Application of Clicker Technology in the  Classroom

Application of Clicker Technology in the  Classroom

Introduction

This multimedia assignment will discuss the impact that the use of Clicker Technology has on the learning process within an educational setting, such as a classroom by offering a summary of the selected topic. It will also provide an annotated bibliography of at least five peer-reviewed articles and critically conducted a bio-ecologically-based and research-based discussion that will focus on addressing Clicker technology as the chosen resource.

Topic Selection Summary

Topic: the topic that has been chosen for discussion in this assignment is the application of Clicker technology within an educational setting, especially the classroom, as an innovation that helps transform the learning process. In any educational environment, student learning directly correlates with both student involvement and the quality of the program that is being implemented. Most of the instructors are facing numerous challenges in gaining the full attention of the students within the classroom, especially one that involves a high number of students (Mareno, Bremner & Emerson, 2010). Moreover, the limited funds that are allocated to the education sector in the country have made it increasingly difficult for most of the schools to provide quality educational programs to the students. However, technological advancements have proven to be effective in reversing this situation (Mareno, Bremner & Emerson, 2010). One of these advancements in technology that has shown to be capable of transforming the education sector through enhancing the learning process is the Clicker Technology, which is an example of an audience response system.

Target Audience: Teachers and Students

Resource: An App

Theoretical Lens: theoretically, it has been discovered that Clicker Technology can enhance the learning process of students within an educational setting by increasing their concentration and helping them build strong relationships with their instructors. The use of Clicker Technology in the classroom setting has proven to have a significant positive impact on the microsystem of the students by facilitating excellent teacher-student relationships (Han, 2014). It is now possible to use active learning approaches such as holding class-based discussions through using the Clicker Technology, whereby teachers can manage to engage the students in discussions, role-playing, and peer teaching and game simulation (Han, 2014). As supported by the Active Learning Theory, students’ engagement and involvement in the learning process is only achieved when they have positive perceptions about the means of teaching and learning used (Han, 2014). Clicker Technology can attract a positive attitude of students towards it through its features, thus increasing their engagement level during the learning process.

Annotated Bibliography

The below section provides a bibliography of at least five peer-reviewed academic sources that address the topic of the effects of Clicker Technology on the learning process within an educational setting.

Vaterlaus, J. M., Beckert, T. E., Fauth, E. B., & Teemant, B. (2012). An Examination of the Influence of Clicker Technology on College Student Involvement and Recall. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 24(3), 293-300.

The authors explore the various ways in which educators have been using Clicker technology to enhance the engagement level of their students while teaching them a variety of disciplines. In this study, the authors focus on investigating the impact that this technology has on student involvement and recall (Vaterlaus et al., 2012). The authors discovered that there was a significant improvement in the ability of the student to recall what they had learned in class using clicker technology when compared to verbal reviews and PowerPoint slides.

Keough, S. M. (2012). Clickers in the Classroom: A Review and a Replication. Journal of Management Education, 36(6), 822-847.

In this study, the author focuses on the perceptions and learning outcomes of children by reviewing approximately 66 studies based on the use of clicker technology. Student attention span, participation, attendance, ease of use, feedback, perceptions of satisfaction, and high levels of performance are among the primary outcomes that the author notes in this research paper after analyzing the 66 studies (Keough, 2012). The author also found out that the same findings were realized within the studies that involved the management discipline.

Han, J. H. (2014). Closing the missing links and opening the relationships among the factors: A literature review on the use of clicker technology using the 3P model. Journal of Educational Technology & Society, 17(4), 150-168.

The author argues that one of the widely adopted communication systems in the modern college classroom environments is the clicker technology. The author discusses the implications of the clicker technology on the presage, process, and product factors as the 3Ps that are associated with the 3P model (Han, 2014). The results of this study claim that both learning and teaching within an educational setting through using the clicker technology can be considered to be a relational phenomenon that is increasingly complex.

Trees, A. R., & Jackson, M. H. (2007). The learning environment in clicker classrooms: student processes of learning and involvement in massive university‐level courses using student response systems. Learning, Media, and Technology, 32(1), 21-40.

The authors have used their study to explore some of the educational and social infrastructures that are required to create the audience response system for use by students within a classroom setting. The authors use a sample size of over 1500 undergraduate students who have enrolled in ‘clicker courses’ to investigate how students’ learning process and involvement within an education setting is influenced by the clicker technology (Trees & Jackson, 2007). They have also examined the existing relationship between students’ perceptions of clicker technology and their course design choices. The results of their study show that both communication and social elements that are associated with the classroom are not increasingly essential when the educators are deciding to adopt the student response technology.

Mareno, N., Bremner, M., & Emerson, C. (2010). The use of audience response systems in nursing education: best practice guidelines. International Journal of Nursing Education Scholarship, 7(1).

In this study, the authors have examined the use of Audience Response Systems (ARS) as an active learning strategy that is widely being used in promoting the learning process in nursing education. The authors discuss the numerous contributions of this innovation is facilitating a dynamic engagement of students in a classroom by enhancing the communication process between the students and their instructors as well as their faculty (Mareno, Bremner & Emerson, 2010). The findings of their study indicate that clicker technology promotes the learning process of nursing students in the classroom.

DeBourgh, G. A. (2008). Use of classroom “clickers” to promote the acquisition of advanced reasoning skills. Nurse Education in Practice, 8(2), 76-87.

