PART D - Findings and Implications

The focus of my wicked project was to find new ways to enhance presentations and lessons, while encouraging student engagement. I purposed that clickers were the tool that would help me accomplish this.

Implementing my project required me to think out of the box. It's been a challenge considering I am not in a traditional school setting (K-12). I am currently working outside of the classroom as an Assistant Hall Director for the Department of Residence Life at Michigan State. One of the many roles I fill as an AHD is to create staff trainings. These trainings have allowed me to implement my project. My staff trainings are very developmental and engagement is always a major focus. So, trying out clickers in this setting seemed right.

I had the opportunity to test out my project twice. This was a great opportunity because I was able to make changes based on my first experience. My first implementation took place on February 12. I was presenting to my staff about conflict resolution. Overall, the presentation went well. I asked students to complete a short survey at the end to gather feedback. Students shared that they liked the new activity and that they liked being able to keep their "hands busy." However, there were two clear areas of improvement:

1. Have less clicker questions - student feedback shared that they, "felt like I always had to be ready. No down time.”

2. Offer a wider range of questions.

With this information, I was excited to give this one more shot. On February 19, we had another staff meeting. This time I presented on an idea called Getting Things Done (GTD). I was excited to bring clickers into this presentation because a big portion of the presentation involves students working alone. I thought this would provide me the chance to use clickers to check in with students. Through student feedback, I learned that my changes helped and were appreciated by my staff. One student said that they liked "the variety of questions." Using the clickers to check in with groups was also a great help in managing the class. For example, I would ask, "how much time do you still need." Instead of me stopping everyone, they just hit the correct time and I adjusted from there.

I was very happy with the results of this project. I gained valuable feedback from my staff that allowed me to take a critical look at my project. Without their feedback, many of the changes I made would not have been possible.

Without the help of my department, I do not know what my project would have looked like. While I was able to borrow enough clickers for my staff, I know that this is unrealistic for everyone. I find myself wondering if clickers would still be effective if students had to share? In a higher education setting, most likely yes. However, I am not sure if sharing clickers would be effective in a K-12 setting. I would love to have the opportunity to try this out on a group of K-12 students to see their reactions.

If I were to implement this project again, I would like to be in a K - 12 setting. Even though I was able to get great results from my staff, I know that a classroom setting would be very different. I would like to see how younger students would react to using clickers. Would they be a major distraction or, would they enhance learning? This is a question I can not answer without testing out. However, I do feel that with proper planning, clickers can be in a K-12 setting.

What I learned from this is that clickers certainly have a role in the classroom. However, clicker implementation needs to be thought out and implemented with a goal in mind. It is not enough to simply use clickers for the fun of it; there needs to be a purpose and a goal. My goal was to increase student engagement and interaction, and my goal was met.