Plickers: Free is better than $3000 for a clicker system

Do yourself a favor and download the app Plickers on your phone.

Plickers is a way to employ a student response system without dropping a huge sum on a system of student response system like this.

Plickers uses the camera on my iPhone to scan codes that look like this:

Each kid has a card with this icon on it. Each card broadcasts to the camera two bits of information: identifying information, and the option the student has chosen. This card shows that student 1 has chosen option B. 

It takes me about 30 seconds to scan the room, and the app collects each students' response. Today I was using this app during my math instruction. I asked a couple of questions before starting on a task. I asked the students about the value of a base 10 rod if a 100s square was worth 1. (We're talking about decimals). I put four answers on the board, and asked them to choose. 

Looks like about 9 kids still don't get it...

The app scans the cards, and gives me information about who understands, and who doesn't. It shows a class roster and highlights each student that got the question wrong. So, as they go about doing their independent work, I have 9 kids I'm going to target.

This cost me nothing for the app, and the cost of printing the papers they hold up. I printed mine on cardstock... fancy, right? I didn't laminate them though... who has time for that?

The system does not have a way to export the data. What you see is what you get. So this is not a great formal evaluator. Plickers helps answer the question: who needs help right now? Sure it is limited by the multiple guess format. I can absolutely get more from looking at a students' work than using this system. But as far as on the fly formative assessment as I'm sending them off, or we're changing gears... I haven't found a system for cheaper that tells me what this tells me. 

The other day my principal came in while I was using it. He talked about how engaged the students were. I would ask a question, and then we'd talk about why we could get rid of the wrong answers. I would get the conversation going, and get those that picked the wrong answers try to defend their stance. This brought out some awesome conversations where kids were forming theories, defending their theories, and using evidence from others to support their claims. pretty higher level thinking, for fourth graders.