Schools Are Looking to Entice Younger, Tech-Savvy Children With Clickers

Sales of clickers, hand-held wireless devices with just a few buttons, have been on the rise in the past few years.  They allow for quick choice making and university teachers have been using them for attendance, multiple choice tests, and instant polls. 

Brianna Goodwin, a fire and life safety educator in Colorado, teaches a class about fire prevention to middle-schoolers. To better engage them, her program purchased 120 clickers. She hands them out to the students as they file in. “They are so pumped!” she said in a phone interview.

She surveys their knowledge of the consequences of arson: injuries, fines, imprisonment. Because she can instantly show the correct answer and a breakdown of responses, Ms. Goodwin said, the students “start cheering if they get the answer right.”

“Those who talk in class aren’t necessarily those who have the most to say,” said Eric J. Johnson, director of the Center for Decision Sciences at Columbia Business School. “But with a clicker, everyone in the room has input and they can express their opinion anonymously.” 

Question: Do you think clickers should be used instead of standard questioning methods?