowed to enter Chinese characters naturally like writing Chinese characters on paper.
The normal display of personal computers using electronic whiteboards is too small to share all the students in the classroom and work together.
A network connection is a way to share information between members of a group, but working in a network environment prevents face-to-
Face-to-face exchange
Therefore, the sense of presence and face of the bodyto-
Face-to-face contact often encountered in teamwork is lacking when working with the network.
In addition, the teacher did not receive visual feedback from the student, which prevented him or her from adjusting the teaching plan appropriately.
Therefore, our system is designed to work with an electronic whiteboard with a large display, so that students can share the same workspace in the classroom (Figure 1).
We believe that the large display whiteboard has the following advantages: * it produces a team spirit that promotes cooperation and constraints.
* Close direct verbal and visual communication contributes to the sharing of knowledge and information. [
Figure 1 slightly]
* The status of each other's team can be observed, which may encourage team members to improve their strategy.
* Other children who do not participate in the competition can also watch the status of the competition, so this increases the tension, which may help the learning process.
* Teachers can observe what students are doing and give them proper guidance and feedback.
Implementation of the competition-
Based on the educational support system hardware structure, we consider two methods in designing the hardware structure, allowing multiple user access required for competition
That is, software-based that allows simultaneous access or sequential access.
We chose to follow the simultaneous access method we designed because it is faster and therefore more efficient considering the limited time available for each class.
However, this requires that the hardware must support multiple user access in order to get the answer, write the correct answer, etc.
Another problem that has to be solved is the display area, which is smaller on the whiteboard than on the traditional blackboard.
In our approach, in order to create a large work area, multiple electronic whiteboards are connected to a personal computer that acts as a driver and provide access to the software (
Otsuka, Bandao, Kato, Nakagawa, 2001).
While the traditional way to connect multiple electronic whiteboards to one personal computer is not allowed, we implement a special driver that allows access to multiple electronic whiteboards at the same time.
In addition, the display area can be extended by using Windows multi-window
Monitoring function. [
Figure 2:
Figure 2 shows a schematic diagram of a projector-type whiteboard consisting of two electronic whiteboards.
It's OK to use back-
A projected whiteboard. Kanji-
Chinese character matching software
The implementation of the pairing software is to illustrate the competition
Educational-based software that can be used with multiple electronic whiteboards.
The software is designed to simulate classroom teaching activities, where students start with the Chinese characters suggested by the teacher and make meaningful pairs of Chinese characters.
Screen of Chinese characters-
The pairing software is shown in figure 3, and Table 1 shows the functionality of the prototype implementation of the educational software based on group competition.
Before using this software, the teacher will set some parameters to determine the level of competence suitable for a certain group of students.
The teacher also identified the Chinese characters to be learned in class and could limit the order in which they were used in the game. [
Figure 3 slightly]
The game starts when the teacher suggests that a Chinese character must be used in a pairing game.
Each group comes up with a meaningful pair of Chinese characters, starting or ending with the suggested Chinese characters and writing with a pen, which is recognized by the frame
Based on the character recognition system.
The software checks the answer in real time, showing the correct answer and the wrong answer respectively.
If more than one group gives the same correct answer, the order given by the answer is represented in the color of the font.
With the examination of computer processing answers and the evaluation of student performance, the work of teachers has been greatly reduced.
The teacher can suggest Chinese characters that he or she wants the students to pay attention.
In this way, teachers can organize teaching materials and students can participate freely.
The computer can also check for unexpected or rare pairs of Chinese characters by referring to its electronic dictionary.
In order to evaluate the efficacy of Chinese characters, experiments were conducted in primary schools
We paired the game with multiple electronic whiteboards and used the prototype in the actual classroom.
Two primary schools participated in the study and discussed the experience here, including the teacher's comments.
The study was conducted in class 5 of Sakurai primary school. The kanji-
The pairing software is used for a part of the class that contains 36 students and a teacher.
The students were divided into six groups, six in each group.
There were three pairs between the two teams.
Students are allowed to use textbooks and dictionaries.
Teachers also advise students on strategies for effective collaboration, and their tables are rearranged to facilitate discussions among group members.
After the game, the teacher not only explained the meaning of the pairs of Chinese characters produced in the game, but also gave their synonyms and antonyms.
