“Nearly everyone’s attention span is pretty short,” said Julius Bianchi, associate provost for information services at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks. “This is all about keeping their attention. They’re thinking about what they did before class and what they’re going to do after class. It’s an age-old challenge but a new way to get through to the students.”
Clickers allow professors to pose a few questions and quickly figure out if students are getting a tough concept. They can give pop quizzes and provide instant grades. They can ask sensitive questions, which students can respond to anonymously reports the Ventura County Star.
Students say they enjoy the novelty of the clickers.
“It definitely helps with the interaction,” said Michael Lee, 19, a student at Ventura College. “It gets the whole class into the lecture.”
CLU recently bought 400 clickers, along with the computer programming that allows professors and students to use them.
The company that sold the clickers, Turning Technologies, had 100 percent growth over the past year, said Katherine Kahn, educational communications manager.
Read it here: Educators use technology to keep students’ focus