17 November 2010

Clickers are growing in use

The NY Times takes a brief look at the growth of hand-held student response devices.  While I don't use them in my classes, I have to admit that I enjoy seeing the responses when used during my guest lectures in EDA.  Alas, as a quick tech piece, the author doesn't get to dig in very deep into the effectiveness of these tools. 

What do think? Big brother?  Big pain?  Or Classroom 2.0?

2 comments:

Puk said...

I think it can be an interesting participatory tool. Unfortunately, my only experience with it was being forced to use it as an attendance-checking device in a large lecture hall. I propose that if I can get an A without attending your class regularly, then holding my clicker response (or lack thereof) against me is punitive.

Derek Bruff said...

Puk, if your instructor is only using clickers to take attendance, than he/she is missing a great opportunity to promote more active learning in the classroom.