Tried them last year; that was it. We had eclicker and I had nothing but problems with them. Support was not great. They tried, sort of...to help. But most of the time students were frustrated, I was frustrated. It was a mess. We were told that we could use the software with macs but that was a disaster so I switched to PC and still have problems with ppt freezing up right on the incorporated questions. They admitted they were still developing the mac interface between eclickers and ppt.
In theory it sounded great and sometimes when it worked like it was supposed to it was great; most of the time it did not work like it was supposed to. And never working right with mac platform. I like using colored index cards. That way, people who have different colors can discuss amongst themselves and convince each other of the answer and then we can talk about it. With clickers students couldn't just look around and find someone with a different answer. Yeah, the students got to see answers right away; yeah, I could make up questions on the fly but overall I found that using them added a lot of time to class--slowed me down significantly in ways that did not add to pedagogy. Yeah, at first the students liked them until the technical problems got annoying. I'm back to colored index cards. Cost me less than $5 for the whole class to have 4 different colored cards glued to popsicle sticks. Instead of over $50 for the clickers, each! Annette Annette Kujawski Taylor, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology University of San Diego 5998 Alcala Park San Diego, CA 92110 619-260-4006 tay...@sandiego.edu ---- Original message ---- >Date: Mon, 5 Oct 2009 21:53:51 -0500 >From: "Claudia Stanny" <csta...@uwf.edu> >Subject: [tips] using clickers in class >To: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)" <tips@acsun.frostburg.edu> > > Does anyone on the list use personal response > devices (AKA "clickers") in their classes? > > > > If you use these, what types of clicker questions or > clicker activities do you use? > > > > My campus adopted a standard clicker and is > encouraging use of these to increase student > engagement in classes. > > I'm interested in compiling examples of interesting > ways to use this technology to improve student > learning. > > > > For those who have done similar activities using a > show of hands instead of clickers, what are the > advantages and disadvantages of each > approach?(outside the obvious advantage of cheap and > low-tech for the show of hands technique) > > > > Claudia J. Stanny, Ph.D. > > Director, Center for University Teaching, Learning, > and Assessment > > Associate Professor, Psychology > > University of West Florida > > Pensacola, FL 32514 - 5751 > > > > Phone: (850) 857-6355 or 473-7435 > > e-mail: csta...@uwf.edu > > --- > To make changes to your subscription contact: > > Bill Southerly (bsouthe...@frostburg.edu) --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly (bsouthe...@frostburg.edu)
