Firefighters used interactive games and audience response pads to deliver fire training information. They broke participants into teams and had them answer questions using the response pads. The host was able to see the answers and use them to discuss topics. The firefighters found this method much easier than past methods like PowerPoint Jeopardy and it allowed the host to focus on teaching rather than running the game.

1. Firefighters use a game and Audience Response Pads to deliver information. Every year a local fire department likes to have a little fun and mix it up with a review game for the last fire training drill. The host was a firefighter that wasn’t new to using games, and in the past they have used a PowerPoint Jeopardy template to deliver their training games. This year they went high tech if you will, and use the BRAVO! game builder suite and audience response pads. This was a big step for them. I did help them a little with content, but they were going to host the games on their own. And I was just going to observe. For the first run, they had just over 50 participants playing a QuizShow game. They broke the group into 4 teams representing each station and each attendee had their own audience response pad which was assigned to a specific team. During the game, they would be presenting questions which each participant would answer individually in the class. When every one answered, the host would then reveal the results showing how everyone did. He was then able to discuss why it was right or wrong and add any additional teaching points. QuizShow automatically calculated each team members’ response by playing a sound effect and a chart revealed each teams’ responses. This created a little excitement as each team watched the results. Following this first game, they decided to play SpinOff which added a different twist to the second game which contained only 8 questions. Each team chose a representative who would then be assigned an audience response pad. This game would be played similar to the first game but with a more competitive twist and of course only 4 players. In the first game each user was scored based on whether their answer was correct or incorrect. However, this game was set up in All Play mode which is based on 2 things: (1) a correct response (2) how fast they answered. This added a different layer of fun to the game and created excitement for the viewing spectators. This was this instructor’s first use of BRAVO! and the audience response pads. I asked him how it compared to the PowerPoint Jeopardy versions he did in past years, and his response was simply that there was no comparison. The game was much easier to control, he knew what the audience knew, he did not have to keep score or work hard at running the game. Best of all, the game was simply his guide through the content – all he needed to do was to deliver additional teaching points and not worry about being the “game show host”.