System and method for communicating with students in an education environment

• US 7,343,134 B1
• Filed: 04/29/2005
• Issued: 03/11/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/03/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Turning Technologies LLC (Echo 360, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: eInstruction
• Inventors: Ward, Darrell L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Thai; Xuan M.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Saadat; Cameron
• Application Number:
  US11/118,682
• Time in Patent Office: 1,047 Days
• Field of Search: 434/188, 434/322, 434/350
• US Class Current: 434/350
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 7/02 of the type wherein the student is expected to construct an answer to the question which is presented or wherein the machine gives an answer to the question presented by a student

Abstract

A communication system for communicating with students in an education environment includes a plurality of remote units, a base station that receives messages from the remote units, a processor, a memory, and a display simultaneously visible to all users of the remote units. The base station receives a response to a current question from a remote unit. The processor determines whether the current response is a valid response, and uses the display to visually indicate to a user of the remote unit whether the response is valid.

Claims

1. A method for communicating in an education environment, comprising:

presenting a common display simultaneously viewable by users of a plurality of remote units, the common display including a plurality of remote unit identifiers each associated with a respective remote unit;

receiving from a particular remote unit a message identifying the particular remote unit and a response to a particular one of a plurality of questions;

associating on the common display a remote unit identifier associated with the particular remote unit with a first current question; and

updating the common display to associate the remote unit identifier with a second current question to allow a user of the particular remote unit to progress through the plurality of questions independently with respect to users of other remote units.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein updating the common display to associate the remote unit identifier with a second current question comprises updating the common display in response to receiving the message identifying the response to the particular one of the plurality of questions from the particular remote unit.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising, in response to receiving messages identifying responses to various questions from various remote units of the plurality of remote units, updating the common display to associate the remote unit identifier for each of the various remote units with a respective current question for each of the various remote units.

4. The method of claim 1:

further comprising presenting on the common display a plurality of question identifiers each associated with a respective question of the plurality of questions; and

wherein associating on the common display the remote unit identifier associated with the particular remote unit with a first current question comprises associating on the common display the remote unit identifier associated with the particular remote unit with the question identifier associated with the first current question.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising presenting on the common display a plurality of question identifiers each associated with at least one of the remote unit identifiers.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein updating the common display to associate the remote unit identifier with a second current question to allow a user of the particular remote unit to progress through the plurality of questions independently with respect to users of other remote units comprises updating the common display to associate the remote unit identifier with a second current question to allow a user of the particular remote unit to progress through the plurality of questions independently with respect to users of other remote units by viewing the common display and without reference to visual feedback from the particular remote unit.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing the plurality of questions to the users of the plurality of remote units in printed form.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the common display does not display the response to the particular one of a plurality of questions received from the particular remote unit.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein:

each of the plurality of questions includes a plurality of possible answers;

the response to the particular one of the plurality of questions corresponds to one of the plurality of possible answers of the particular one of the plurality of questions; and

updating the common display to associate the remote unit identifier with a second current question to allow a user of the particular remote unit to progress through the plurality of questions independently with respect to users of other remote units comprises updating the common display for the user of the particular remote unit to progress to the second current question upon determining that the response to the particular one of the plurality of questions corresponds to one of the plurality of possible answers of the particular one of the plurality of questions.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving from the particular remote unit a response to a question previously answered by the particular remote unit; and

presenting on the common display an indication that the response to the question previously answered by the particular remote unit was received.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein presenting on the common display an indication that the response to the question previously answered by the particular remote unit was received comprises presenting on the common display an indication that the response to the question previously answered by the particular remote unit does not correspond to a previous response received from the particular remote unit for the question.

12. Logic for communicating in an education environment, the logic encoded in computer readable media and operable when executed to:

present a common display simultaneously viewable by users of a plurality of remote units, the common display including a plurality of remote unit identifiers each associated with a respective remote unit;

receive from a particular remote unit a message identifying the particular remote unit and a response to a particular one of a plurality of questions;

associate on the common display a remote unit identifier associated with the particular remote unit with a first current question; and

update the common display to associate the remote unit identifier with a second current question to allow a user of the particular remote unit to progress through the plurality of questions independently with respect to users of other remote units.

13. The logic of claim 12, wherein updating the common display to associate the remote unit identifier with a second current question comprises updating the common display in response to receiving the message identifying the response to the particular one of the plurality of questions from the particular remote unit.

14. The logic of claim 12, further operable, in response to receiving messages identifying responses to various questions from various remote units of the plurality of remote units, to update the common display to associate the remote unit identifier for each of the various remote units with a respective current question for each of the various remote units.

15. The logic of claim 12:

further operable to present on the common display a plurality of question identifiers each associated with a respective question of the plurality of questions; and

wherein associating on the common display the remote unit identifier associated with the particular remote unit with a first current question comprises associating on the common display the remote unit identifier associated with the particular remote unit with the question identifier associated with the first current question.

16. The logic of claim 12, further operable to present on the common display a plurality of question identifiers each associated with at least one of the remote unit identifiers.

17. The logic of claim 12, wherein updating the common display to associate the remote unit identifier with a second current question to allow a user of the particular remote unit to progress through the plurality of questions independently with respect to users of other remote units comprises updating the common display to associate the remote unit identifier with a second current question to allow a user of the particular remote unit to progress through the plurality of questions independently with respect to users of other remote units by viewing the common display and without reference to visual feedback from the particular remote unit.

