“Clickers” in The Classroom

we had clickers. i liked them they gave a very "critical thinking" type questions with answers. it wasnt your standard what is microbiology. good deal. but we didnt pay for them they were given to us in class. cant say if id pay for them though.

I had to purchase the "clicker" for my chemistry class and had to pay $50 for it at my school bookstore. I found this to be ridiculous but I can understand a professors use for them in class. But $50 bucks for it? PLEASE!!!

We used them in my Evidence-Based Practice course. Unfortunately, the instructors chose to use them to take attendance: we were assigned the same number clicker each week. That also rendered our responses non-anonymous. Part of our grade was determined by how many weeks we had input with the clickers - taking attendance! More significantly, because we were assigned a certain clicker, our responses were contrived, especially when they asked us every week about how useful the class was. Sheesh.

Yes, $50 is very steep. And then when I turned it back in during the book buy-back at the bookstore, I only got like between 20 or 30 dollars back for it. But I guess the bookstore has to make its profit.

I was thinking it was a pretty cool idea until I read this. Leave it to some jerk teacher to mess up a good thing!

My program uses what we call iClickers weekly. We use them for quizzes whether they be graded or not. I find them extremely useful. It allows for instant feedback as to whether or not you got the question right AND it shows what the rest of the class voted in a chart format. I love having them in the class. They also are useful when we needed the class vote on where to hold our graduation ceremony. The other use for them is surveys for our clinical site evaluations. The instructors use them to gain feedback instead of using web sites like survey monkey. This provides for greater participation and instant feedback.

Overall the price was a little high BUT we use them throughout the program and it's not much different than written quizzes. It streamlines our program and I love it.

I haven't had to buy a clicker yet because I haven't had a professor who required it. To me it an extra fee on top of all the other costs especially for teacher who only use them for attendance taking purposes. The good thing is you only have to buy one once.