Non Tech, Low Cost Clicker for Classroom Quiz
Eric Mazur’s insights in peer instruction has triggered an explosion of clicker tools in the classrom and it is still in a nascent stage. While Eric himself stresses that its the pedagogy that matters more than the tech in clicker, one can notice more importance is given to the tech part.
In recent times I’ve been getting requests for using clicker tech in classrooms that can work even with the following constraints
- Not dependent on Internet or Network
- Not dependent on devices
- Should work at schools with very low budgets
I’ve been thinking about a solution for some time, without much success. However recently I had eureka moment when I was thinking of fun way of visualizing data involving audience polls. By “Fun ways” I mean touch-and-feel materials that audience can interact with. As the idea developed it seemed to me that this same visualization tool can be used as clicker in classrooms.
Today, 31st December, last day of 2017, I built a rough prototype of the non-tech, low-cost clicker!
Here is the prototype of the Clicker (Named Bee Clicker!) with the sample result. (Remember this is first draft construction)
It’s a card-board snack box that is converted to simple visualization of the student choices for a given quiz.
How does it work?
Each student is given a set of different color beads( It can be same color too).
The teacher posts a quiz to the class.
Before I dwell further in the process. I will share more images of the Bee Clicker.
The box has a cover.
Another view (lying down) of the bee clicker
The ‘bee clicker’ with the cover closed. So, the data isn’t visible until the cover is open.
Notice the top of the box has holes to drop the beads in.
Bee clicker with the beads in the bowl.
Student making a choice. Answering to the quiz. The box (Bee Clicker) can be passed around in the class.
Once all the students in the class have answered.
Eureka! We can open the box and show the results to the class.
After finishing the box and experiments with few quizzes, I can already think of quite a few improvements.
The total cost of making the draft was 1 Dollar (The beads costed the most).
Now to the process. The teacher can give set of beads to students. The kids will love the touch-feel of the beads and casting the votes. After posting the question (Quiz) to the class. The teachers passes the box (Bee Clicker) around. The student cast (drops a bead in the right choice) their choice. Once everyone has done. The teachers reveals the results to the class!
Here is the link to the making of the Bee Clicker.
