New way for hands-on learning

By Vicky Salcido
CONTRIBUTING WRITER

By introducing student response systems in their classrooms, a number of City College instructors have placed the power of silent participation into student’s hands.

The two brands of systems used at City College are Hyper-Interactive Teaching Technology and iclicker.

According to H-ITT’s product description website, SRS’s are two-way wireless systems. Each system is composed of the instructor’s base receiver and individual clickers for each student.

Every battery-operated clicker  has a unique product code, which students must first register to the base system. All information sent from a clicker will be stored in the instructor’s database under that specific student’s number.

Instructors can then ask for feedback on a variety of topics such as attendance, participation surveys and even test questions.

If the instructor chooses to display the results as a histogram, students can relax knowing that all information is anonymous.

Information travels from clickers to the base through either infrared or radio frequency.

Infrared technology requires line-of-sight to the base in order to receive and process results. In contrast, radio frequency clickers do not require line-of-sight because the signal travels in all directions.

Physics department chair David Yee first learned about clickers when he watched a demonstration at the 2006 meeting of the American Association of Physics Teachers.

“At the time it was really very new,” Yee said. “It was kind of just a lot of sales reps who didn’t know many details.”

The concept was so attractive to Yee that he initiated its introduction for his Physics 10 class. Since then, clickers have also been implemented in Physics 2BC and Biology 1A.

“I think it helps a lot,” Yee said. “They get a chance to instantly measure their understanding of the material, and it’s anonymous.”

City College student Miranda May was indifferent about clickers. “In the beginning, there were some problems getting everyone’s clicker on the same channel,” she said. “But once in use there usually were no problems.”

Students can purchase clickers at the City College Bookstore Annex for $35 to $45, depending on the brand.

Currently, all three classes use different brands or technologies of clickers, but Yee hopes to see standardization soon.

“Depending on which clicker the instructor is using, students could have to buy two different clickers in a year,” explained Bookstore Annex manager Kathy Tullius.

Most clickers come with a warranty. At the end of the semester they can be sold back to the Bookstore Annex for a portion of the purchase price.