1. A New Teaching Aid
With Exceptional Forms
By: Veronica Kennedy

2. Introduction
Clickers address two of the oldest and most
fundamental challenges in teaching: how to
engage students and how to determine if they
are learning what you are teaching.
This are three article that address the use of
clickers
Douglas Duncan
Roger C. Lowery
April R. Trees and Michele H. Jackson

3. Douglas Duncan
Why use clickers?
Students become active participants
They ask more questions
Attendance increases after the introduction of
Clickers
What Clickers can do!
Measure student attitude
Find out if students have done their assigned
reading
Get students to confront common misconceptions
about the class and/or chapter

4. Douglas Duncan
How do Clickers work?
Each student has a transmitter (Clicker) that looks
like a small TV remote.
The classroom will have one or more wall
mounted receivers that will pick up the signals
generated when a student pushes one of the
buttons.
A computer equipped with software will record
each students response.
Example of a question that
you would answer using
a Clicker.

5. Douglas Duncan
Students who do not like Clickers
Douglas Duncan says,
“In response some instructors argue that these are
students who would prefer a class that allows them
to pass by memorizing what the instructor says and
then feeding that information back on tests without
ever having to demonstrate conceptual
understanding or explain themselves to another
student.”
Duncan, D. (2006, May 03). Clickers: a new teaching
aid. Astronomy Educational Review, 5, 1-18.
Retrieved December 11, 2009, from
http://casa.colorado.edu

6. Roger C. Lowery
Potential Benefits:
Improve student learning
1. Improve class preparation
2. Cleaner comprehension
3. Active participation during class
4. Increased peer or collaborative learning
5. Greater student satisfaction
Reduce the paperwork & faculty labor
1. attendance taking
2. test administration
3. Grade recording, calculation, and analysis

7. Roger C. Lowery
Are Clickers inexpensive and what do they
instill?
Inexpensive Keypads (one-way transmitter)
1. Infrared (IR) Keypads: TV remote with a limited
set of response keys. Most IR keypads are one-way
devices. They just summit and answer, there are no
receivers.
2. Radio Frequency (RF) Keypads: Most RF
keypads are two-way devices
Expensive Keypads (Web-based computer
devices)
These devices can take many forms in PDAS, smart
calculators, and/or desktop computers.

8. Roger C. Lowery
Lowery suggests that teachers (or other users)
should make very clear instructions to first-time
users. He believes that switching clickers with other
students is considered cheating.
He also makes a point that classrooms should
practice using Clickers once or twice before posting
questions for any type of points. He feels that it is
necessary for students to become use to the Clicker
itself.
Lowery, R., C. (2006 April 05). Clickers in the
classroom: A Comparison of Interactive Student-
Response Keypad Systems. National Socail
Science Association. 2-22. Retrieved
December 11, 2009 from http://
people.uncw.edu/lowery/

9. April R. Trees and
Michele H. Jackson
One major problem:
Traditional lectures format students rarely receive
feedback concerning their thinking prior to the
exam, and instructors have a difficult time
assessing students’ understanding of particular
material.
Clickers however, provide an opportunity for all
students in the classroom to interact and
contribute their viewpoint, encourage students to
actively respond to ideas and questions, and give
instructors an opportunity to assess student
understanding at the moment.

10. April R. Tree and
Michele H. Jackson
Student Issues
Clickers creates a learning environment with
higher expectations for student preparation prior
to class.
Students also find that activities that encourage
analysis and application violate expectations that
large course professor that will simply provide
information that they then memorize of a test.
While instructors may be motivated to incorporate
response systems into a large class, students do
not necessarily share the same assumptions
about what the large class should look like.
Student attitudes can function a barrier to change.

11. April R. Trees and
Michele H. Jackson
Trees and Jackson believe that Clickers are an
unusual educational technology. However, unlike
websites, Power Point, or even course management
tools such as Blackboard, the success of Clickers
depends less on the instructor and more on the
student They believe this because clickers require a
change not simply in the mode of communication
between instructor and student but in the very culture
of the classroom environment.
Jackson, M. H., & Trees, A., R. (2007 March). The
learning environment in clicker classrooms.
Routledge, 32, 21-40. Retrieved December 11,
2009, from http://
fpdc.kent.edu/resources/a_stories/clickersDocs

12. Conclusion
The three articles taught me a lot about Clickers
and how I could incorporate them into my
classroom.
I think that they are a great tool to use to engage
your class in discussion and it helps teachers to
know what area that the class might not be
understanding.
All I have to say is that I wished we could be
using Clickers in all of my lecture classes
because I think it would help me to remember
key facts that I am learning!