From the Rutgers student newspaper:
“[Textbooks] come bundled with various technologies, including clicker technologies,” [a university technology specialist] said. “We still have not overcome the problem caused by different publishers using a variety of systems.”
Nick Arvaneni, a sophomore engineering student, said there is one type of clicker that is especially problematic.
“We had to buy a [personal response system] clicker. Right after that, the teacher said that we aren’t going to use them anymore. … You can’t resell the clicker and they’re more expensive than the others,” he said. “Once my teacher realized how complicated it was, she decided not to use the clicker — and now I’m stuck with it.”
Andrew Abdou, a University alumnus and information technology representative for the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, thinks the clickers are more trouble than they are worth.
“The assortment of clickers you’ll collect is remarkable,” he said. “Clickers in general are just an advanced way of taking attendance. They don’t keep you any more engaged or provide a more interactive class experience.”
Clickers don’t stop students from skipping out on class.
“A lot of the time, students give their clickers to a friend to click for them,” Abdou said. “One time, a professor caught a girl doing that and he smashed the clickers against the wall.”…
October 8th, 2009 at 10:29AM
Hmm, interesting. The clickers have been pedagogically useful in the history class I am TAing for – I think a lot depends on what questions you ask. But they have sparked some interesting and useful discussion. It’s one way to get some give-and-take happening in a very large lecture. Also, the students did not have to pay for them in this particular case. If they had, I think I wouldn’t feel quite as positive about them.
October 8th, 2009 at 5:14PM
There is actually quite a large body of research out there about the pedagogical benefits of clickers in the classroom. Nobel Prize winner Carl Weiman’s Science Education Initiative at the University of British Columbia has a nice resources page where you can find a lot of the research: http://www.cwsei.ubc.ca/resources/clickers.htm. Also, iclicker has partnerships with quite a few publishers so that professors can have options when they select their course materials–they can offer their students savings in the form of a reduced-price package or rebate coupon. Publishers also provide questions that faculty can integrate into their lectures–publisher reps should have information on what resources are available for clickers with their textbooks. Hope this helps!