Clicker 6 Evaluation
Clicker 6 is a software program which facilitates student independence and provides tools that support all students with or without disabilities. It offers supports for reading, writing and building knowledge. It also provides ample resources for teachers and parents to access that offer ready-made learning activities which are engaging and support students who may otherwise struggle with basic reading and writing skills. It can be tailor made for a specific student or used as a whole class learning activity. It offers a range of engaging activities that allow teachers the flexibility and opportunity to be creative or use one of the many activities available.
There are many positives to the program the most obvious being it's ease of use. It is simple to navigate and easy to adapt to whatever curriculum you are using. One of the features I like the most is the ability to upload your own images and documents to add to whatever resource you are creating. I also like the fact that you can tailor the learning experience to an individual's distinct needs and interests. There are many supports available to tailor the experience to a student's specific needs. One example is if they have difficulty with typing on a keyboard there are options for a screen keyboard. Other options include, text to speech, changing the look of the font, page, etc. For writing activities there are options for word banks, pictures, sentence builders, word predictors, etc. There are an abundance of tools to individualize the experience to promote student independence and success. One of the best parts of the program is the ability to create resources for an individual and save it so they may access it later. This promotes that feeling of independence and increases their level of engagement. This does not mean the program can't be used in front of the class. Teachers can use the program on a Smartboard where all students have the opportunity to interact with the software and demonstrate their learning while the whole class benefits from the experience. As a teacher I recognize Clicker 6 as a software program that would be beneficial to a classroom that supports the UDL framework. It is one that offers tools that make the teacher's job much easier at facilitating independence among students. The ability to create Clicker Sets and access them later allows the teacher to create and store their own individualized educational resources. The other option which I love is the ability to upload ready-made resources, which as all teachers know can be extremely helpful when time is a factor. The only downside to this software is the fact that it is expensive and usually funded on a case per case basis. As I understand, most teachers can only access it if an individual student is funded for a single license. This makes it difficult to access for students who do not fit the funding category. Unfortunately, Clicker 6 seems to be another example of a fantastic resource that is not easy to access due to funding constraints.
There are many positives to the program the most obvious being it's ease of use. It is simple to navigate and easy to adapt to whatever curriculum you are using. One of the features I like the most is the ability to upload your own images and documents to add to whatever resource you are creating. I also like the fact that you can tailor the learning experience to an individual's distinct needs and interests. There are many supports available to tailor the experience to a student's specific needs. One example is if they have difficulty with typing on a keyboard there are options for a screen keyboard. Other options include, text to speech, changing the look of the font, page, etc. For writing activities there are options for word banks, pictures, sentence builders, word predictors, etc. There are an abundance of tools to individualize the experience to promote student independence and success. One of the best parts of the program is the ability to create resources for an individual and save it so they may access it later. This promotes that feeling of independence and increases their level of engagement. This does not mean the program can't be used in front of the class. Teachers can use the program on a Smartboard where all students have the opportunity to interact with the software and demonstrate their learning while the whole class benefits from the experience. As a teacher I recognize Clicker 6 as a software program that would be beneficial to a classroom that supports the UDL framework. It is one that offers tools that make the teacher's job much easier at facilitating independence among students. The ability to create Clicker Sets and access them later allows the teacher to create and store their own individualized educational resources. The other option which I love is the ability to upload ready-made resources, which as all teachers know can be extremely helpful when time is a factor. The only downside to this software is the fact that it is expensive and usually funded on a case per case basis. As I understand, most teachers can only access it if an individual student is funded for a single license. This makes it difficult to access for students who do not fit the funding category. Unfortunately, Clicker 6 seems to be another example of a fantastic resource that is not easy to access due to funding constraints.