March 22: i>clicker webinar
Webinar on use of i>clickers on campus to be presented Thursday
8:03 a.m., March 21, 2012--The University of Delaware will be featured in a Campus Technology webinar at 5 p.m., Thursday, March 22, to discuss the use of i>clickers on campus. Four UD colleagues will present the hour-long webinar, which will discuss ways to incorporate i>clickers into the classroom.
Allan Carlsen, assistant professor, and Kainoa Harbottle, supplemental faculty, both from the Department of Theatre, will join Phil Duker, assistant professor of music, to share stories about the benefits of using i>clickers in their classes. Sandy McVey, IT-Academic Technology Services staff, will provide institutional adoption data.
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They hope to encourage other faculty members to try the technology and discover how the same device can be used effectively to promote student engagement in large lecture halls or smaller discussion-based classrooms.
Duker has previously presented on the topic and said i>clickers are useful for himself and the students. His “leave the poll open” concept allows students to respond to his teaching throughout a learning exercise and alert him if they are confused or need him to re-explain the material.
“I get a better read of how they are understanding and processing stuff,” Duker said.
He said that this method allows students to reflect and report on what is happening live to create a conversational environment.
McVey plans on sharing data about the increasing number of students using clickers, and she also wants to show how clickers are beneficial for the arts, not just the sciences. She said that there are 934 students enrolled in theatre classes, and 29 enrolled in music classes using i>clickers this spring. One of the webinar’s goals is to show how versatile the device is regardless of class size.
During the 2010-2011 school year, 8,596 students used i>clickers. However, that number jumped to 14,281 students during the 2011-2012 school year -- a 66 percent increase.
This semester, the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry is using clickers more than any other subject area, with 1,132 students enrolled out of a total of 7,580. Theatre is close behind, and the Department of Biological Sciences has 652 participating students.
McVey wants the webinar to highlight the professors’ unique applications they have for i>clickers in their classrooms.
“The focus is on our faculty and how they’re using it. The adoption of i>clickers continues to grow, but there’s still a large number of instructors who haven’t even considered using this technology,” McVey said.
There are currently 145 people registered for the webinar from 133 unique locations across 20 countries.
Those who are interested can register online to watch the webinar live.
Article by Julie Becker