18. The logic of claim 12, wherein the common display does not display the response to the particular one of a plurality of questions received from the particular remote unit.

19. The logic of claim 12, wherein:

each of the plurality of questions includes a plurality of possible answers;

the response to the particular one of the plurality of questions corresponds to one of the plurality of possible answers of the particular one of the plurality of questions; and

updating the common display to associate the remote unit identifier with a second current question to allow a user of the particular remote unit to progress through the plurality of questions independently with respect to users of other remote units comprises updating the common display for the user of the particular remote unit to progress to the second current question upon determining that the response to the particular one of the plurality of questions corresponds to one of the plurality of possible answers of the particular one of the plurality of questions.

20. The logic of claim 12, further operable to:

receive from the particular remote unit a response to a question previously answered by the particular remote unit; and

present on the common display an indication that the response to the question previously answered by the particular remote unit was received.

21. The logic of claim 20, wherein presenting on the common display an indication that the response to the question previously answered by the particular remote unit was received comprises presenting on the common display an indication that the response to the question previously answered by the particular remote unit does not correspond to a previous response received from the particular remote unit for the question.

22. A communication system, comprising:

a common display simultaneously viewable by users of a plurality of remote units, the common display including a plurality of remote unit identifiers each associated with a respective remote unit;

a base station to receive from a particular remote unit a message identifying the particular remote unit and a response to a particular one of a plurality of questions; and

a processor to;

associate on the common display a remote unit identifier associated with the particular remote unit with a first current question; and

update the common display to associate the remote unit identifier with a second current question to allow a user of the particular remote unit to progress through the plurality of questions independently with respect to users of other remote units.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein, in response to the base station receiving the message identifying the response to the particular one of the plurality of questions from the particular remote unit, the processor is further operable to update the common display to associate the remote unit identifier associated with the particular remote unit with a second current question.

24. The system of claim 22, wherein, in response to the base station receiving messages identifying responses to various questions from various remote units of the plurality of remote units, the processor is further operable to update the common display to associate the remote unit identifier for each of the various remote units with a respective current question for each of the various remote units.

25. The system of claim 22, wherein:

the common display further comprises a plurality of question identifiers each associated with a respective question of the plurality of questions; and

the processor is further operable to associate on the common display the remote unit identifier associated with the particular remote unit with the question identifier associated with the first current question.

26. The system of claim 22, wherein the common display further comprises a plurality of question identifiers each associated with at least one of the remote unit identifiers.

27. The system of claim 22, wherein the processor is further operable to update the common display to associate the remote unit identifier with a second current question to allow a user of the particular remote unit to progress through the plurality of questions independently with respect to users of other remote units by viewing the common display and without reference to visual feedback from the particular remote unit.

28. The system of claim 22, wherein the common display is further operable not to display the response to the particular one of a plurality of questions received from the particular remote unit.

29. The system of claim 22, wherein:

each of the plurality of questions includes a plurality of possible answers;

the response to the particular one of the plurality of questions corresponds to one of the plurality of possible answers of the particular one of the plurality of questions; and

the processor is further operable to update the common display for the user of the particular remote unit to progress to the second current question upon determining that the response to the particular one of the plurality of questions corresponds to one of the plurality of possible answers of the particular one of the plurality of questions.

30. The system of claim 22, wherein:

the base station is further operable to receive from the particular remote unit a response to a question previously answered by the particular remote unit; and

the processor is further operable to indicate on the common display that the response to the question previously answered by the particular remote unit was received.

31. The system of claim 30, wherein the processor is further operable to indicate on the common display that the response to the question previously answered by the particular remote unit does not correspond to a previous response received from the particular remote unit for the question.

32. A method for communicating in an education environment, comprising:

presenting a common display simultaneously viewable by users of a plurality of remote units, the common display including a plurality of remote unit identifiers each associated with a respective remote unit and a plurality of question identifiers each associated with a respective question of a plurality of questions and each associated with at least one of the remote unit identifiers, wherein each of the plurality of questions includes a plurality of possible answers;

receiving from a particular remote unit a message identifying the particular remote unit and a response to a particular one of the plurality of questions, wherein the response to the particular one of the plurality of questions corresponds to one of the plurality of possible answers of the particular one of the plurality of questions and the common display does not display the response to the particular one of a plurality of questions received from the particular remote unit;

associating on the common display the remote unit identifier associated with the particular remote unit with a current question, wherein associating on the common display comprises associating on the common display the remote unit identifier associated with the particular remote unit with the question identifier associated with the current question;

enabling a user of the particular remote unit to progress through the plurality of questions independently with respect to users of other remote units by viewing the common display and without reference to visual feedback from the particular remote unit;

in response to receiving the message identifying the response to the particular one of the plurality of questions from the particular remote unit;

updating the common display to associate the remote unit identifier associated with the particular remote unit with a second current question;

updating the common display for the user of the particular remote unit to progress to a subsequent question upon determining that the response to the particular one of the plurality of questions corresponds to one of the plurality of possible answers of the particular one of the plurality of questions; and

updating the common display to associate the remote unit identifier for each of the various remote units with a respective current question for each of the various remote units;

receiving from the particular remote unit a response to a question previously answered by the particular remote unit; and

presenting on the common display an indication that the response to the question previously answered by the particular remote unit was received and does not correspond to a previous response received from the particular remote unit for the question.