Leah Alcala, a middle school math teacher, wanted to find ways to better engage her students and assess their understanding using classroom technology, but she was limited by her budget. She used index cards as an alternative to clickers to get feedback from students. A video about her innovative approach caught the attention of a company called eInstruction, who donated clickers and software to help Leah personalized instruction and get immediate feedback from students. With the new tools, Leah was able to actively engage students and better adapt her lessons. She found that students performed better on assessments after using the technology and were more eager to participate in class.

1. GOING 21ST CENTURY WITH INSIGHT 360
A Case Study Inspiring New Age
Approaches to Traditional Learning
August 2014
CHALLENGE
In her 13 years as an educator, Leah Alcala has witnessed
a shift in teaching practices as school districts begin to
implement the new Common Core standards. Always
striving to create a dynamic learning environment, she
researched student response systems, but found that
her budget would not permit a classroom purchase.
Leah realized she would need to find a unique approach
to assess student understanding.
SOLUTION
Since clickers were unavailable to Leah, she came up
with a classic take on today’s traditional classroom
learning experience. Instead of using classroom
technology to interact with lessons and assessments,
Leah’s students used index cards to collaborate and
learn math concepts. “For me, education is all about
giving kids timely feedback and clickers obviously
are one way to do it, but index cards was my other
approach.” Her distinctive instructional method caught
the attention of producers at the Teaching Channel
and she was profiled in an online featurette titled, My
Favorite No.
The video proved to be an inspiration for eInstruction
by Turning Technologies’ Senior Solutions Engineer, Billy
Jack Garren. He was inspired and impressed with Leah’s
innovative pedagogy and reached out to her to donate a
classroom set of clickers along with Insight 360 software
and a Mobi 360 mobile interactive whiteboard. “When I
watched the video, I knew our solutions could save Leah
a lot of time in her amazing efforts to drive academic
progress for all of her students,” said Billy Jack. “I’m
very grateful to have the privilege to work with teachers
like Leah that go above and beyond each and every day
to excite learning and make an impactful difference in
student’s lives.”
In the beginning, Leah faced a bit of a challenge as
how to incorporate all of the new technology in her
daily instruction. However, as she spent more time
learningthe technology, she quickly recognized the
powerful impact of eInstruction by Turning Technologies
solutions. Instead of handing out index cards, students
collected clickers as they entered class. Leah utilized
Insight 360 to construct and deliver personalized
instruction that allowed students to actively participate
and engage by using their response devices. No longer
would lessons have to be taught from the front of
the class as Leah now had the agility to instruct from
anywhere in the room with the Mobi 360. “I love the
fact that I’m able to be mobile and walk around the
classroom and see students work on problems while I’m
writing and talking to the whole class,” she said. “Now
I can receive immediate feedback and know when to
move on or adjust instruction.” With the simple touch
of the screen, Leah can instantly launch instruction,
annotate content, write a note and analyze real-time
assessment data.
CONCLUSION
Leah noted that her students performed extremely well
on assessments after the implementation and credits
the technology for playing a role in their ability to learn
and comprehend information. “The kids absolutely love
the clickers and from my perspective they are much
more eager to participate in class because of them,” she
said. “I’ve even noticed the technology’s made a huge
impact on my teaching practices as I’m now looking for
new and creative ways to instruct.” Leah’s 21st century
classroom caught the eye of a number of teachers who
stop in to see the solutions in action. Going further, Leah
is hopeful the district will be able to secure funding to
invest in new technology initiatives.
Leah Alcala teaches seventh and eighth grade math at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle
School, a part of the Berkeley Unified School Distrcit in Berkeley, California.