Category Archives: 5 min read

Plickers – Clickers Simplified

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Plickers is a Student response system which only requires one electronic device.

Plickers is fun, easy to use, and best of all free (60p printing costs).
Plickers requires No Electronic Devices in students’ hands – no laptops, tablets, remotes, or smartphones.
Therefore, no batteries to lose or replace, no expensive equipment to buy, no Bring Your Own Device, and no one is left out.

How it works:

  1. Each student gets a A5 piece of paper with a unique barcode shape on it – the paper clicker.
  2. The teacher asks a question and provides A,B,C,D answer options
  3. Students answer questions by showing their barcodes (paper rotated to signify different answers) to the teacher’s smartphone.
  4. The teacher gets a real-time bar graph of the answers and how many were correct in the group.

This serves as a great starter or plenary activity with students.

To get pluckers for your classroom, go to: https://www.plickers.com

Paper response sheets: https://www.plickers.com/PlickersCards_2up.pdf

For instructions on how to use (10 min video) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zwz7x0yySsY

Lernstift Pen

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CNN reports;

Lernstift (German for “learning pen”) is a digital pen with a difference, carrying not only ink inside its casing but also a tiny computer that alerts users to spelling errors. A pen which vibrates when it detects its user making a mistake is being tested in schools. The Lernstift does not require ink or special paper to work and uses an internal gyroscope to work out what is being written.

lernstift_tech2[1]Check out how it works here

The AAA battery-powered Linux computer includes a vibration module and a patent pending non-optical motion sensor which recognizes specific movements and shapes of letters and words. Lernstift recognizes all writing movements, the company says, written on paper or in the air and built-in Wi-Fi allows scribblers to connect with smartphones, computers or other pens in a network.

A Kickstarter campaign recently got underway looking to raise £120,000 ($180,000). The first pens will initially recognize only English and German spellings, but other languages will follow, says its co founded Daniel Kaesmacher. Eventually, the company plan to offer pencil, fountain and ballpoint pen options with a launch price between €120-150 ($160-200) falling to under €50 ($60) depending on how fast the company grows.

iTunes U

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March 5th report by BBC News education correspondent Sean Coughlan …

The exam revision season is approaching. It’s when students want as much information as possible at their fingertips.

So how about if you could touch a screen and download all the lesson materials you need?

Not just broadly relevant, generic materials, but the actual classes you’ve studied, video and text, put together specifically by your own teachers.

These are the equivalent of digital textbooks supporting lessons for each subject, including the days missed or forgotten. Continue reading →