Using e-clicker as an interactive assessment tool

We haverecently explored an app that was recommended by some other educators using ipod touches in the classroom. It is called e-clicker and priced at $9.95, we had to be sure it would be worthwhile.

So what is it?

eClicker is a personal response system that allows teachers to poll their class during a lesson. It provides

teachers with the real-time feedback they need to be sure their messages are being received. Developed for smartphones and laptops, eClicker leverages the hardware already in the hands of many students providing a low cost polling solution for the classroom.

How did we use it?

We used it by first creating 8 simple division questions that Grade 3

students had been working on in class. For example, 16 cents shared between 4 students would be how much? We had 4 multiple choice answers.

How did e-clicker perform?

It worked really well. There was a few ipod touches that lagged a little bit (the question didn't show up right away). The students loved it though and were very engaged. They loved the immediate feedback as it told them after each question whether they got it right or not and much like American Idol, showed a nice colourful bar graph on what everyone else picked. There is a website where you can log on and create the questions that way. We found it a bit buggy but overall it was much faster than designing the questions on the ipod touches. Overall, an excellent investment for $10!

How do we plan to use it in the future?

We thought we could differentiate the questions and have 2 different sets of questions at the same time. So we would have 2 hosts of questions, easier and challenge questions. We also thought it would be great to have the students design their own questions and test each other

on concepts!

Posted in: assessment,e-clicker