How do you get every student to consider a question, evaluate alternative answers, and publically commit to one they feel is defensible—in classes of 200-600? One tool for this kind of learning activity is the personal response system, better known as the clicker. Clickers look like TV remote controls and allow students to answer an instructor’s question, usually with multiple choice (A-E), but sometimes with words or short phrases. The instructor can then display results from the whole class to generate critical discussion, illustrate a point, or assign low-stakes grades. Some instructors use clickers to motivate students to attend class or to read assigned texts before class.
However, clickers are not a panacea. Technology glitches, accessibility barriers, insufficient planning, inefficient teaching, cheating, and instructors and students who forget or don’t know how to use the parts of the system—each presents a frustration, and together they can create disincentives for both faculty and students to use clickers.
At UC Davis, instructors in some of the largest classes on campus use clickers effectively, but both students and instructors have encountered the disincentives just mentioned. To reduce the barriers and achieve the benefits of clickers, faculty and staff are reconsidering which clicker system the university will adopt: either i>clicker or Turning Technologies. If you are a student or faculty member who has used or may use clickers, now is your opportunity to influence that decision. Please visit the clicker workgroup page, review the information about the two options, and let the workgroup know your questions, comments, and concerns. Any feedback should be sent in before February 1, 2012.
For those of you who need more information about creative and successful clicker use, Derek Bruff’s blog posts on clickers are a good place to start. And, in the belief that it’s the use, not the tool, that makes for good teaching and learning, I’ll invite your comments here as well. What are your questions about clickers? How have you seen them used? Did it work? Why or why not?