And here are some links on JiTT, which is closely related to Knowledge Surveys which I blogged about previously.
The Center for Scholarly Technology, Teaching and Learning Services:

Students respond electronically to carefully constructed web-based assignments which are due shortly before class, and the instructor reads the student submissions “just-in-time” to adjust the classroom lesson to suit the students’ needs. Thus, the heart of JiTT is the “feedback loop” formed by the students’ outside-of-class preparation that fundamentally affects what happens during the subsequent in-class time together.

The Center for Scholarly Technology, Teaching and Learning Services has a number of useful resources concerning JiTT, including audio files of 3 teachers on how they use JiTT in their classes.

And here’s a link to a page about Gregor Novak, physics professor at Indiana State, who started the idea of JiTT, way back in the 1960s. And Indiana State has a whole site devoted to The Scholarship of Teaching.

The National Science Foundation has a whole website on JiTT, which includes JiTT goals, and JiTT Resources which includes a summary of JiTT techniques with links to further examples.

Basically, JiTT consists of:

1. Warm-ups which are submitted by students and read by the teacher just prior to the class, and usually (but not necessarily) managed by email or other electronic means (and here are some links to lo-tech ways of conducting JiTT, from Tim Murphey)
2. puzzles, to integrate and extend the learning
3. Enrichment essays known as “Good For’s”, as in “what is physics good for?”
4. Weekly class news to maintain interest and adjust the syllabus on the fly. (Example)