Abilene Christian University uses iPhones at this year’s State of the Union Address

There are many ways that schools these days use technology in the academic setting. But these days, integration of technology mean more than just having computers in the campus or offering a website. These days, even high-range devices are utilized in a student’s campus life. For instance, Abilene Christian University uses iPhones at this year’s State of the Union Address.

The reason why Abilene Christian University uses iPhones at this year’s State of the Union Address was to gauge the reaction of the students during the President’s speech. With almost half of the students provided with an iPhone or iPod touch, realtime viewing of the State of the Union Address was made possible. However, having the students view the speech was not the main point. With the use of a specific iPhone application called Responseware, questions were posed on the iPhone screens regarding the speech of the President. The responses were then transformed to graph form, which the students were able to access.

Some of the questions tried to measure the students’ level of interest on what President Obama had to say. Others were more specific, touching on issues that the President mentioned in his speech. This allowed for students to participate and give feedback on matters that affect everyone. And by letting the students know how their fellow students answered the questions, they immediately learned how the issues affect others as well. One of the goals of this practice was to open the results for classroom discussion, making the students more aware of issues that truly matter.

“Source: ACU News & Events”