US 4,820,167 AGranted

Electronic school teaching system

OwnerAnthony A. Nobles, Verne H. Nobles +3inventors

InventorsAnthony A. Nobles, Verne H. Nobles, Jon H. Fleming, Charles T. Terrell, Alexander K. Lai

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Abstract

An electronic school teaching system includes a data collection computer, teacher's computers and a student's electronic and test units. The data collection computer is located in the school's administration office and connected to a plurality of teacher's computers located in a corresponding plurality of school rooms, and a plurality of student's read and test units are connectable to each of the teacher's computers. The data collection computer receives student related data including textbook updates to the teacher's computers. The teacher's computers are connectable to the student's read and test units for writing homework assignments, tests, and grades and reading student identification, homework, and test information. The student's read and test units include electronic textbook memory modules, one for each course, and a memory module for receiving the homework assignments, an open book size housing for a display, keyboard, and microprocessor. The display shows left and right pages of the textbook. The keyboard includes left and right page turning keys in the upper left and right corners, numeric keys for page and chapter location, alphabetical keys for answering test questions, and calling up each textbook, and true, false, yes, and no keys for answering questions conveniently located around the border of the textbook. The operation of the unit simulates the use of a normal textbook; thus, the level of difficulty in learning to use the unit is minimal.

Claims37

Dependent claims

An electronic school teaching system comprising:

a data collection computer, a teacher's computer, and a plurality of read and test (R&T) devices;
The data collection computer for location at an administrative office and having information input/output means connected to the teacher's computer for issuing command signals for collecting school related data including attendance and grade data;
the teacher's computer for location at a classroom remote to the administration office and outputting the requested school related information responsive to the command of the data collection computer, the teacher computer having a grading means, and an input/output means for inputting teacher generated information including homework assignments, and test questions for computer distribution to students and inputting student identification and responses to teacher generated information for grading by the grading means, and outputting information including class attendance information, and homework and test grades for the teacher;
and
the plurality of read and test (R&T) devices being portable electronic read and test (R&T) devices each having:
a connector, a plurality of modules including a textbook module and a data storage module, a keyboard, a display, an input/output means, and a control means including a control storage means, said connector for selectively connecting the input/output means to the teacher's computer for inputting identification information or attendance reporting and receiving and storing the teacher information in the data storage module and disconnecting the R&T device from the second computer for removal of the device from the classroom for doing this homework;
said modules, keyboard, display, and control storage means connected to the control means wherein the control means responsive to keyboard command selectively displays the homework assignment, the pages of text, the test questions, and answers to the questions for selection, and stores the homework and test question answers in the control memory for subsequent entry into the teacher's computer when again connected by the connector to the teacher's computer for grading and for receipt of any answer correction and grades.

4 more elements

An electronic school teaching system comprising:

a data collection computer and a plurality of teacher computers located, respectively, at an administration office and a plurality of separate classrooms, the data collection computer having an input and output means connected to the plurality of teacher computers for transmitting commands thereto and for retrieving information;
said plurality of teacher computers having first information input and output means connected to the data collection computer for receiving the commands and in response thereto transmitting information to the data collection computer, means for receiving teacher generated information including preselected homework assignments and tests for distribution to students, grading means for grading student response to the homework assignments and test, and means for producing information including attendance and grades for the teacher and data collection computers;
and input and output means for receiving student generated class attendance information for recording, and homework information and test answers for grading and recording and outputting information including correct answers and grades;
and
a plurality of portable electronic read and test (R&T) devices for selective connection to the plurality of teacher computers, each device having:
a control storage means and a plurality of modules including a plurality of electronic textbook modules and an information storage module, a display means, a keyboard means, and a control storage means having a storage means for storing information including attendance, and student homework and test answers, all of said modules and means operatively connected to the control means;
and a removable connector means for removably connecting the device to the teacher computer for each class in order of attendance for receiving and storing in the storage module the teacher information for each class including the homework assignments and test information and for outputting information including attendance, homework, and test information from the control storage module into the teacher's computer for each class, and wherein the device may be disconnected from a teacher's computer for transport to each classroom for connection to each teacher computer for receiving the information and for transport to a work station outside the classrooms for doing and storing the homework and test answers in the control storage means for subsequent input into the plurality of teacher computers.

4 more elements

A method of school instruction consisting of the steps of:

(a) entering into a teacher's computer located in a classroom a list of students enrolled in each class of a subject taught in the classroom;
(b) entering into the teachers' computer subject related material including a plurality of homework assignments of varying degrees of difficulty, and homework questions and answers;
(c) coupling for each student homework assignments, homework questions, and answers commensurate with the learning skills of the student from those entered into the teacher's computer;
(d) reading identification information into the teacher's computer and writing the homework assignments, homework questions and answers into a student controlled read and test (R&T) device when connected to the teacher's computer;
(e) calling up the homework assignment for display by the R&T device when detached from the teacher's computer;
(f) calling up the assigned text from electronic textbooks of the R&T device for student study;
(g) calling up the homework questions for answering;
(h) entering answers for the homework questions into the R&T device;
(i) reading the answers into the teacher's computer when the R&T device is connected for grading by the teacher's computer;
and
(j) storing the grade for the student in the teacher's computer.

8 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.