clickers

=Tool/technology title= =**Clickers**=

Author(s): Lianne Keiller Last update May 2012 by Najwa

1. Definition
Clickers are also known as Personal Response Systems, Electronic Voting Systems or Audience Response Systems. This technology allows for responses and interaction from groups of people, such as audiences or students in a lecture or presentation setting. The interaction gained between lecturers and students allows for the quiet or shy student to have a voice along with the rest of the class. Feedback from the students to the lecturer on their understanding of a particular concept or important point is immediate, with lecturers in turn being able to provide students with a visual representation of their responses in real-time.

The use of clickers in education is growing. Clickers are useful in that the data collected can be integrated with programs/software already used in Higher Education, such as Blackboard and PowerPoint. Data from Blackboard can also be linked with clickers such as TurningPoint, which allows synchonization of course information and participant lists with this tool. The positive effect on student engagement in an active-learning environment being shown in current literature, this tool shows promise in it's possiblities.

2. Examples of products
Common product names include: eInstruction Corporation CPS Turning Technologies Remote Poll H-ITT CRS i Clicker PRS Interwrite Learning iRespond-Touch/AnyPlace Promethean Activexpression Qwizdom [] [] [] [] [] [] [] []> Clickers are not available as opensource or free tools. Institutions typically purchase the devices and either hire them out to specific courses or require students to purchase them for use in class. The cost of clickers are often seen as a disadvantage in comparison to its possible positive impact on student engagement.

3. Examples of applications for Teaching and Learning
A lecturer will need to prepare a learning activity/lecture presentation with questions integrated into their slides. These questions can be used as: Clickers can also be used for tracking a students progress when each clicker is assigned to a specific student/students use participant numbers to log in. Allocating clickers or participant numbers to specific clickers can also allow for recording class attendance and possibly for research purposes in Teaching and Learning.
 * Opening questions to determine how well students have understood content covered in previous classes
 * A starting point for a discussion regarding important principles in a specific lecturer
 * A revision session at the end of a lecture
 * A game in class to encourage student participation, i.e. a MCQ game used to identify areas where students are still unsure of important principles
 * Concluding activity for group work - using each group to discuss a topic and then elicit the groups response using the clickers.

4. Other resources
//__Articles:__// Effective Learning in Science [|Clickers in Class-An active learning approach] [|Perceptions and Uses of Clicker Technology] [|Clickers in Nursing Education]

//__Videos:__// [|How to use clickers] [|Clickers in the classroom]

media type="youtube" key="CltyNirNaxk" height="315" width="420"

//More information:// [|7 things you should know about clickers] [|Clicker Wikipedia]

//Images:// [|Clicker example from eInstruction] [|Turning Point Clicker]media type="youtube" key="15vKqCSNhqY" height="315" width="420" 5. Slideshare Presentation . media type="custom" key="17171326" This slideshare presentation focuses on important concepts in teaching and learning when using clickers. It highlights student engagement in learning through the use of clickers by emphasizing participation in lectures and peer to peer discussion. It has useful information on questioning techniques and the types of questions to ask when using clickers. Another important feature that the presentation shows is that clickers enable lecturers to provide immediate feedback to students.