Listening to Everyone´s Voice Enhances Learning (LEVEL)

Participation in elementary school classroom settings is dependent on students´ abilities to process questions quickly. Pedagogical studies theorize that some students are able to answer a question before other students are able to process the question, creating a division in classroom participation. This paper presents LEVEL (Listening to Everyone´s Voice Enhances Learning), a wireless sensor network application to balance, diversify, and encourage in-class participation. LEVEL offers two operating modes: a centralized interface and a distributed adaptive personal interface. The centralized interface features a traffic light to compel students to wait before responding to a question; we LEVEL the participation in the class by visually informing students when a question can be answered. The distributed interface adaptively sets a participation time delay on a per student basis predicated upon previous participation. LEVEL brings a wireless sensor network application to primary school classrooms. LEVEL connects student learning with technology while providing an enhanced in-class experience for all students.