The Wild Thing : Dev Site
The Wild Thing is a JISC funded Rapid Innovation project whose aim is to provide an open source system to facilitate student interaction with presentation slides delivered by the lecturer. Lecturers use a PowerPoint plug-in and web based application system to embed interactive content directly into standard PowerPoint presentations. Students can then use web enabled devices (including laptops and mobile phones) to send information through for display on presented slides.
At present The Wild Thing provides a mechanism to embed activities such as multiple choice questions and questions requiring text based response into the PowerPoint content. However, the system is extensible to a range of different question types.
This version of The Wild Thing will be tested in a series of educational settings over the course of 2009-10 with varying class sizes and across similarly diverse student groups.
A side benefit to the project is a PowerPoint plug-in which the majority of lecturers around the country will be interested in using. The plug-in enables web pages to be displayed directly within PowerPoint slides removing the requirement for lecturers to have to task switch between presentation and web browser in the lecture room.
