How would i use this in my class? Benefits and Cons
Benefits: I really do like the idea of using clickers to help in assessment. Assessment in general is usually very difficult in Kindergarten. The majority of the time I have to do any assessments I will do them one on one. I feel like it's the only way to get a really accurate picture of the students understanding. Using paper and pencil is tricky because the students don't understand the concept of cheating. They also can't read the instructions, so pacing is difficult. I think that if I could train my students on Clickers there would be a lot of chances to do assessments as a whole class. I would be able to seat them far enough apart that they couldn't see each others clickers, and I wouldn't worry about keeping them engaged as some took longer with writing their responses than others. I also think that they would be wholly entertained by the whole thing. For that reason they would stay engaged.
Cons: the biggest thing I can think of is that the normal clicker is way to complicated for a Kindergartner. They do have some that are simplified down to four buttons that have different colors and shapes, but it would be difficult to get access to these. It would also take a good amount of time to train my students to use the clickers effectively enough to get accurate results/data. There is also the ever present probability that the technology just won't word for some reason.
I think that the benefits outweigh the cons, so long as we would be able to use the simplified clickers. I hope it works out!
Benefits: I really do like the idea of using clickers to help in assessment. Assessment in general is usually very difficult in Kindergarten. The majority of the time I have to do any assessments I will do them one on one. I feel like it's the only way to get a really accurate picture of the students understanding. Using paper and pencil is tricky because the students don't understand the concept of cheating. They also can't read the instructions, so pacing is difficult. I think that if I could train my students on Clickers there would be a lot of chances to do assessments as a whole class. I would be able to seat them far enough apart that they couldn't see each others clickers, and I wouldn't worry about keeping them engaged as some took longer with writing their responses than others. I also think that they would be wholly entertained by the whole thing. For that reason they would stay engaged.
Cons: the biggest thing I can think of is that the normal clicker is way to complicated for a Kindergartner. They do have some that are simplified down to four buttons that have different colors and shapes, but it would be difficult to get access to these. It would also take a good amount of time to train my students to use the clickers effectively enough to get accurate results/data. There is also the ever present probability that the technology just won't word for some reason.
I think that the benefits outweigh the cons, so long as we would be able to use the simplified clickers. I hope it works out!
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