From Faculty Academy 2007 Wiki
Clickers! A Hands-on Demonstration of a Hands-on Technology
- Bob Rycroft (Economics, UMW)
- Co-Presenter: Margaret Ray
An interesting educational technology that has been around for a long time but has yet to make much of an impact on UMW is clickers (aka personal response pads). Clickers are hand-held electronic devices with keypads. The “killer app” of clickers is to use them to ask questions during lecture. At intervals during a class lecture, the instructor can display a question and students can respond to it using their clicker. The system will collect the student responses, display the distribution of responses on the screen, and record the student responses in its database.
There are several benefits to doing things this way. One, it forces students to remain engaged with the material all class long. Daydreaming should be reduced if not eliminated. Two, using this type of system does not put anyone “on-the-spot,” an important consideration for “quiet” students. Three, it allows the instructor to gauge class understanding, and take corrective action.
There are several other applications of clickers including attendance, exam-taking and classroom contests. Attendees of this presentation will be given a clicker to use as the various capabilities of the technology are demonstrated. Student reaction to the use of clickers in a variety of economics courses will be discussed. Finally, some tips on how to get the most out of clickers will be shared.
