Clickers

Hi, everyone.

A new technology that I have recently learned how to use in the classroom is clickers.  I assume that most people have probably heard of clickers even though they might not have used them before.  I took part in a teacher training session on clickers a few years ago when the instructor used the group of teachers to compete in a game using clickers.  He monitored our progress through race cars.  After each question was answered by us using the clickers, our race cars would either advance or stay the same on the race track on the screen.  I remember at that time thinking what a wonderful technique this would be for students, who really could enjoy this type of competition. 

However, years past, and I had forgotten all about clickers - until recently.  I am attending a professional development series at my current university, and we learned how to use clickers from the teacher's side.  We developed our own questions via powerpoint, and learned how to set up a clicker game.  My university has hundreds of these clickers available, so now I finally feel confident in using them in my classroom.

In November, I am going to lead a teacher training exercise in my department on using clickers, and I want to see how creative my teachers get in using them.

Clickers are a great way to get information fast from a large group of students.  Not only for games, but you could easily do a survey or even a quiz with clickers.  Anything that is multiple choice would work with clickers (as long as there are only 6 choices).

I am wondering if any of you have used clickers yet, and what your students reactions were.

Thanks!
Evelyn