Clickers....'lets poll the audience..."

I saw a lot of buzz in the last couple of weeks on 'Clickers", around MPOW. The emails were flying on taking lessons on, how to use them, arranging time to view etc. BUT none of them actually stated just what a 'clicker' was??

So I wandered off to find out just what they are...

This is a really informative page
UC Santa Cruz which states;

"What are classroom student response systems?
Better known as clickers, these little remote control devices are used in classrooms to enable the real-time display of students' answers to instructors' questions."

So much like the tv game shows that give the contestant a chance to find out what the audience thinks the answer may be, clickers can give a lecturer an immediate answer to a stated question from students. The student can do it anonymously.

Here is a youtube video on the subject, from the same page,
"From the Centre of Instructional Innovation - Western Washington University"



So "Polling your audience" has caught on in education circles. Another way to actually find out, at the time of a lecture, if the message is geting across might be very enticing to some educators. At the same time they may have to change the format of delivering that lecture to accommodate the immediate feedback.

At least now I know what clickers are...FeralTB-)