Partly inspired by alum Nick Schneider's stories of success from the University of Colorado, five LPL faculty members are using "clickers" (classroom response systems) in the classroom for general education courses this year. The clickers contain an RF transmitter, and the faculty member has an RF receiver and associated software so that we can ask a question and instantaneously record responses.

Steve Kortenkamp, Hal Larson, Tami Rogers, Tim Swindle and Roger Yelle are the brave souls using PRS Interwrite clickers this semester. After nearly universal technical problems of various kinds for the first week, all have settled in and are trying various different kinds of questions and grading. Questions range from quizzes over material covered in the last five minutes to replacements for "what do you think would happen if..." queries designed to start class discussion. Scoring ranges from points for attendance to quiz-like scoring to no scoring. Even with only five instructors, the breadth of approaches attempted should lead to an interesting "lessons learned" session after the semester.