Educational technology integration in the classroom improves outcomes by facilitating more communication. Teachers can integrate technology in their daily lessons to encourage student involvement. For example, a “clicker” is an interactive teaching tool to engage students throughout the lesson. The clicker’s interactivity helps students learn in more creative ways.

The hand-held device records student responses during the question/answer phase of the lesson. Because individual answers are not singled-out, student participation is increased. The clicker response system displays aggregated answers on a common screen at the front of the classroom. This means the class members only view how many or what percentage of correct/incorrect answers were chosen rather than who chose incorrectly or correctly.

Each student is assigned a clicker to use during the classroom session. At the end of the class, students are required to turn the clicker back in to the teacher before leaving the room. This helps to prevent theft or loss of clickers when compared to permanently assigning them to students.

The clicker response system displays individual student answers to the teacher. This information helps the teacher determine the level of understanding each child has before moving on to another concept. Measurements are ideally gauged before a lesson and compared to post-lesson responses. Educational technology integration also helps to accommodate students with communication and anxiety related disabilities.

Lesson plans can be adapted to accommodate these previously unidentified learning styles.  Teachers can track data to determine patterns and effective teaching strategies for each group. The clickers and other classroom technology create a more active learning environment to help hold interest and to stimulate the desire to learn.