May 2007 — Hardware
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Press '2' for 'Not Guilty'
But its use in the Kent State research project shows to what lengths the technology can be taken. If stem cell research makes for good clicker fodder, then how about the Lizzie Borden trial?
CLICKER POWER
Consider Joy Killough a clicker booster. "I've been using them
for about a year and a half, and I have enjoyed them from the
get-go," says Killough, a science instructor at Westwood High
School in Round Rock, TX. After using the systems for a
while, she began to see other opportunities where she
could put them to work.
One such example occurred by accident. Killough's chemistry class was employing the clickers as part of an experiment in which they used probes to measure the pH levels of various water samples. The students input their measurements, and once the data was collected,
Killough saw from the graphs created by the readings that although the outcomes were correct, the values varied among the students. The immediate feedback "gave us the opportunity to talk about the variables in data collection," she says.
She is also using the clickers in her AP biology class, where one project involves measuring gene pool changes in subsequent generations. "The students have to gather data at each round, and I need to know where each student is [generation-wise], so each student clicks in their response." Killough thinks both she and her students are benefiting from her regular use of clickers in instruction. "The students uniformly love them. It helps them pay attention-they know now that first we have the lecture, and then questions will [be asked] related to what we've done in class, so they have to be paying attention.
"For me, it's so powerful to see when students have questions, and I can immediately go back and re-teach," she adds. "I'm able to go, ‘Gee, only 20 percent got that question right.' It allows me to pinpoint those particular kids and offer help."
In the Kent State project, Debi Bolls, an eighth-grade English instructor also from Roberts Middle School, had her class deconstruct the famous late-19th-century case surrounding the double ax-murder of Borden's father and stepmother. "[It's] an exercise that I started a couple of years ago, when the students were reading a play on the trial," Bolls says. "I thought it would be fun to discuss. I wanted the students to learn to read for details, and I tell them they are all lawyers, and lawyers have to support everything they say.
"This year with the response systems, we asked the students to take the information we had and tear it apart and find, based on that evidence, whether to go to trial. The students were split into two groups and had to argue why or why not, and vote using the response systems. We posted what we called ‘Points to Ponder,' which are the debated issues, and the kids had to vote on who won that section of the debate."
Bolls believes the clickers help draw students out, providing a kind of shelter from open verbal sparring, which can cause some kids to clam up. "A lot of students are afraid to express their opinions, but because [the systems are] anonymous, the only person who knows what the students answer is me. It encourages everyone to participate, and once they realize others have the same opinion, it gives them the opportunity to speak up." She says the clickers allow students "to become an active part of the experience."
Karen Swan, a professor at the research center, oversaw the project and says that both the stem cell exercise and the Lizzie Borden trial fit in well with the project's goal to measure whole-class engagement. "We first looked at two measures of engagement-observation and student selfreports," Swan says. "Over time, we discovered that students were more engaged using the clickers. That led us to think we might be on to something."
The center's current experimental study is measuring levels of learning using PowerPoint presentations and clicker systems, but "there are mixed results on whether the kids are actually learning," Swan says.
Although neither Bolls nor Osborn currently has personal response systems in her school, both see the value in using them, especially in the middle school environment.
"At the middle school level, students are conscious of how well they fit in," Osborn says. "They are swayed by what's going on. [The anonymity of the clickers] takes that totally out of the picture. Even the quiet ones can be heard."
Charlene O'Hanlon is a freelance writer based in New York.
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