Much has been said about how connected devices, whether in college lecture halls or elementary school classrooms, can distract students. GoSoapBox aims to show how such devices can also help keep class on track, Mashable reports. The startup, which is launching Tuesday, makes a web-based app that serves as a constant back-channel to classroom discussion. Students can use it to post questions about the lecture, vote up questions their classmates have already submitted, set their statuses to “confused,” and contribute to polls and questions posted by the teacher.
“With the app, students are less likely to get distracted because they’re staying engaged with the material,” says GoSoapBox co-founder and CEO John Pytel, who says he got the idea while attending large lectures at the University of Michigan. “The questions they have are getting answered.”
To use the service, teachers pay $15 per month or $90 per year, and 1,300 of them have already enrolled in the free beta program…
- ‘Buyer’s remorse’ dogging Common Core rollout - October 30, 2014
- Calif. law targets social media monitoring of students - October 2, 2014
- Elementary world language instruction - September 25, 2014
