FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — A room full of professors came to an early morning Academy of Management (AoM) workshop, and University of Arkansas instructor Ken Armstrong handed them each a four-inch long neon highlighter-like instrument with five letters on it.

Armstrong uses these small instruments to enhance classroom learning. He and his colleagues presented their techniques in a workshop, Teaching with Technology: Enhancing Democratic Course Participation, at the AoM meeting in Seattle.

"You can streamline your lectures and do a better job of covering the sticky concepts," Armstrong said.

At the beginning of the semester, students purchase a transmitter for $30, and the serial number is logged with the student’s name in the professor’s roster. The professor can then give quizzes during classes or ask questions and have the students answer using the transmitter, which funnels answers to a receiver on the wall via an infrared beam.

The software saves the individual answers so the instructor can look at them later, but it also puts the responses into a bar chart, so everyone can see how many people picked different answers.

"It keeps students interested for a longer time period," Armstrong said.

Armstrong began using the transmitters in his classroom in the spring of 2002 and has taught about 1,000 students using this method. He presented his model along with Randall B. Dunham, University of Wisconsin, Robert D. Marx, University of Massachusetts, Randall G. Sleeth, Virginia Commonwealth University and Joan L. Weiner, Drexel University.

Armstrong has found that since he implemented the use of this technology in his classroom, attendance has increased by 20 percent. The technology provides instant feedback to both the students and the professors. The students know right away if they answered the question correctly. And the professor discovers whether or not the students as a whole have understood a concept, and can modify the lecture accordingly.

Getting answers from everyone also allows quiet students to participate in classroom discussions by voicing their views anonymously, Armstrong said.

"You get the quiet students’ feelings on the topic, even if they’re not going to talk," he said.

He uses the transmitters to have students voice their opinions on controversial issues like copying MP3 files from the Internet or copying software. Then he has the students break into small discussion groups to talk about these topics.

"Students sometimes learn better from their peers than from an instructor," he said.

Armstrong uses the technology in a classroom of 25-60 students studying information systems, but it can be used with larger classes as well as different course topics. The physics department uses this technology to teach its introductory class with more than 100 students.

Armstrong also uses the transmitters as an attendance tool, noting that a quick head count compared to the number of transmitters in use can readily show if a student has brought an extra transmitter to class in order to help out a late-sleeping friend.