I'm Pickin' Plickers
As a part of my Educational Media course we prepared presentations that serve as tutorials for a tool of our choice. I picked Plickers! I have used Plickers before in my undergraduate courses and cannot wait to incorporate it into a classroom of my own some day.
What are Plickers?
Plickers is a combination of printable voting cards and smart device (iPhone, Android, and iPad) app that allows for quick response to on screen questions. Teachers can create quiz questions on the PLickers website and use the app to activate a question. Students use the cards to select the correct answer to the question and indicate it by the position in which they hold up their card. Using the app, the teacher can scan the room to collect student data immediately.
Why use them?
Formative assessment is extremely important to incorporate into instruction. Lessons should be designed with students in mind, and Plickers provides teachers with quick feedback during a lesson to assess whether students are successfully learning the material being covered. Using this data the teacher can successfully adapt their instruction on the spot, or analyze data later to plan follow up lessons.
How does it work?
Check out my tutorial video to see how Plickers works!
How can I incorporate this in my classroom?
Plickers is a convieniant tool which makes for easy use during a lesson. While planning lessons, you can design check point questions along the way to check for student understanding. These questions can be basic in nature, or they could even require collaboration. You couldd ask for individual student responses or allow for collaboration in partners. The questions help break up lessons into manageable parts and keep students engaged. You could even have students write their own Plickers questions and take up their questions to use in future Plickers quizzes.
Check out these links for some more excellent Plickers ideas:
Have you used Plickers in YOUR classroom? I would love to hear about your experiences! Share in the comments below.
