Microsoft has come out with a program to rival Turning Points (more to come on TP in another post). I was a big fan of Turning Points, but I think Microsoft might have a winner here-it's called Mouse Mischief and it's a free download that works with PowerPoint 2007. It actually works pretty similarly to Turning Points, but there are two major differences that I think makes Mouse Mischief the winner.
Basically the whole point of these two systems is to find a way to have students interact with your computer. Turning Points does it with a remote of some sort (this is what I have):
So you can have students answer questions, take polls and quizzes. It's pretty handy.
Where Mouse Mischief wins, is that you don't need expensive Turning Points remotes for the system to work, all you need is a wireless mouse. The second thing that leads me to believe I would rather Mouse Mischief over Turning Points is that kids can move the mouse like they normally would. With Turning Points, all they can do is press a button, whereas Mouse Mischief lets them circle things, draw lines and manipulate their icon like you would on a computer.
There is a promotional video that does a pretty good job of selling it (imagine that!) and gives you instructions on how to use it. I put some images below, as well.
I am a fan and plan to try this out in my class and work on it's use in my school. Download it (it's free), try it and let me know what you think!
This is the tab that adds itself to PowerPoint:
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