Helping Teachers Put Names to Faces
Learning students' names is important...
Hess (2002) says "Perhaps the single most important thing a teacher can do to create a positive climate in the classroom is to learn students' names." Learning students' names engages students in the course, helps them feel valued and respected, motivates them to work harder, builds community and makes them feel like they belong in the course and in university. For teachers, learning students' names builds rewarding relationships with students, encourages us to see students as individuals with individual learning needs, makes it easier to get to know students for whom we may one day be asked to write graduate or professional school letters.
....It's also hard.
With large classes that meet only once or twice a week, learning the name of every student can seem impossible. In Teaching Sociology, Smith and Malec (2014) argue that "use of photos (which permits out-of-class learning of names most effectively) and regular expenditure of special effort are crucial" for learning student names. However, many professors don't have access to student ID pictures, and those who do often find that their live students no longer resemble their fresh-out-of-high-school former selves. Enter Name That Student, a free app to help professors learn the name of every student, and do it early in the semester, not just by the day of the final exam.
See all references
Hess (2002) says "Perhaps the single most important thing a teacher can do to create a positive climate in the classroom is to learn students' names." Learning students' names engages students in the course, helps them feel valued and respected, motivates them to work harder, builds community and makes them feel like they belong in the course and in university. For teachers, learning students' names builds rewarding relationships with students, encourages us to see students as individuals with individual learning needs, makes it easier to get to know students for whom we may one day be asked to write graduate or professional school letters.
....It's also hard.
With large classes that meet only once or twice a week, learning the name of every student can seem impossible. In Teaching Sociology, Smith and Malec (2014) argue that "use of photos (which permits out-of-class learning of names most effectively) and regular expenditure of special effort are crucial" for learning student names. However, many professors don't have access to student ID pictures, and those who do often find that their live students no longer resemble their fresh-out-of-high-school former selves. Enter Name That Student, a free app to help professors learn the name of every student, and do it early in the semester, not just by the day of the final exam.
See all references
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Note: Name That Student was originally available for download from the GooglePlay store. However, Google changed its policy to require that any app accessing the camera have a privacy policy. I don't want to hire a lawyer to write a privacy policy for an app from which I'm not making any money. So you can download the app here. To install, you must change your phone settings to allow installs from non-GooglePlay sources.
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Features:
- Use your device’s camera to get pictures of each student. Passing your device around for students to take selfies or pictures of each other can be a great icebreaker for the first class.
- Learn what your students look like now, not two years and three hair colours ago when their ID pictures were taken
- Create an unlimited number of classes, each with an unlimited number of students.
- Study Names: Student pictures and names are presented one at a time.
- Flashcard Quiz: Try to remember the name of the student pictured, then reveal the name to see if you’re right.
- Multiple Choice: One picture is presented with the names of up to 5 students in the class. Choose the correct name. This is a good first step if you’re not quite up for the flashcard quiz.
- Reverse Multiple Choice: Four students and one name are presented. Choose the picture that goes with the name. This is especially useful learning to put faces to the names in your inbox.
- Students whose names you get wrong will continue to be repeated in random order until you have learned their names.
- Study names, flashcard quiz, multiple choice quiz, and reverse multiple choice functions all randomize student order, so your memory won’t be based on who sits next to whom.
- Study names, flashcard quiz, multiple choice and reverse multiple choice functions each have a text-to-speech option, to reinforce learning by hearing names out loud.
- Multiple choice and reverse multiple choice recognize duplicate names. If you have multiple students with the same name, the multiple choice function will never ask if the pictured student is "Madison" or "Madison," nor will the reverse multiple choice function ever ask you which student is Chris and present two students with that name.
- Customize the multiple choice function to present between 3 and 5 name options.
- A report page for each class lets you know how you’re doing.
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References
Hess, Gerald F. 2002. Heads and Hearts: The Teaching and Learning Environment in Law School. Journal of Legal Education. 52: 75-111
Smith, David Horton and Michael A. Malec. 1995. Learning Students' Names in Sociology Classes: Interactive Tactics, Who Uses Them, and When. Teaching Sociology 23:280-286
Tompson, Holly B. and Tompson, George. H. 1996. Confronting Diversity Issues in the Classroom with Strategies to Improve Satisfaction and Retention of International Students. Journal of Education for Business 72:53–57.
Townes-O'Brien, Molly, Tania Leiman and James Duffy. 2014. The Power of Naming : The Multifaceted Value of Learning Students’ Names. QUT Law Review. 14: 114-128
Hess, Gerald F. 2002. Heads and Hearts: The Teaching and Learning Environment in Law School. Journal of Legal Education. 52: 75-111
Smith, David Horton and Michael A. Malec. 1995. Learning Students' Names in Sociology Classes: Interactive Tactics, Who Uses Them, and When. Teaching Sociology 23:280-286
Tompson, Holly B. and Tompson, George. H. 1996. Confronting Diversity Issues in the Classroom with Strategies to Improve Satisfaction and Retention of International Students. Journal of Education for Business 72:53–57.
Townes-O'Brien, Molly, Tania Leiman and James Duffy. 2014. The Power of Naming : The Multifaceted Value of Learning Students’ Names. QUT Law Review. 14: 114-128
