One of my goals for this coming school year is to encourage teachers to use the e clicker student response systems. I had to chuckle when reading the teacher resources and your comment of them being “underutilized” and that you can find “one in a closet somewhere, dust it off and put it to use.” That is exactly where I found them complete with dust and extra pieces. At the end of the school year, I collected all that I could find and had discussions with teachers on whether they are being used and why. Most common comments were that no one really knows how to begin with the clickers. When the clickers were first purchased teachers were trained, but those teachers are now gone and no one has taken the time to learn the system. I also heard that the program is not user friendly so they did not begin to learn anything about them. I have only attended some beginning online tutorials so I do not profess to know everything but I have used them enough in the library to realize that this technology truly excites students and allows all to participate in class. Having them readily available to check out from the library gets them out of those closets and hopefully into the hands of teachers willing to use them. Teachers should see the benefit of “immediate and specific” feedback but also see the benefits of the time saving aspects of linking to GradeSpeed and printing off study guides etc.
The Web has a wealth of resources if one has the time to locate and weed through the tremendous wealth and poverty of material found on the web. Brain Pop was advertised strongly at the past Texas Library Association Conference and even though it is a subscription service, I will utilize their offer of a free trial to see if it would be of value to Velasco students. One of the positive aspects of Brain Pop includes purchasing Brain Pop Jr to meet the needs of elementary student and the availability of a Spanish version for our ESL students. Since we are talking about how to use technology in order to provide formative and summative assessments we should look to some of the programs already in use at Velasco that provides this information. Accelerated Reader, Study Island, Fast Math, iStation, and others do give students and teachers immediate feedback. In all these programs students receive immediate feedback. Even though the feedback is there for the elementary student, we must not forget to have a personal touch. Classes that see the most impact from these programs have teachers who check the progress, discuss the results, and let students know that they are not the only one looking at the results. Many of these programs provide a way to share the results with the parents that adds another layer of importance to the students. I know we are all strapped for time but what I see is the difficulty to fully utilize all aspects of programs and little time to learn how much more we can get out of some of these wonderful programs. Perhaps it is time to learn about what we have before we purchase additional programs.
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2 years ago
The student response systems are very motiviating for kids. I understand that if a teacher has to share that the technology is not used as much as it could be. There are some strategies that can be used to increase use. Please don't hesitate to enlist help from Instructional Technology for training and support. We can work with groups or individuals on your campus. That's what we love to do - get out and work with teachers!
ReplyDeleteI agree that many times teachers will engage students in a learning game but never check progress. Students will be more likely to put forth meaningful effort if they know someone is going to check on them. Teachers still need to communicate with students to praise their efforts and provide support when needed.
There are many software applications in the district that we don't use to their full potential. In many cases we are duplicating programs when it isn't necessary. And, there is much to use out there that is free. Once again, teachers need time and support to find ways to integrate these programs fully into thier curriculum.
Thanks, I am going to try and set up something to get our teachers to use the clickers. My plan now is to use them when I talk to teachers at the beginning of the year. Then we can hopefully set up some training.
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