I found a very cool way to engage students that is low to no cost. Some of you may have come upon Mouse Mischief by Microsoft already. For those of you who haven't, here's the scoop (or is it cheese?).
If you have Office 2007 or 2010, Microsoft has a free download that adds Mouse Mischief to your Powerpoint program. It allows you to add pages to your presentation where students with an attached mouse (wired or wireless) can respond on the screen by choosing an answer or using the drawing function. Windows XP can support about 5 mice with a hub attached to the teacher computer. Windows Vista or 7 can support up to 25 mice with a hub. Then viewing could happen at a student computer station on regular monitor, or with a projector with or without interactive whiteboard, or on large screen tv. If you have an IWB, it will not interact with this program, but will of course, allow viewing. Program shows the correct answer and also gives immediate feedback on how many chose correct and incorrect answers.
The download only takes 2-3 minutes. I happened to have 2 mice hanging around to use and I'm planning on purchasing a couple more for next year. I gave this a try out with a couple sample lessons with higher and lower level students. Participant feedback was good. Check out the demo video and the sample lessons. Program is easy to utilize. I see great potential for creativity!
Hi Jolene! Thanks for the blog post and Mouse Mischief plug! If you have any questions about it, please let me know.
ReplyDeleteWe also have a widget that you can put on your blog if you are open to it. Here's the link for that: http://www.widgetbox.com/widget/mouse-mischief
Best,
Eric B.
Community Manager, Mouse Mischief
http://blogs.msdn.com/mousemischief