How Clickers Work
Introductory Video: The Use of Personal Response Systems at Boston College
With clickers, you can pause your lecture at any time and ask students a multiple-choice question. The question might be one you have prewritten on a PowerPoint slide, or on other presentation software. You can enter a question on the fly. You can ask a question verbally.
Students have a set (configurable) amount of time to answer the question. During this time period, they can change their answers. Only the last answer they click during the time period is recorded. The answer distributions – as well as how many students have answered the question - can display within seconds.
You can register students (associate them with their serial clicker number) in order to store and track how frequently and accurately a student has answered your questions. You might choose to use that information as a component of a student’s grade. i>clicker gives you the ability to determine how much credit to assign clicker questions. i>clicker integrates easily with Blackboard Vista.
For instructions on registration, see Getting clickers registered at BC.
You might choose not to register students, and just use the clickers to receive classroom feedback without learning how an individual student responds.
A "quick-start" guide can be found at:
http://iclicker.com/dnn/Support/UserGuides/tabid/177/Default.aspx
Note for Mac users with Keynote: to use it along with i>clicker you must first adjust the settings. Pull down the Keynote menu and select Preferences > Slideshow, then check the box for "Allow Expose, Dashboard and others to use the screen."