More than a number

Technology has made its way into the classroom and its here to stay. The University of Nebraska at Kearney uses technology in several classrooms. The lecture halls have adopted the clicker to make participating a lot easier. The Personal Response System, or the clicker, makes participating easier for the student and the professor. The clicker is very helpful in lecture hall settings, but most of UNK’s classrooms are smaller than 30 students. This makes the technology unnecessary in some forms. Making use of the clicker campus wide is not what UNK should do. UNK believes you are not a number in the classroom, but with a clicker that’s what students become. A number.

When using the clicker, students click in for attendance and to take quizzes throughout class. This may be useful for the professor but what about personal interaction? Professors then know you by your clicker number and not your name. UNK is known for their small classroom numbers and this is what attracts students to attend. The small classroom size gives lots of opportunity for personal interaction. Professors know your name as well as understand your learning style. The clicker takes all that away. Professors still encourage questions and input, but with a clicker in hand most students no longer talk in class. This is not the case for smaller classes on campus. Interaction is key in these classes and usually a requirement. Having a clicker at hand would put the interaction on the back burner and the focus would be on the clicker.

Having total focus on the clicker takes away from what should be learned in class. Technology does fail and the clickers do fail. If your clicker doesn’t register on the board, then you could be out of points for the day. Telling the professor may help but let’s face it; this just takes up class time. Technology will forever slow down classroom time when it fails, think about having 10 clickers fail in class. The clicker then creates an unnecessary frustration and class time is once again lost. Let’s take the clicker out of classrooms that do not need them. Small classrooms are made for discussion and the clicker halts the discussion.

UNK should not make clicker technology campus wide because it will hinder learning in small classrooms. Students come to UNK for the class size and personal interaction. Let’s not take that away from students by adding unnecessary technology. UNK does not want students to be a number in the back of the classroom. Let’s make sure this doesn’t happen by voicing our opinions about the use of clickers on UNK’s campus.

Katie Moss