S/O of brain fog thread & college thread iclicker Q

It is a response system so students can put in answers and a program gathers them electronically. Fairly straightforward I think and fun for students (not sure about college but younger students like them)

I don't know where you buy them, but when I go to continuing education seminars, many speakers use the clickers. It aggregates the answers for the multiple choice and shows what percentage of the audience picked each answer. Usually there's a little bit of lecture portion, then we do the questions to test knowledge... wrong answers allow the speaker to fill in knowledge gaps or facilitate discussion among the audience.

I hated them at first but they've grown on me. More interesting than sitting through just a lecture.

My girls used them all through their college years (chemistry/forensic science/criminal justice daughter 1 and biology/computer science/chemistry daughter 2). They sit down on my ping pong table now. Anyway, they were dual enrolled at two schools. One school just used it to click-in attendance and do practice problems. Another school used it for actual grading, and they hated that. So it really depends on how the professor uses it.

How much are they? I wonder why the professors don't use an online system that students can access through their computer or other mobile device? Seems to make more sense than buying something new.

Some professors don't like allowing computers/mobile devices because it can be used for other distractions like web surfing or game playing whereas the clicker is just a clicker... no other options of things to do with it.  But there are aps that can do the same thing.

Best kind of professor for learning.  All of my son's instructors have been PHDs except one.  It was a technical writing class. But my son said that she was the head of the department and really demanding.   I feel like I am getting my money out of his education.  

My son had one and sometimes his
Professors used it to take attendance. I
Think that is great, students will think twice
About skipping class.

Yes you can use them for grades and even use them for students to put in their test answers. Each remote is programmed to a particular student somehow so the teacher can easily see how they did on a particular question or assessment. My ds told me that he has used them more often when the classes are really large. Probably much easier to keep up with grading that way.

Because heaven knows these students won't be using any devices in the actual world of work. 

I think this happens more in large lecture halls where professors expect 200 people to memorize from their notes on a powerpoint. It amuses me that colleges still use such terrible teaching strategies. But it is certainly more cost effective to jam 200 students into a 100 level lecture than to have smaller class sizes and more personalized learning.

At least with the iClickers the professor has some idea (on a more regular basis) of what the students know and understand. So, progress, I guess?

Or takes the quiz for them... 

For real, large lectures are the worst! 

My husband uses clickers and takes old fashioned attendance every time.  His largest class is 60 though.

Yes, the largest class my girls have/had was 30 in a class. Several classes one of my girls have this semester only have 5 students. It's a small school though.

We used clickers at the last school I taught at. Yes, there are apps that can do the same thing. However, a number of students did not own a computer, tablet or smartphone. Many were barely getting by with their student loans. Thus we had a large computer lab open 24/7.