Sometimes, the teacher also asks the students about the meaning of Chinese characters.
The teacher felt that the students in this class cooperated very well, and that this spirit of cooperation needed further encouragement because it increased the social and communication of the students and their understanding of each other.
For this reason, the teacher believes that overemphasis on the competitive aspect of the game is at risk of undermining team harmony, so that the score is not shown and the answer given is also credited to the score.
The teacher determines the winner by assessing the level of cooperation and creativity of each group.
Each game is limited to five minutes.
After the game, students were asked to answer a questionnaire.
Figure 4 shows the contents of the questionnaire and a summary of the student's answers.
After the game, the teacher made the following five positive Comments: * The class was taught more or less according to the original plan, and the study of Chinese characters --
The right words were completed effectively.
This seems to increase the motivation of the students.
This seems to increase cooperation between students.
* The competitive elements in the game match the features of the class.
* Due to the large size of the electronic whiteboard, everyone in the class can attend.
No negative comments.
The students made the following comments: * Game-
Like installation, it's fun to learn Chinese characters
We want to play more and more.
We want to learn more Chinese characters. pairs.
* Team work during the game is very interesting.
Xiaojinjing city Dai
Class 1, Grade 5, Dai-
The first primary school in gaogennei city was also involved in the study.
The software is used in a class consisting of a teacher and 28 students.
The students were divided into six groups, Chinese characters-
The double game was played three times by the double group.
Before starting the game, the teacher explained the composition of each Chinese character and made sure that the students understood the meaning of the Chinese character.
Students are not allowed to use dictionaries or notes, etc.
Therefore, students must rely on their memory of what they have learned in the game.
In order for all the students to watch the race, the table was rearranged.
After all the games, the teacher classified and explained the meaning of the Chinese character pairs generated in the game and other Chinese character pairs that did not appear in the game.
Finally, the teacher asked the students to write all the pairs of Chinese characters in the notebook to consolidate their study.
The teachers in this class feel that all students have similar academic abilities and they are all mature, so if the game is played in a competitive way, it may be more exciting for them.
Therefore, for this group, the time limit for each match is limited to five minutes, after which the score and the winner are displayed.
Late answers are not accepted as valid.
The teacher and the students discussed the results of the game and finalized the assessment.
Students were then asked to fill out the same questionnaire as the student answer summary shown in figure 4.
The teacher made the following two positive words and one negative: * use the materials originally intended by the teacher and the class will attend classes as usual.
* Due to time constraints, students sometimes write Chinese characters in the wrong order or in the wrong way.
* Competitive elements seem to fit into this class.
However, the final score should be adjustable in order to reflect any special circumstances.
The students made the following comments: the pairing of Chinese characters seems to be easier than we initially thought.
* We can understand the composition and meaning of Chinese characters very well.
* Learning is very relaxing while having fun and laughing.
* Unfortunately we got a lot of answers after the game was over.
* It's also fun to watch other games.
The second sentence above also relates to another software package used by the teacher to explain the composition and meaning of Chinese characters.
Our experience has shown that this software containing electronic whiteboards is an effective learning tool to support classroom teaching compared to traditional blackboards and texts
Basic teaching materials.
Comments from discussion teachers indicate Chinese characters-
Using materials that teachers have already prepared for traditional teaching, matching software can be used in traditional classrooms.
In other words, there is little extra preparation for the teacher.
The software also facilitates competitive elements by allowing simultaneous input from the competition team, checking that answers are correct and showing them, keeping scores, and so on.
Teachers believe that the matching of teams in the game has improved the ability of each team to cooperate.
In addition, the setting of the game makes learning Chinese characters pairs interesting and increases the motivation of students to learn Chinese characters pairs.
The student's comments further supported these conclusions.
About 90% of the students responded that they were able to work effectively with other members of the team, and the game increased their motivation to learn kanji pairs.
Many students commented that the game helped them overcome the impression that it was difficult to learn Chinese characters.
Most students answer that the game is fun and they want to play it again.
Our experience also shows that teamwork and being allowed to use dictionaries and other materials can help students overcome natural reluctance and shyness and improve their faces --to-
Face the communication ability between oneself and teacher.
