Concentric Sky, Inc.

When we were approached by the Oregon Research Institute to build a classroom survey for the State of Oregon using portable devices, we immediately thought of the iPhone. The slick interface and ease of use seemed like a natural way to encourage kids to interact with the device and get them to complete the surveys. The per unit cost for the iPhone was a bit too high - so we settled on the iPod Touch instead. The devices are functionally similar and both run Apple’s iPhone OS.

The notion of the iPod as a classroom tool is rapidly gaining traction. Unsurprisingly, Apple encourages educators to make use of their technology - and a number of prominent educators are actively discussing the pros and cons of classroom use. A recent issue of the “ezine” iLearn addressed many of these issues in some detail.

We’ve done our best to address the concerns of educators in our survey system while maintaining scientific rigor. Each device is checked-out to a particular user - who must enter a PIN code each time they begin a survey. User management is provided by a central web application accessible via the Internet. At random intervals, the device prompts the user to answer a series of questions. We built in support for Multiple Choice, True/False and Fill In The Blank question types, all of which can be authored via a simple web interface on the central server.

On the back-end, the server provides a number of administrative, authoring, and data analysis tools. Our goal with these tools was to create an easy to use interface for scientists and administrators while maintaining scientific best practices. To this end, all personal data is encrypted both on the devices and on the server. Data cannot be altered once collected and the reporting engine generates reports using only anonymized response data.

The response from the field has been overwhelmingly positive so far. Kids really like the idea of having an iPod on their desk, teachers like having an easy way to engage with tech-savvy students, and scientists like having a survey system that the kids will actually use.

For our part, we hope this technology will help improve the learning experience for everyone involved.