Thoughts About Technology in the Classroom
After watching a video on YouTube titled Digital Learning in Prairie South 2008 I started thinking about some things. The first is the use of cell phones in the classroom. This is fine and dandy if you are in a class in which every student has a cell phone. But what happens if they don’t? I think the idea of using the cell phones is fun and can get students excited and motivated in some ways. If all students don’t have a cell phone, another option is to purchase “clickers”. These are handhel wireless devices that students can use to input answers into a system that gives them and yourself immediate feedback.
We used these in one of my marketing classes, and it was super fun. The questions were formatted as multiple choice questions. We had a certain clicker number for ourselves and each day we would take that same clicker. After everyone has answered the question simply by pressing A, B, C or D on the clicker, the answer shows up and you can see if you were right or wrong. It is annonymous so no one has to feel silly if they got it wrong. It was an easy way for us to get involved and it was fun because you can have friendly competitions with your friends. This is an expensive alternative, but if the school can afford it it would enhance the classroom a lot!
Here are some additional links about “clickers”
Desiging Questions for Clickers
Hope someone found some interest in this. Let me know if you’ve ever had a chance to work with the clickers in a university class.
Corinne said,
May 13, 2008 at 2:18 am
Clickers sounds like a fun tool to use for content review or informal assessment. I have never used a clicker in a university class before. It’s nice everyone can share their answer without feeling self conscious about getting it wrong. I look forward to checking out the clicker links you posted.
Corinne