For this weeks lesson plan, I decided to use a common handheld technology, but yet one that I am so excited to start seriously using in my classroom: clickers! I know most of us were pretty interested in using clickers in their lesson plans and it is easy to see why. The interactive technology that focuses on immediate feedback and can be used with groups or individuals, are definitely a hot commodity!
As I had mentioned before, our school has a set of these clickers. We are required to check them out. Last year, after hearing some pretty amazing stuff about these things, I decided to experiment towards the end of the year to see what all the fuss was about. At first, it was time consuming to set up. This was mainly I believe because of my lack of knowledge about the equipment. After I had set of my "test" and passed out clickers, went over rules, it was a little draining. I would definitely think that I would request professional development time for training purposes. Not because it takes rocket science to use, but because I would want to use them effectively. The kids on the other hand seemed SO engaged and loved the new approach I was taking! It definitely and captured their interested!
After exploring several links, I was amazed to see how expensive these things could cost! Anywhere from $3,000 to $1,200 for a set. I believe that if I were going to convince the PTA or school board to shell out this much money, especially during this economy, I would need to already have several pre-made lesson plans, along with classroom work to show support for the need of more clickers. Overall, I think if I had to time to prepare for this, the money would be well spent!
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Ashley - Professional development time for clickers is a definite prerequisite for their implementation. Even at the high school level, where we have classroom sets or at worst two teachers are sharing a set, their use is very minimal. I belive this comes down to two reasons: 1) teachers do not have confidence in their ability to troubleshoot if something goes wrong (and it most likely will the first time you try it) and/or 2) they do not believe the technology will really make that big a difference.
ReplyDeleteAshley, I can't tell you how much I want Clickers. We don't have them in my building yet. I never thought about professional training on how to use them, I will remember that. Anything that can fully engage students in a lesson is a plus. Yes, price is an issue in our district, but I think they can be convinced of the benefits. Good info Ashley.
ReplyDeleteAshley, I can sympathize about the time involved to successfully use clickers, at least initally. It is not rocket science, but there are numerous steps especially to set up your class. In my school, we had one optional clicker inservice last year, but it was not beneficial to me because I need to do the steps in order to remember them rather than watch someone on a screen.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that to convince your district about the potential for clickers, lesson plans would be beneficial. I also think it would be hard to deny a panel of teachers with ideas and testimonials for how engaging they are for students as well as how much data it provides for educators.
Ruth