Work In Progress - Providing Interactivity in a Technology-Rich Classroom

In increasing numbers, universities are providing wireless access to the Internet in classrooms and are requiring entering freshmen to have laptop computers. Moreover instructors are requiring students to bring their laptop computers to class and are designing lectures with the assumption that their students have access to computing and the Web. What is currently lacking is software that can support teaching and learning. This short paper briefly describes an ongoing effort at Clemson University to develop a Web-based tool, MessageGrid, whose primary objective is to support interactivity in a technology-rich classroom. We give an overview of the tool and how instructors are currently using it in their lectures and outline plans for future development