InterWrite chosen as campus 'clicker'
A group of UC Davis instructors and staffers, wrapping up their review of five "personal response systems" or "clickers" for use in classrooms, has recommended the InterWrite system for the 2006-07 academic year. They chose it by consensus.
Buying just one type of clicker for use in various UC Davis classrooms and instructional venues will benefit students, said Jan Dickens, director of Classroom Technology Services (CTS) in Information and Educational Technology. If the recommendation is followed, one clicker should work in all UC Davis classes.
InterWrite, a 10-year-old company based in Londonderry, N.H., will offer a general training session close to the start of fall quarter. The clickers will retail for $44.90 in the campus bookstore, which says it is ready to take orders. The bookstore will buy used clickers at $22.50, significantly mitigating the cost to students who sell the device back to the store after they no longer need it.
Instructors using clickers will need to tell the bookstore both the name and the estimated enrollment of the course where they will use the devices; the bookstore will inform InterWrite, obtaining a receiver for the instructor to use in class. Further ordering questions can be sent to textbooks@ucdavis.edu.
One unit of the system has been purchased for loan for campus-wide use, and can be checked out through the CTS Help Desk in 1440 Surge II, 752-3553. But plans call for every presenter to have his or her own small receiver that plugs directly into a laptop.
The Teaching Resources Center is expected to discuss and help lead pedagogical uses for the clickers once the technology has arrived on campus.
Buying just one type of clicker for use in various UC Davis classrooms and instructional venues will benefit students, said Jan Dickens, director of Classroom Technology Services (CTS) in Information and Educational Technology. If the recommendation is followed, one clicker should work in all UC Davis classes.
InterWrite, a 10-year-old company based in Londonderry, N.H., will offer a general training session close to the start of fall quarter. The clickers will retail for $44.90 in the campus bookstore, which says it is ready to take orders. The bookstore will buy used clickers at $22.50, significantly mitigating the cost to students who sell the device back to the store after they no longer need it.
Instructors using clickers will need to tell the bookstore both the name and the estimated enrollment of the course where they will use the devices; the bookstore will inform InterWrite, obtaining a receiver for the instructor to use in class. Further ordering questions can be sent to textbooks@ucdavis.edu.
One unit of the system has been purchased for loan for campus-wide use, and can be checked out through the CTS Help Desk in 1440 Surge II, 752-3553. But plans call for every presenter to have his or her own small receiver that plugs directly into a laptop.
The Teaching Resources Center is expected to discuss and help lead pedagogical uses for the clickers once the technology has arrived on campus.