Clickers

I have been interested in “clickers,” or student response systems, for a while but have never read about them much or had the opportunity to see them in use. So for this assignment, I read an article on the NEA Web site, “Clickers and Classroom Dynamics” by Derek Bruff. The purpose of clickers is for students to engage in in-class polls or quizzes. A teacher presents a multiple-choice question, and students all submit their responses via the clicker. Then, software on the teacher’s computer will analyze the students’ answers and produce a chart. This is an easy, pressure-free way to do checks for understanding, and based on students’ answers, a teacher knows whether to move on or cover certain material again. The article discussed other, more advanced uses for the clickers. For instance, a professor at Harvard made famous “peer instruction.” If students were asked a question, like mentioned previously, and a significant number answered incorrectly, they would take a few minutes to discuss the question in small groups and then resubmit their answers. Often, the second answer was correct. I like the fact that students submit their answer semi-anonymously (other students don’t know what they answered), and that it gives all students a chance to participate easily. The article also gives suggestions on ways to use the clickers to ask more high-level thinking skills questions, such as giving an example of an ethical dilemma, then asking students to identify the classical ethical philosophy that went with it. This would be easy in a science class, as you could give an example of something happening due to one of Newton’s laws and then ask which one it is.

There are several systems for clickers, but the one I looked up was the iClicker, but you had to get a quote for the price for them. I did some Google searching, however, and found that several universities offered a FAQ section for courses that used clickers, and most quoted the price as $45-$50 per remote, and Amazon had some for around $30 used. That price does not include the teacher’s receiver or the software, however, so it seems to me this basic piece of technology may cost more than it’s worth for small, K-12 classrooms where a teacher could simply take a closed-eyes vote and count them herself.

Bruff, D. (n.d.). Clickers and classroom dynamics. Retrieved from http://www.nea.org/home/34690.htm.