Response Devices

Overview

Response devices boost engagement by encouraging all students to answer every question. By receiving immediate, regular feedback, teachers can assess student learning and appropriately adjust instruction to meet their needs. Using response devices, particularly when discussing important or multifaceted topics can help increase Critical Literacy. Response devices can be used for attendance, formative assessment, retrieval practice, and discussions as a highly motivating tool for students.

Use It in the Classroom

Watch how these sixth grade teachers use a student response system to encourage whole-group participation and collect formative data on student learning. By using this tool, learners are able to focus their Attention on the question and are motivated to respond.

Teachers can also pose questions that students respond to before and after engaging in small group discussions, which can support different processing speeds and meaningful student reflection. These activities can also incorporate new and difficult Vocabulary to provide practice opportunities for students. Response devices can also be used by both teachers and students to facilitate polls in the classroom and simulate voting across a variety of content areas, helping students to develop civic participation skills.

Design It into Your Product

Videos are chosen as examples of strategies in action. These choices are not endorsements of the products or evidence of use of research to develop the feature.

Learn how a cloud-based student response system, Socrative, allows for a variety of student interactions and for teachers to assess student learning. The flexibility of creating quiz questions beforehand or spontaneously and the gamified element of answering questions through races are particularly effective features for usability.

A diverse range of personal response devices currently exists. For both teachers and developers, usability is a key consideration. When response devices seamlessly integrate into a lesson and with existing technologies, students can engage in a rich learning experience.

View References

Resources

Below are additional examples, research, and professional development. These resources are possible representations of this strategy, not endorsements.

Examples

Classroom Response Systems List

EdSurge reviewed list of response devices, some of which are free

Examples

Classroom Response Systems Overview

Teaching guide for using clickers in the classroom

Examples

Formative Assessment Tool: Plickers

The Learning Accelerator's guide to using this free clicker tool

Research

Feedback & Peer Assessment

Subtopic that explores research on the effects of quality, type, and source of feedback on student learning on Digital Promise's Research Map