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Remote: new tool for alert classes

Proponents say the clickers, long seen as a sign of laziness, are making students more attentive and active.

By CURTIS KRUEGER
Published October 3, 2005

TAMPA - Johnny El-Rady asked a question about genetics and every single one of his students raised a hand to answer.

But none of them said a word.

The 239 students in this University of South Florida class were all holding remote control devices, like the remotes for television sets. What looked like a mass outbreak of channel-surfing actually was an experiment in education.

Using their clickers, the students punched in their answers to El-Rady's question. With a computer program installed on a laptop, the teacher quickly tabulated the answers and discovered only 51 percent of the class answered correctly.

"It gives you immediate feedback about your class from students," said El-Rady, who gave the students a brief review of the concept so many of them failed to grasp.

The remote control - a symbol of sloth and vegetation in front of a television - might sound like the last thing teachers should hand to students. But clickers are coming to classrooms all over the United States, even to grade schools. Proponents say the remotes actually make their students more alert and encourage them to participate more actively in class.

Many of the USF students seem to agree.

"I really like it," said Beth Barnes, 20, a junior in El-Rady's genetics class. In long lecture classes where students do nothing but sit and listen, "it's actually hard to stay awake."

"It gives you feedback in every class," said Matt LaRoche, 21, a senior. "It does keep you attentive."

Darren Ward, vice president of Texas-based eInstruction, said his company's systems are used in thousands of grade school, middle school and high school classrooms and 800 universities. The company's Web site lists schools using the system in each state, and other companies are marketing their own systems as well.

Ward said analysts think these systems could grow into a $350-million industry by 2008.

Some of the clickers use an infared beam, similar to a remote control for a television. Another model uses a radio signal, which works better in large classes.

For teachers, one appeal of the technology is that the computer software can instantly add up student scores on multiple choice quizzes, which could save grading time. A picture on eInstruction's Web site shows a happy teacher switching off the light switch in her classroom and the words: "GET DONE! GET HOME! GET EINSTRUCTION!"

But others say it's not about getting teachers home early, it's about helping students learn.

El-Rady says he starts each 75-minute genetics lecture with three questions based on the previous class. Students answer by pointing their clickers - which they buy, like their textbooks - at sensors positioned around the classroom.

Each student has a number, and all the numbers are flashed onto a projector screen. Each number turns blue when the student clicks his or her answer. The screen does not show individual students' answers, but it does show the totals for how many people picked each answer.

"Based the feedback, I can see whether I screwed up teaching that concept," El-Rady says affably. He can also see which concepts are sticking in students' minds. On another question later in class, virtually every student clicked the right answer. "I can retire now," he quipped.

El-Rady said it's hard for a student to stay enthralled in a lecture for 75 straight minutes. The clickers force students to suddenly apply their knowledge, and he thinks that's far more helpful than "the traditional lecture: Me talk, you listen and then you come to the exam and regurgitate."

Although many college professors don't take attendance in large lecture classes, because it's virtually impossible, El-Rady's students record their attendance by clicking in. El-Rady said far more students attend his lectures now than ever before.

At Hernando Elementary School in Citrus County, the students don't have large lecture halls. But technology specialist Jancye Kilpatrick says remotes have worked well in certain classes there too.

The clickers encourage all students to participate - even the ones who don't like to raise their hands. Besides, she said, "It's fun. And if learning's fun, they learn."

Teachers also are inventing different ways to use the technology. Grandon Gill, another of a handful of professors using the systems at USF, said he has graduate students use the clickers during student debates. The students record their opinions on issues before students debate a particular topic, and they record their opinions afterward, which tells Gill whether the debate changed anyone's mind.

"It provides an activity that is different than being lectured at," and also gives students insight into what others in the class are thinking, said Gill, an associate professor of information systems and decision sciences.

Several teachers said the systems can have their faults. All that clicking and answering questions can take up class time. Any electronic device can go haywire sometimes, and the same goes for the accompanying computer software.

But to El-Rady, the benefit is how it makes the students participate more in class. "It's a way to come and get engaged."

[Last modified October 3, 2005, 01:15:16]