Clickers in the '60s at a TYC?

TL;DR

This paper explores the historical use of early student response systems, called clickers, at Foothill College in the 1960s, highlighting their role as precursors to modern classroom technology.

Contribution

It uncovers and documents the early implementation of networked student response systems at Foothill College in the 1960s, predating contemporary clicker technology.

Findings

Foothill College used an EDEX system in the 1960s for real-time student feedback.

The system involved multiple-choice buttons networked to an instructor's computer.

This early system served as a precursor to modern classroom clickers.

Abstract

At an AAPT conference years ago, a person noticed my badge, exclaiming "I always wanted to work at Foothill College!" They told me that in the 1960s, Foothill had a lecture hall where students as a class could give immediate feedback to their instructors via buttons at their seats, a forerunner to modern clicker systems. Intrigued, I later did a quick Google search and discovered that Foothill had an EDEX system in a 240-person lecture hall, which featured multiple-choice buttons at each seat that were networked to a computer at the instructor's section. This fact got tucked away, and I didn't think about it again until a recent hiring interview when a candidate from an R1 commented how TYCs were at the forefront of innovations in teaching. I remembered the EDEX system, and it reignited my curiosity.