Plickers is a great student response system that is perfect for the one iPad classroom. I’ve featured it on Free Technology for Teachers and used in workshops this summer, but I’ve yet to feature it here. Plickers is a neat student response system that uses a teacher’s iPad, iPhone, or Android device in conjunction with a series of QR codes to create a student response system. Students are given a set of QR codes on large index cards. The codes are assigned to students. Each code card can be turned in four orientations. Each orientation provides a different answer. When the teacher is ready to collect data, he or she uses the Plickers mobile app to scan the cards to see a bar graph of responses. Teachers can create and save as many questions and responses as they like. The data collected can be viewed in a web browser or in the mobile app.
Three Ideas for Using Plickers In the Classroom
1. Quickly taking the pulse of the class. Ask your students, “do you get this?” (or a similar question) and have them hold up their cards to indicate yes or no. You can do this with a saved class or a demo class in the app.
2. Hosting a review game. Create a series of questions in your saved Plickers class. To conduct the review have students hold up their cards to respond to each question. Every student gets to respond at the same time and you get to see how each student responded. This is an advantage over many review games in which only the first student to respond has his or her voice heard.
3. Take attendance. In a saved Plickers class each student has a card assigned to him or her. At the start of class just have them hold up their cards to check-in.
