“Clickers”
I was surprised at the speed with which document cameras took off in classrooms over the last few years. One of the next quickly-adopted technologies seems to be Classroom Response Systems (CRS), or “clickers” as they are often called. The online GlobeandMail has an A.P. article that looks at their use in colleges. They are quite widespread in higher ed, but starting to quickly make the jump to K-12 classrooms with the increasing availability of computer projectors.
The biggest impact (at least when they’re used correctly) is the ability to for the teacher to keep track of the understanding of the whole classroom. In a typical situation, the teacher can ask a question but can only get the response from one or two students. With a CRS, the students all respond to the multiple-choice problem. Not only does that give a holistic view for the teacher, it prevents students from being able to coast along without participating. It does, as the article title says, change classroom dynamics. IF they’re used correctly!