Turning Technologies’ distributor wins £3million contract

April 15, 2013 - PRLog -- Polymedia, Russian distributor for Turning Technologies’ hand held response systems, has won a £3 million/138 million Ruble contract from the Institute of Modernisation Education in Kaluga.

Under the terms of the contract, Polymedia is to supply 8,384 ResponseCard RF (radio frequency) handsets for use in schools, colleges and universities throughout the city of Kaluga, which is 150km south west of Moscow. Teachers will use this real-time response technology to add a new dynamic to lessons and lectures, engage students and track performance.

The ResponseCard RF clicker keypad incorporates the latest in audience response technology features and functions to gather feedback from students who ‘click’ their answer through to the teacher.  Any number of responses, from 10 to 1000's, can be accurately and effortlessly transmitted. The ResponseCard RF clickers are compact, lightweight and durable. With each unit measuring just 3.3 ins x 2.1ins x 0.3 ins and weighing one ounce, they are easily transportable from room to room and have been rigorously tested in classroom environments. They are also compatible with TurningPoint assessment software which works seamlessly with smart boards.

This latest contract will allow teachers and lecturers throughout Kaluga to take advantage of the very latest advances in classroom technology as it moves from novelty to necessity throughout the world. The Turning Technologies’ equipment will, for example, allow teachers to adopt the world-renowned ‘peer instruction’ teaching method pioneered by Harvard professor Dr Eric Mazur and now widely practised in the Western world.  Designed to improve results, Peer Instruction, involves students in their own learning during lectures and focuses their attention on underlying concepts. Lectures are interspersed with conceptual questions, designed to expose common difficulties in understanding the material. The students are given one to two minutes to think about the question and formulate their own answers; they then spend two to three minutes discussing their answers in groups of three to four, attempting to reach consensus on the correct answer. This process forces the students to think through the arguments being developed, and enables them (as well as the instructor) to assess their understanding of the concepts even before they leave the classroom.

The Kaluga order comes as the Russian government introduces educational reform to improve the post-Soviet system and match the standards set by the Bologna Accords, a treaty that aims to create unified higher education across Europe. Once the reforms are complete, a Russian university education will be accepted in the European Union. Currently there are no Russian universities in world university rankings lists. The Kaluga Institute is therefore keen to improve general standards of education by capitalising on the opportunities offered by response technology as it redefines lesson planning, communication and understanding. With Western education systems increasingly moving away from ‘chalk and talk’ lessons, Russia is keen to engage and assess its own young people via this new technology in order for them to keep up with world best practice.

The 8,384 Turning Technology handsets order (worth 138 million Russian Rubles) will be supplied as 524 sets of 16, plus a remote receiver.

“Polymedia is very experienced in providing educational institutions with state-of-the-art interactive technology equipment and complex integrated solutions. Turning Point is a longtime partner of our company and we are pleased that we are able to work on this project together,” says Elena Novikova, Polymedia CEO.

Commenting on the contract, Gary Morrison, VP of International Sales, Turning Technologies, says: ‘’We are extremely excited to be involved  with Kaluga’s Institute of Modernisation Education as its efforts to improve teaching and learning throughout its schools, colleges and universities complements perfectly our own commitment to enhancing education through technology”.

For more information about TurningPoint, please visit www.turningtechnologies.com