Clickers

I am interested in purchasing Clickers for my classroom. Does anyone use them? What product do you use? I think I can get the funds to purchase them but am not sure what to purchase. I have an Interwrite Pad and there are clickers for that system. Also, another teacher uses Turning Point Clickers. Any advice?

Tags: clickers

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Permalink Reply by Dorethia(Dotty) Myers on July 16, 2010 at 7:37pm

Have you checked out Microsoft Mouse Mischief. this is an alternative and cheaper. I saw this demonstrated at ISTE in Denver. Works on PC.
http://www.microsoft.com/multipoint/mouse-mischief/default.aspx
I also have used Einstruction clickers and students like them.

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Permalink Reply by Toni Giordano on July 16, 2010 at 8:16pm

Thank you!

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Permalink Reply by Eric Burgess on July 21, 2010 at 3:57pm

Dotty, glad you had a chance to swing by our booth at ISTE! If you or anyone else in this thread has questions surrounding Microsoft's Mouse Mischief, please feel free to reach out to me directly. I'd love to hear your feedback on the product as well.

Regards,
Eric Burgess, Community Manager for Mouse Mischief
@ericburgess
Mischief on Twitter: @mousemischief
Mischief on Facebook: http://facebook.com/mousemischief

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Permalink Reply by Dorethia(Dotty) Myers on July 21, 2010 at 5:45pm

Are there any plans to have this product for Macs?

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Permalink Reply by Eric Burgess on July 23, 2010 at 12:52pm

Unfortunately we do not have plans at this time, sorry. If you use Boot Camp for MAC, you can boot in Windows and it should work!

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Permalink Reply by Yis Pollock on July 25, 2010 at 5:07am

I loved the idea of Mouse Mischief but I found that when we experimented with 2 or 3 mice in class there was a certain slowdown and we lost total control of the mice.

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Permalink Reply by Eric Burgess on July 26, 2010 at 2:53pm

Yis, can you send me a direct message so we can discuss further. I'd like to find out some more information like:

1. What operating system you were on: XP, Vista or Windows 7?
2. What version of PowerPoint you were using: 2007 or 2009?
3. Lastly, what type of mice were you using: name and model?

thanks,
Eric

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Permalink Reply by Jonathan Wylie on July 16, 2010 at 9:23pm

I have SMART's clickers in my classroom and I enjoy using them, but accept that they may be among the more expensive solutions. I use them for instant feedback, class quizzes, and things like that. I only got them mid year, but by the end of the year I was using them most days.

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Permalink Reply by TeachingSagittarian on July 17, 2010 at 8:55pm

Interwrite (or eInstruction as they are now known) have two kinds of clickers - depending on the level of the students.
You might like to check out this site for ideas on how these clickers have been used in the classroom.

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Permalink Reply by Katy Scott on July 22, 2010 at 2:46pm

I used to use Promethean ActivExpression and ActivVote -- both are good, but extremely expensive.

What grade do you teach? If your kids have cell phones, why not use Poll Everywhere for free?

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Permalink Reply by Kev on July 23, 2010 at 10:51am

What do you want to use it for? That really is the key.

Mouse Mischief is wonderful if your goal is to get students involved and informally assess the class. It does not, (at least yet) offer individual student tracking of scores though.

Cell polling works great for the above as well but only if you're doing maybe a daily question to check on.

If you want full on tracking and such you'll have to go with one of the more expensive systems. I had one in my classroom originally and used it all of three times before I realized it just really was not worth the trouble. Batteries dying, units getting dropped, kids not understanding, etc. Ultimately, it was just a gimmick. While I'm all for gimmicks, I'm not when they cost so much.

This year I'll be use Mouse Mischief as my far lower priced, and more interactive, gimmick in place of the clickers.

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Permalink Reply by Derek Bruff on July 26, 2010 at 4:22pm

Mouse Mischief doesn't really do what clickers do. Since students using Mouse Mischief can see each others' responses, they can't respond to questions independently. This means you'll have the same problems you get when you ask for a show of hands--many students will wait and see how their peers respond and then just copy them.

For better engagement from all students, then you need a system (like clickers or phone-based polling systems) that allows students to respond independently.

That's not to say that Mouse Mischief doesn't have some interesting uses in the classroom. I just think it's a poor substitute for clickers.