The Features and Potential of Interactive Response System

Integrating Interactive Response System (IRS) with a classroom computer is an inexpensive and promising means to overcoming or alleviating obstacles of in-class teacher-student and peer interactions. Unfortunately, such potential applications are often neglected. Accordingly, this study identifies IRS’s features, investigates the merits and limitations of applying existing IRSs to instruction and learning, and further interprets how IRS’s existing features can be elaborated and generates more useful features for instructional application based on three finished research: 1. developing a more powe rful IRS, called EduClick II, to support various types of classroom activities and interactions, 2. expanding IRS to a network-supported environment to facilitate teachers’ developing and sharing of pre-authored IRS-based materials , students’ review of the materials and their in-class response on the IRS after class, and parents’ understanding of their child’s performance in using IRS, and 3. expanding IRS to other advanced devices, which could possess IRS’s existing features.