When comparing the results of the two experiments, it can be seen that students in Sakurai Primary School scored better on the software than students in Koganei Dai-
City Primary School.
This, we believe, suggests that classes in Sakurai primary school are more suitable for competitive elements.
At the established koganei school, when the two teams answer at the same time, the way time constraints and relationships are resolved seems to be a constraint.
Nevertheless, in both cases, the use of large display sizes allows teachers to track the entire game process, and they provide appropriate encouragement to losingteam by highlighting the experience of the game rather than the result.
Therefore, it seems useful and perhaps even necessary to adjust the competitive elements of the game to suit individual groups of students.
In this regard, the software system on the electronic whiteboard seems to be very effective as it allows the game program to be adjusted as needed.
In addition, our experience shows that even students who do not play games are indirectly involved by contributing to the strategy, which is possible because of the large display area of the electronic whiteboard.
Finally, our experience shows that electronic whiteboards are an effective tool for running educational software that can increase the motivation of students in the classroom.
Conclusion in this study, we focus on group competition and show how to design educational software that utilizes the inherent competitive spirit of children.
The Chinese character matching game is such a software. in this study, its efficacy has been proved.
In particular, we demonstrate the usefulness of incorporating a feature that allows for adjustment of competitive factors based on the features of the topic and the nature of the student.
In addition, we show the effectiveness of electronic whiteboards in classroom teaching and allow the use of educational software that includes competitive and cooperative strategies.
This kind of software has the potential to increase students' motivation to learn and cultivate students' creativity.
In future research, we are designing and implementing other educational software based on competitive strategies running on electronic whiteboards, which we plan to evaluate in actual classrooms.
Thank you to the participants and staff of Sakurai Primary School and Koganei primary school for their cooperation during the experiment.
The study was supported by the public administration, civil affairs, postal and telecom sector Strategic Information and Communications R & D promotion program.
Reference N Alexander Reese, Virvon, M.
M. borrydo(1998).
Multimedia tools for teaching geometry at school.
Legal procedures of the Education DepartmentMEDIA/ED-TELECOM98, Vol. 2, 1546-1548. Bandoh, H. , Nemoto, H. , Sawada, S. , Indurkhya, B. & Nakagwa, M. (2000).
Development of classroom whiteboard environment education software.
Proceedings of IWALT 2000,41-44. Nakagawa, M. , Oguni, T. & Yoshino, T. (1997)
Human-computer interaction and application on IdeaBoard.
Record of international meeting of IFIP TC13. on Human-
501-computer interaction508. Nakagawa, M. , Hotta, K. , Bandou, H. , Oguni, T. , Kato, N. &Sawada, S. (1999).
Modified man-machine interface and educational application on IdeaBoard.
Acm sigchi 99 video program and video program, and CHI 99 extended summary, 15-16. Otsuki, Y. , Bandoh, H. , Kato, N. & Nakagawa, M. (2001).
Support personal and collaborative work with scalable peninterfaces.
Usability Evaluation and interface design 445-449. Otsuki, Y. , Bandoh, H. , Kato, N. & Nakagawa, M. (2001).
Development of interactive whiteboard system with multiple electronic pens for educational applications.
/Schools/Net 2001 ,(pp. 1438-1445). Sakurada, T. , Bandoh, H. & Nakagawa, M. , (1999).
Expansion of educational applications.
Minutes of the meeting of HCI International '99 ,(pp. 243-246. Strijbos, J. W. , & Martens, R. L. (2001). Group-
Dynamic interaction in groups. In P. Dillenbourg, A. Eurelings, & K. Hakkarainen (Eds. )
European views on computers
Support collaborative learning.
Minutes of 1st European computer conference
Collaborative learning supported (pp. 569-576).
Maastricht: University of Maastricht.
Yokosuka @ hand, Tokyo University of Agricultural Technology, Japan. ei. tuat. ac.
Jp hirokazu bandoh @ fit, Fukuoka Institute of Technology, Japan. ac.
Japanese direct wood @ bmoon, University of Tokyo, Japan.
Jpbipin INDURKHYA and masaki nakagawa, University of Agricultural Technology, Tokyo, Japan, BIPIN @ cc. tuat. ac. jp nakagawa@cc. tuat. ac.