[00:02.60]Could a Game Show Format Work at University
[00:05.43]Educators, are you ready? Hands on your buzzers.
[00:10.64]Here we go with our first starter for 10:
[00:13.56]do television quiz show formats offer a useful tool for teaching?
[00:17.91]Anyone? Well, OK, it was a bit of a tricky one.
[00:21.60]But the correct answer is yes, or so says
[00:24.38]at least one international institution of higher education.
[00:27.48]Some British universities, already under fire for dumbing down,
[00:31.64]may be wary of the idea. Others may be susceptible
[00:35.82]to the showbiz appeal of a bit of classroom University Challenge.
[00:39.90]In America, the Montgomery County Community College
[00:43.78]has discovered that tuning into the format
[00:46.28]of a popular television quiz show adds a bit of extra relevance,
[00:50.47]and fun, to its student review sessions.
[00:53.57]At the college's annual technology conference
[00:56.74]in Utah this week, computer science instructor
[00:59.83]Patricia Rahmlow explained how she divides
[01:03.02]her students into teams, handing each an electronic buzzer
[01:06.73]while cueing the theme music of the popular quiz programme,
[01:09.85]Jeopardy, to create the right ambience
[01:12.71]as she and her teaching colleagues fire off the day's questions.
[01:16.03] The winning team gets 10 points
[01:18.68]of additional credit for their efforts.
[01:20.81]Among the software available for such sessions is
[01:24.30]the rather nifty-looking Gameshow Prep,
[01:26.07]which allows educators to set up their own
[01:28.65]“universal question library” that stores questions,
[01:32.41]information about the various teams and players,
[01:34.71]point values for correct answers, logo graphics,
[01:39.11]themes and opening music.
[01:40.73]Another academic institution uses
[01:43.26]something similar for its Shakespeare classes.
[01:45.75](And for the not-so-faint of heart,
[01:48.12]here's another American institution
[01:50.40]that incorporates a television show format
[01:53.11]into its pedagogical bag of tricks.)
[01:54.99]And why not? For more than a decade now,
[01:58.75]some scholars have argued for the intellectual benefits
[02:01.86]of allowing young people a greater exposure to
[02:05.12]the likes of Who Wants To Be a Millionaire and even Wheel of Fortune.
[02:09.14]Bringing the same format into the classroom
[02:12.46]may sound a little desperate, but who's to say that,
[02:15.34]used judiciously, it can't jolly things along.
[02:18.31]As Rahmlow told the recent American conference,
[02:21.51]she had never had students ask her
[02:24.53]“when are we going to do the review?”
[02:26.45]until she took the televisual plunge.
[02:28.68]Ready for the next question? Marvellous.
[02:32.73]Oh wait, I think I hear a gong. We've run out of time. |