The author investigates the use of clicker technology, which is also known as classroom response system in colleges and universities, to promote learning. The author indicates that the use of classroom response systems within the classroom tends to support the effectiveness of interaction, increase the level of participation, foster communication, which helps to clarify misunderstandings and promote student engagement process (DeBourgh, 2008). The author uses this study to describe the significance of clicker technology in promoting the use of advanced reasoning skills that are facilitated by this innovation when undertaking a baccalaureate nursing program.

Background Analysis of Impacts of Clicker Technology on Student Learning in a Classroom

Clickers are designed in such a way that they use radio-frequency or infra-red signals to both record and transmit audience responses to questions that have been made. Their pocket-sized remote control nature makes them increasingly convenient for use in supporting the learning process. DeBourgh (2008) argues that the classroom response system, which is clicker technology that is applied in the classroom, is designed in such a way that it is based on a computer software program that is responsible for processing radio frequency input (DeBourgh, 2008). This input is obtained from a multi-button ‘response pad’ that facilitates the transmission of signals to a receiver unit, which has a direct connection to the computer located in the educational setting, which in this case, is mainly a classroom.

The receiver unit in the classroom can identify a unique signal and track responses made by the students who have enrolled for various courses once they have registered their clickers through accessing an online website that is provided by the vendor. DeBourgh (2008) states that response data are instantly aggregated and displayed on the classroom computer during class sessions where the students also get the opportunity to make entries, including engaging in a discussion (DeBourgh, 2008). The instructors can use PowerPoint lessons to teach the students using the clicker technology, given the fact that this software program is designed to function as an add-in to PowerPoint and tends to run in the background.

As an instructional technology, Clicker makes it possible for teachers to provide rich-content and learning objects which students can respond to due to the ability of this innovation to embed pictures, multimedia, and graphics in the PowerPoint slides (Trees & Jackson, 2007).  Moreover, it is possible for students and teachers to participate in the online discussions through creating questions within the clicker software. According to Trees and Jackson (2007), Clicker has unique features that provide users with a variety of teaching options such as class attendance and participation monitoring (Trees & Jackson, 2007). Others include releasing exam results once they are completed, critically analyzing, and assessing student response frequencies in terms of answers and questions asked by each student and viewing and exporting different student reports and databases after each class session (Trees & Jackson, 2007). Moreover, these unique features of Clicker enhance the learning process of the students by enabling them to have a broad range of access to academic sources and materials such as a grade view which they can easily access online (Trees & Jackson, 2007). Students are also able to record answers to various exam questions or quizzes that they are asked by their instructor, which they are then able to submit for marking.

In their recent study, Vaterlaus et al. (2012) claim that most of the teachers are now opting to use clickers in large classroom settings as a strategy to attract the attention of the technology-friendly students and keeping them engaged in the learning activities that are taking place (Vaterlaus et al. 2012). Instructors are now using clicker technology to gauge students’ grasp of essential concepts that have been taught in class, generate productive class discussions, and display cumulative student responses. According to Vaterlaus et al. (2012), the United States has managed to create an extensive educational system nationwide through the use of learning technologies such as clickers to facilitate the learning process of students in the majority of university classrooms (Vaterlaus et al. 2012). The fact that clickers are hand-held personal devices makes them convenient for use by the students to respond to prompts and questions raised by the instructors in the classroom.

Natural sciences and health care professions are the main disciplines that are considered to be the primary adopters of clicker technology whose application in the classroom has now gained a lot of popularity today. Keough (2012) argues that numerous benefits that are realized from the use of clicker technology in learning have significantly increased the interest of most of the researchers (Keough, 2012). Some of these benefits that are being realized from the use of this innovation include an increase in student performance, attention in class, attendance, participation in class discussion, and instantaneous feedback of student understanding (Keough, 2012). The benefits of using Clicker for student learning in class are further supported by Han, (2014) who claims that this innovation has made it possible for instructors to critically assess the academic progress of the students through analyzing the way they respond to questions and participate in discussions (Han, 2014). From an instructional point of view, clicker technology helps in building student-centered classroom environments by increasing the engagement level in the learning activities taking place.

This innovation enhances the microsystem of the students through increased collaboration between the students and the instructors (Mareno, Bremner & Emerson, 2010). Such collaboration results in effective learning outcomes, clearer perceptions of knowledge gains, and improved student involvement in the learning process. Mareno, Bremner & Emerson (2010) suggest that clicker technology is effective in reducing anxiety and fear amongst students, which prevents them from participating in classroom learning activities (Mareno, Bremner & Emerson, 2010). Evaluation, analysis, comprehension, synthesis, application, and knowledge are the main learning domains related to active learning of course materials. Clicker technology is one of the leading innovations in supporting the active learning process; thus, its application in the classroom setting is increasingly crucial.

Conclusion

Conclusively, the application of clicker technology in the learning process has shown to produce numerous benefits that justify the need for its integration in the education system. Clicker technology supports active student learning in the classroom, and its use has innumerable advantages, both from the perspective of the instructors and students. As discussed in this paper, clicker technology has proven to be very supportive of various pedagogical approaches, such as student-centered active learning. The success of clickers depends more on the student and less on the teacher, unlike the use of other learning techniques such as the use of PowerPoint and websites. The benefits associated with the use of clicker technology are enough justification for the continued use of this innovation to support student learning.