Plickers

When looking for ways to engage students in class discussions and solicit feedback, there are many options.  One popular method is to use clickers or response cards. The concept is simple, each student has a clicking device or card that they can use to provide their response to the question.  Generally, it works. However, teaching is a data-driven craft, and unless the teacher has a photographic memory, all of the response data is lost. Plickers looks to solve that problem.  Plickers is a web and mobile app based answer card solution for teachers that want to solicit responses to multiple choice questions, or surveys. What makes Plickers stand out to me is the immense flexibility the platform gives a teacher.  The suite consists of an activity creation tool that allows teachers to build questions and associate a QR-code like image to a response. During the activity, each student will have a card with a single QR code and depending on the orientation, it will determine their response.  The teacher simply opens the Plickers app on their phone or tablet, and point the camera at the students. That’s it. The app will register all of the responses and store them in your FREE account. Beyond the flexibility the platform provides, the easy collection and analysis of data, and being free, Plickers does not rely on every student having any sort of device; ensuring that they are distraction free and focused on the activity.  I’ve never used Plickers, and I rarely get too excited about digital tools, but Plickers looks to be awesome. If I can find a way to integrate it into my classroom, I fully intend to.