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Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Plickers! Technology Awesomeness!

Hi guys!  It's Debbie from over at K is for Kinderrific.   
I'm so excited about today's post and can't wait to share with you some technology awesomeness!!

Last week, the awesome tech person at my school (big shout-out to Mrs. Tibbs!!) introduced us to something called plickers. Yes, Plickers.   

Let me tell you what plickers are.  And what they do.  And how they will change your life. I'm not exaggerating.  #thisissofreakingcool

So have you seen the student response systems?  The ones that use clickers so students can input their answers???  They're awesome cool and students love them.  But they can be expensive.  And they're breakable.  They need batteries and they're sometimes hard to set up and manage.

Plickers are all the opposite.  

Plickers are like clickers. But affordable (free), unbreakable (paper), and simple to use!!

From the Plickers website....here's how it works:

-----Each student gets a unique barcode---a paper clicker!
-----Students answer questions by showing their barcodes to the teacher's smartphone.  
-----The teacher gets a real-time bar graph and the data is stored individually by student.  

Here's what a plicker looks like: 



Literally all you do is log on to their site and print a plicker off for each student.  Plickers are numbered which makes it easy to assign one to each student in your class.  Easy Peasy, right?

There is a Plickers app for iPhone and Droid.  It was very easy to set up.  You create questions in the app and choose the correct answer for each one.  Each question can have up to 4 answer choices A, B, C, or D.  

Notice that there are letters on each side of the Plicker.  After hearing a question, if students want to choose answer A, they hold their plicker up with the letter A on the top.  To choose B, they would hold it up with letter B on top.  


Once students have their answers up, all you have to do is open the app and scan the room.  You do NOT have to go from student to student scanning each individual's plicker.  In fact, it works better if you stand back a bit and scan the whole room at one time. 


It looks as if you are looking through your camera....and as your move your phone across the room, the app reads the student responses.  You can tell when the app has registered each response, because a little icon pops up right above the student's plicker.  So in real time you will be able to see the student's number and his or her answer selection (a, b, c, or d).    This whole process takes about 10 seconds to do!!!

But wait......There's MORE!!

The students' answers are automatically transformed into a real time bar graph or grid.  You can see who has answered and who has answered correctly or incorrectly.  

You can see this info right on your phone!



And also on your computer screen!  


As you can see in the photo above, student number 10 chose answer D, while all the other students chose answer B.  
(You can choose to not show student answers on the screen, so that only you can see who answered incorrectly.)

Is your mind blown????  Do you see all the possibilities this has?


Really!!! How cool is this!?

Students could easily keep their plickers in their desk all the time, and pull them out to review a few skills or even play a quick game!  
You definitely need to head over to the Plickers website and sign up!  It's FREE.  And easy.  And fun.
It'll be fun for you too, I promise!!






38 comments:

  1. This is very interesting. Can you explain a little more about the scanning the room process? I'm wondering how long it takes etc.

    Deb
    Not very fancy

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    1. Hi Deb!
      I updated the post to try to explain it a little better! Basically with the app open, it looks as if you are about to take a picture. You simply hold your phone up and slowly move it across the room......it took me about 10 seconds to do this with a class of 21. Hope that helps!

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  3. I'm excited to try this! Sounds cool:) my 6th graders will love it.

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    1. It really is a fun way to get students involved and participating! I could see this technology being used in all grades K through 12!!

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    1. Yep! You sure can! The app is listed as an "iPhone only" app...but I was able to download it and use it successfully with my iPad. :-)

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  5. This looks so great! Thank you for connecting with the Techie Tuesday Link-up. I cannot wait to share this with classroom teachers!

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    1. It's super cool! I was so impressed with how fast the kiddos picked it up and how fun it was for them!

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  6. I went to there website to download, but it says Android or iOS. Not sure which one to use to download to computer, but I have downloaded the app to my iphone. I guess I'm a more visual person, so not sure what to do? Also I teach 1st grade and wondering how to set up questions and etc. Will it help me with all this once I download it? Can you email me bc not sure how to get the responses from here.
    Thanks for sharing, I love technology. Jackie jmcmanam@w-sioux.k12.ia.us

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    1. Hi Jackie! Absolutely! I'll send you an email right now! :-)

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  7. I can't wait to try this with my class. Thanks for sharing.

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    1. You're so welcome! I hope you'll try it out in your classroom and let us know how it goes!

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  8. This is a great idea! I like how it gets every student involved!

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    1. Thanks Brittany! You should try it out in your classroom....I bet they'll really enjoy it! :-)

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  9. This might be a really stupid question, but do you need to be connected to the internet when you are taking the picture/scan? Or can you download it to the site at a later date? Thanks in advance!

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    1. Hi Margaret, I am correcting my original reply because I was incorrect. You DO need to be connected to the internet in order to use the app. However, I have heard that there is a way to use a webcam to scan student plickers, so that may be an option if you are unable to connect to the internet.

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  10. Hey I am REALLY interested in using these for Staff Development. How do I create the questions?

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  11. Hey I would love to use this for Staff Development. Could you please let me know how to create questions? I've printed off the plickers. denise_holden@gwinnett.k12.ga.us

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    1. Hi Denise! I'll email you right now! Thanks for stopping by!!

