Clickers in the Community

I use Google Alerts to keep up with news about clickers.  A lot of the news involves system adoptions by K-12 schools, some of the news is about clicker use at the undergraduate level, and every now and then there’s an article about clicker use in other settings.  Here are a few recent examples of non-classroom uses of clickers.

Community Meetings

Clickers were recently used to help generate a “community vision” for the Aspen, Colorado, area during town hall meetings.  They were also used during “core beliefs” community meetings back in 2006:

When the clickers were used for these “Core Beliefs” sessions, it was typical to hear a buzz in the room as people reacted to the results on the big screen. It’s truly a collective community experience.

In a similar way, clickers were used to gather community input on plans for school facilities in Brookline, Massachusetts.

Asked about the format, Dodds Cromwell, one of the MGT consultants, said, “It’s hard to have a large town meeting without a small number of people monopolizing the conversation.” The clicker system “helps people understand that a large number of people care but may have differing priorities,” he said.

Mock Trials

In October Northern Kentucky University hosted an interactive mock trial exploring the arguments over teaching evolution in public schools.  The interactive element was provided by clickers distributed to the audience members, allowing them to voice their opinions and decide the case.

Update (2/21/09): Clickers were also used a recent meeting of Minnesota wheat farmers.  Also, here’s a report from the Aspen meeting I mentioned above.