Plickers: Paper Clickers
Plickers is a great free iOS and Android app – a powerfully simple tool that lets teachers collect real-time formative assessment data without the need for student devices. The premise is simple, print each of your class out a Plickers card – I stuck them on the back of the pupils exercise books so they are (almost) impossible to lose! The pupils can then use their books to answer questions which appear on the interactive whiteboard, the direction they hold their book up corresponds to an answer A-D.
For best results use a Plickers quiz at the start and end of the lesson to show progress made (The app will give you percentages of correct answers).
The positives
- Instant results
- Plickers makes it very difficult for pupils to cheat as the letters are so small it is impossible to see what someone else has answered.
- The data is saved – all answers are saved so that you can measure progress.. The app will tell you the % of pupils who got each question right/wrong.
- You only need 1 device (teacher iPad/iphone) – pupils need no devices.
The downsides
- Although the iPad is very good at scanning the classroom quickly, Plickers is slightly slower than using miniwhiteboards
- Set up time… sticking a card on the back of each pupils book does take time if you do it yourself.
If you fancy giving Plickers a go, click here to download the app and print out some cards on www.plickers.com – dont forget to let us know your thoughts on Plickers via the Inspired PE Forum.
