Part of the reason I never use phones in lessons is that there are some ‘spoiled’ kids who have the latest phone (I have a friend who actually bought her son of 13 the IPhone 4 to replace his Iphone 3GS because he has to have a better phone than his friends) Others have a cheap one that is only to be used in an emergency and I would rather not draw attention to that.

I don’t know how contacts and phone purchasing works in the USA but over here in England it can work out expensive? Sometimes policy isn’t about people not understanding technology but more about understanding kids.

More importantly, the effectiveness of the clicker depends heavily on how they’re used. During the second semester of physics, the prof used them primarily to get a general idea of how the 300 person lecture was understanding what he was saying.
However, the first semester was a disaster. The prof would ask questions that we would actually be graded on. It was impossible to tell if your response was actually received. Furthermore, different people learn differently, and it will never be fair to test something that you were just taught without the opportunity for it to sink in. The clickers simply became another stressor, especially for a freshman class.
At the end of the semester, the prof used the clicker to essentially collect demographic data from the class and supplemented it with his own commentary…and that was just weird, uncomfortable, and borderline racist/sexist.

It’s just a matter of time. This technological progress is a shift in the fundamental way we think about teaching. It’s a true revolution in the way we communicate and produce knowledge and develop skills.

The clickers are pricey for what they are and the buyback price, at least at our institution, borders on offensive.

I suspect the students are angered by the clickers not so much because of the price as a concrete number, but as a comparative value. This is a more tech-savvy generation than ever before and they’re well aware that the technology in a clicker is outdated and would result in a $5 product out in the consumer world.

1) I think these tweets say more about how some students use Twitter (to complain) than they do about how students at large view clickers.

2) At many colleges and universities, it’s the case that students have to purchase their clickers, either at the local bookstore or through an online vendor.

3) Surveys of students on their thoughts about clickers are consistent: Students don’t like having to pay for a device that’s primarily used to monitor them Big Brother style (by taking attendance) or to make their professor’s life easier (by doing the grading for him or her). Students want to see the value to their learning in the use of clickers. If that’s not clear, they grumble.

4) A classroom response system, like any educational technology, isn’t by itself good or bad or effective or ineffective. How teachers use clickers–that’s what determines the effectiveness.

See my blog on teaching with clickers for some ideas for using clickers effectively!