TurningPoint® Case Study

Clermont County Educational Service Center

BACKGROUND

Cathy Macdonald is the Technology Supervisor for the Clermont County Educational Service Center (CCESC); CCESC provides professional development for all K-12 schools in Clermont County, Ohio and is among the largest educational service centers in the state. As a seasoned presenter with over 23 years of experience, Cathy was invited to speak at the eTech Ohio conference in Cincinnati on February 14, 2006.

Legislation has charged eTech Ohio with aligning content and technology resources and expertise, eliminating unnecessary duplication of services, providing visionary leadership for enhancing learning through the use of technology for Ohioans of all ages and leveraging shared networking to utilize available resources more efficiently. In keeping with these goals, Cathy put together her seminar, "Connecting to Ohio's Technology Standards."

THE CHALLENGE

As students in Clermont County continue to learn many of today's technology and productivity tools, it is Cathy's role to help educators communicate, collaborate, support learning, produce products and solve problems. Although she has years of speaking experience, she is always looking for new, innovative ways to create presentations that will educate and energize her audience during the learning process. The eTech Ohio presentation seemed an ideal opportunity to include state-of-the-art presentation technology.

THE SOLUTION

Cathy decided to incorporate Turning Technologies' audience response technology to bolster her presentation. Cathy originally saw the system at a conference she attended in California and was impressed with its ability to heighten crowd participation. As an avid presenter, she was thrilled to employ an additional, easy-to-use tool to engage her own audiences.

One of the most attractive features in the Turning Technologies solution was TurningPoint 2006, interactive PowerPoint® software. As an add-on to PowerPoint, TurningPoint seamlessly integrates into Microsoft Office products, nearly eliminating the learning curve for users already knowledgeable in PowerPoint®, Excel and Word. TurningPoint software installs as a toolbar within PowerPoint. This advantage allowed Cathy to easily include interactive polling questions into her seminar presentation.

At eTech Ohio, Cathy presented to over 70 administrators, teachers, curriculum directors and other educational personnel. Her one hour presentation opened with a survey icebreaker, and then moved into content standards for technology and tips and tools for integrating technology standards. She also performed a variety of individual, duo and group activities and included interactive polling questions throughout the presentation. Attendees submitted their responses using radio-frequency ResponseCards® keypads.

Cathy had several objectives for using TurningPoint and ResponseCard keypads during the session. Not only was the technology used to engage the crowd, it also helped Cathy gather demographic data of her audience. She asked each participant to define their role as either a: "A) Teacher, B) Building Administrator, C) District Administrator, D) Technology Coordinator, E) Regional/State Consultant or F) Curriculum Expert." Because there were so many teachers, she tailored her presentation during the delivery to fit the profile of her audience.

"I've always tried to make my presentations dynamic with a variety of activities, but using TurningPoint was another way to keep my audience deeply engaged," said Cathy.

She also polled the audience to drive conversation, such as asking people to vote true or false on the statement, "Law Enforcement officials can look at your email, but they need a court ordered search warrant." By revealing the aggregate results of the group, individuals weren't afraid to answer incorrectly, and Cathy was able to discuss the topic and address any incorrect beliefs.

Cathy was also very in tune with her audiences' opinions and used both polled answers and data to delve deeper into topics such as cyber crime, including spamming, ID theft and more. By asking opinions, attendees were excited to see others' answers and learn facts on the subject.

CONCLUSION

Cathy was exceptionally pleased with the session and plans to continue using Turning Technologies' products. With 3-4 requests per month to speak, her enthusiasm about a new product speaks volumes.

"I will continue to use this product as long as I have speaking engagements," she said. "Working with the sales and technical staff, I had absolutely everything I needed."

As a professional in the training, educational and technology sectors, Cathy Macdonald is the right person to impress.

"My entire experience with Turning Technologies has been extremely positive. I enjoy being able to tailor my presentations for successful execution, while engaging with my audience in a wider variety of ways. The staff and products are to be commended, and I am planning several of my future engagements as we speak!"

For more information about renting a Turning Technologies' audience response system for your next speaking engagement, contact us at 866-746-3015.