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  12. Hello, I just downloaded the app, set up my class, and have the cards ready to go. I can not figure out how to set up the questions. Could you help, please.

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    1. Hi! If you've got your class all set up, just click on the class name. Then at the bottom of the screen you should see a pencil icon, a camera icon and a plus sign. Click on the + sign to add a question. After you click on it, another screen comes up that says "new question" at the top. Simply type your question in, choose the correct answer, and click done. If you'd like to create another question, just click on the plus sign again. Let me know if that helps. If not, I'd be happy to send you some screen shots too! Feel free to email me at kisforkinderrific@gmail.com anytime!

      Debbie :-)

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  13. WoW! I am going to go check it out now! That is really neat!
    Hilary
    Second Grade is Out of This World!

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    1. Hilary it really is a neat idea and can be used with all ages of students!!!

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  14. I know this question was already asked but just to clarify...I do have an ipad...but no wireless service or cell service in my classroom. The app would still work on the ipad without being connected to wireless or cell? Thanks so much...sounds great!!!! Can't wait to try it out!!!!

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    1. Hi! Thanks for asking this. For clarification, I spoke incorrectly on the above reply....You do need to be connected to the internet in order to use the app. At my school I was not connected to our wi-fi, but completely forgot I was using the 3G cellular service on my phone. :-( I have not tried this, but I have heard there is a way to use a webcam to scan student plickers (the same way that an iPad or iPhone is used). That might be an option to look into if you are unable to get internet service in your classroom! :-)

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  15. Thank you for your explanations. However, there is one question I have that hasn't been answered.
    I wrote my first question on the app and chose what letter would be the correct answer but, don't see where you would write out the options for the students to choose from. Am I supposed to write out the quiz on a powerpoint or something and the students choose the answer from that and hold up their answer?

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    1. Hi!
      Yes you would need to have the questions/answers written somewhere where you could either A) read them verbally to students OR B) have them visible to students (Powerpoint, written on board, copied on paper, etc.) When I used it with the second grade class, I had my list of questions and correct answers written out for myself. I presented the questions to them verbally and wrote the answer choices on the board. Hope that helps!

      Debbie :-)
      kisforkinderrific@gmail.com

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  16. Hi! I ran across your post on pinterest and have begun to use Plickers in my classroom. I am in love! I am telling everyone about it and directing them to your blog post because I think they get a better picture of it here than the website itself :)
    One question, though - I am using my iPad with wi-fi to scan the plickers, but I can't get the data to show up in my Plickers account on my computer. Any ideas?

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    1. Hi there! Thanks so much for your kind words!! I'm so glad that you tried and LOVE the plickers!!! It's so fun and easy!!! Hmmmm....I'm trying to think of why the data isn't showing up on your computer account. Did you make sure to choose your class and then click the "TEACH" button? If you are still having trouble, definitely check out the FAQ on the plickers main site: https://plickers.com/faq They also have a way to contact them if you need to! :-)

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  17. I am so glad I came across this post. I am totally trying this out this week! If all goes well, I'll be sharing with everyone at my school. I'm so excited!!!

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  18. This is intriguing to me; I've always wanted to be able to use the clickers but haven't due to many obstacles. I teach elementary music K-5 and have 22 homerooms, thus 500 students (and a lot of transience-each week kids are adding/dropping). Would this create a bigger headache for me to try it than not? In my classroom students don't have desks whereas homeroom students would store their cards inside. I assume I'd have to have 500 cards if I have 500 students. I'm guessing I'd have to store their cards in a filing cabinet of some sort and then distribute them which would eat up my class time. Also thinking this type of assessment system would only work with multiple choice tests instead of other formats. Did I get all excited only to have my hopes dashed due to too many obstacles?

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  19. How fun and exciting! I have downloaded the app, had a play and now waiting for the weekend to be over so I can get the kids in class so I can use it.
    Thanks for sharing, I'm returning the favour... Do you use Class Dojo? It's a behaviour management system and it's an app. More is explained on my post @ http://westmelton-ten.blogspot.co.nz/2013/05/class-dojos.html

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  20. So glad I found this post, I love Plickers and I have been playing with it and sharing it with teachers every chance I get. I demonstrated it with a 4th grade class last week and the students and teachers loved it. She is excited to use it for EOG review next week. We had a couple questions and wondered if you could answer them. Is it possible to export the data from the website or app, so you could review it later? Can you only store one set of questions at a time for each class? Thanks for your great description and explanation, I am going to share this app on my blog and will link back to your site also if you don't mind.

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  21. I really enjoyed reading your post. I actually tried out the Plickers today with my class, and we had so much fun! I've linked this post to mine, because I wanted to credit you for sharing your review of Plickers. Thanks again, it was great!
    Here's the link: http://thestarclass.blogspot.com.au/2014/05/how-to-make-quizzes-more-exciting.html

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  22. Can the plickers be laminated? I just learned about these at the ISTE Conference in Philadelphia and I am so excited to try them with my 1st graders in August.

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    1. The shine of laminating sometimes interferes with the ability to scan them with your phone.

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  23. I love this idea... I have a question as to how to go back out and get to your next question without going completely out of the quiz or assessment. I am not seeing how to do that. Thanks for any and all help. I guess I am missing something. Thanks, Candy

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