WEEK 10 – Plickers
“What the heck is a Plicker?”, you ask. Plickers are a wonderful free alternative to device-based Student Response Systems (like Socrative). The word “Plicker” is a concatenation of the words “paper” and “clicker”. Each student is given a paper “plicker” (you set these up on plickers.com) that contains a QR code that represents a unique identity for them, and by turning the plicker design in a different direction, they can provide a response to an “A, B, C, or D” type question. The teacher easily scans all the students with a smart phone or tablet, and quickly collects the responses.
Plickers are perfect for young students and for situations in which it is impractical for all students to have a device. Check out the video and articles for a deeper dive, and explore Plickers today!
I don't have a 3 Minute Teaching With Tech Tutorial for Plickers, but Brittany Goff has put together this great brief introduction to how to get started with Plickers:
Here are some articles about using Plickers, with ideas for using it in the classroom:
- 6 Easy Steps for Getting Started Using Free Plickers for Assessment by Nichloas Combs
- Clickers in the Classroom: An Active Learning Approach from EDUCAUSE
- Using Plickers in the Music Classroom from Kodaly Corner
- The “FAQ's” section from Plickers.com
Remember, AFTER YOU TRY Plickers, please be sure to comment below and tell us about your experience, so you'll have a chance at winning one of our giveaways at the end of the challenge! Tell us how you used it. Was it easy to use? What did your students have too say about it?
About the Challenge:
The Try-a-Tool-a-Week Challenge started March 1st. Every Sunday through the end of May we're publishing a new web page with a new, awesome free tool to try. Everyone who provides their name and email address (click here to open the Challenge introduction page and SIGN UP) will get an email providing the link to the page. The goal is just to have fun and learn about these powerful free web applications for teaching and learning, and along the way you get the opportunity to win some giveaways we'll award at the end of the challenge to randomly selected participants! To have a chance a winning, just participate and share some observations about the tools you each week!
Thanks to your tool offer and showcasing Plickers, I have found this great tool. I have used it now many times for review of math and science questions. It is so simple to set up and the students think that it is amazing that they can answer questions with a piece of paper.
I have used Plickers many times and I love it. It is fun for the kids and they like it—which is not common for most high school students. The one thing I found is that is is not something you can use for a lot of questions. It works best for up to 5 questions. This would be a great way to assess students at the end of the class. It is low prep with good results.
Plickers is great. It’s a low tech way of getting immediate feedback from students and for students. I have tried it out in a classroom with two classes at a time and it works like a charm.
I read about Plickers last summer, investigated it at a fall staff development, and this week’s challenge finally motivated me to try it with my students. I took a few short cuts and did not assign students to numbers…just had them pick up a card as they entered the room. It’s also a bit of a pain to type in complex math equations (for any app, such as Socrative, Kahoot, Geddit, whatever) so I simply “wrote” my questions as Q1, Q2, Q3, etc. and projected a separate worksheet with the equations and multiple choice options. The app was easy to use, and I got better at scanning students’ responses more quickly, but there was definitely lag time. I agree with Patty, and I would limit the questions because the kids could get bored, but my students overall said it was fun to try something new.
I think this option would work very well where BYOD (or good Wifi) was not an option. It was good to separate my kids from their phones, too! Another cool idea: a junior high teacher friend had her students glue their Plickers cards to the back of their composition notebook cover, and they could have their cards when they needed them.
Considering this as an “automated” attendance taking tool.
I have used this with my class. I like it for a short list of questions—less than 5. The more questions, the less kids liked it. I did a chapter review using it and the kids really lost interest after a few questions. I would suggest using it for a few questions to check for understanding but not to use it for extended periods of time
Plickers works well for classrooms that are not 1:1. The program is great because it will not scan an answer more than once. It works best to have question set written up ahead of time.
I used Plickers during a professional development for teachers. They loved it many went back to their schools to get their own sets to use with their students.
This is such an ideal tool for exit questions, formative assessments….Free, only need one device for the scan, simple, students will master use quickly. I can see this being used at many levels. I support tech integration in our district and have already emailed teachers to share!!!!!
I discovered Plickers 4 or 5 months ago.
A tool to ask questions to my pupils and have immediate answers. Great! But there are plenty of them!
What?? You pupils don’t need a smartphone?
What?? You don’t need a internet connection nor WIFI?
It was like a revelation to me. I don’t have wifi at school and it is forbidden to bring a smartphone. So I didn’t how to handle tools like Kahoot. Then, someone told me about Plickers. I use it at almost every course. Usually, I use it to check what my pupils havre retained form the previous course.
It really easy to use and fun. Now my pupils have the habit of taking their “QR/Plickers code” in the beginning of the course. They find it fun! Much funnier than what I did before, that is to inerrogate onmy one pupil in the beginning of the class. Now I can interrogate all of them.
The tool is perfectible. For exemple, it would be great if it could give the result of a student for more than just question. But, hey! it’s a free tool, so I can’t be too demanding!
I LOVE Plickers! They are easy to use – very intuitive!
The spreadsheet data is very useful. Many of our schools do not have devices or sufficient devices for student use. The paper code patterns are an awesome substitute and keep students engaged.
Great application!
Thank you!
This resource is wonderful for teachers that do not have access to multiple devices (for something like Socrative). I already use this process in my classroom to get a quick visual scan of student understanding. This program will only further complement what I’m already doing by allowing me to really track and gauge my students’ understanding of content quickly with my smartphone. The only downside is the setup that is involved, whereas Socrative can really be used “on the fly.” This also can have some user error because it requires training students to hold up their paper correctly and assigning students a number ahead of time.