Friday, February 13, 2009

New clicker book!


My friend Derek Bruff's new book Teaching with Classroom Response Systems: Creating Active Learning Environments has just been released.

I first met Derek at the inaugural Clicker Conference last fall at the University of Louisville (KY) during the cocktail reception . . . where all the significant learning at any conference occurs, right?

He told me about his book and how its creation evolved . . . how he interviewed some of the best teachers using the best approaches . . . and I couldn't wait to read it! Now that I have it in my hands I can't put it down. I'm still not finished yet, but I've already learned a lot more than I knew before about the "best practices" in using classroom response systems.

Derek sees the goal of clicker use as an increase in student engagement and participation in the course . . . that is, a more active style of learning.

Here's a sample of topics from the book:

  • Engaging Students with Clickers

  • Assessing Students with Clickers

  • A Taxonomy of Clicker Questions

  • Teaching Choices

  • Technical and Logistical Choices

  • Why Use Clickers?



Be sure to check out Derek's blog Teaching with Classroom Response Systems.

I'll have more on my own experience with clickers . . . and what I learned at the Clicker Conference . . . in subsequent posts.