For more than 30 years I wanted a classroom like the one in the Magic Kingdom, but I didn't realize that I would end up in the Haunted Mansion. It seems like such a natural way to teach class every since I first participated in a survey at Disney World. Way back in 1975, I found myself sitting in a classroom where each visitor had a small computer built into the arm of his or her desk. The woman at the front of the room asked us questions and immediately summarized our answers on the screen. I remember thinking at the time that this would be a great way to teach a class.
More than 30 years later in spring 2007, I began using clickers. I could lecture for a few minutes, stop and ask my students about what I just covered, and wait a couple of minutes for their answers. After getting a summary of their answers on the screen, I would know if I needed to go over the topic again. The clickers were easy for students to use, and no clicker ever failed in class.
I made several phone calls to their technical support before classes began and a few after the semester started. When I started using clickers in class, my students turned them on and started answering questions. They didn't need to select a channel or select answer mode in numeric or text. There was no menu; they just punched in the answers. At the end of the semester the bookstore informed me that I had the only brand of clicker that they did not have to exchange in spring 2007.
Scantrons are not good substitutes for clickers. I use my clickers to find out if students understand the concepts that I just covered, and I go over material again if many students answer incorrectly. Immediate feedback is much more valuable than taking up a quiz in one class and giving it back in another.
Sometimes students miss the class when I hand assignments back, but they are almost all there when I give them the answer to the clicker question that they just answered. In one class I asked students a question about an especially difficult concept for introductory economics students, and many answered incorrectly. I told my students that we needed to go over the theory again because many did not "get it." One student immediately replied, "But I thought that I understood it."
Unfortunately, Chico State did not adopt the einstruction clickers that I used. A new version of TurningPoint clickers, which no one had used, became our standard beginning fall 2007. During November, TurningPoint sent employees to our campus to assist our local staff in replacing the firmware. They had to take up about 1,000 clickers in classes and return them upgraded to the same classes. I still carry 2 screwdrivers to class so that when the clickers fail, students can take the battery out and replace it to force a "hard reset."
Now I fear that I am in the middle of a case study where bad marketing beats out a good product. I was on the committee that "selected" the TurningPoint clickers. The TurningPoint sales representatives lied to us about the capability of their clickers. They sold us clickers that we had to beta test this fall. We found numerous bugs that wasted class time and my preparation time. Not even TurningPoint's own technical support can answer questions correctly about these new versions of TurningPoint clickers that we are using. I never would have "gone along" with the other members of the committee if TurningPoint sales representative had told us the truth about their clickers.
Like President Bush who has no exit strategy for Iraq, I fear that our university has no exit strategy for TurningPoint. Chico State will continue working with TurningPoint until, with our resources, they finally develop a clicker as reliable and efficient as the einstruction clickers and a technical staff that knows as much about their clickers as Chico's State's technical support.
A standard is important because it means that our technical staff will only have to learn one system and students will only need to purchase one clicker. I regret that some of my students may have to buy more than one clicker next spring, but I will be asking them to purchase the one that works, einstruction.
Frederica Shockley Economics professor
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