Mouse Mischief - Creating Mischief in the Classroom
Mouse Mischief is a tool that Microsoft makes available free of charge, and that allows teachers to work with Microsoft Office PowerPoint to make interactive presentations. With Mouse Mischief, teachers can add multiple choice questions to their presentations, and large groups of students can answer the questions using mice connected to the teachers PC.
Mouse Mischief not only gives students the ability to engage, have fun, and learn in new, interactive ways, but it also provides teachers with a more affordable alternative to purchasing expensive student response systems, commonly known as clickers, by letting students use affordable wired or wireless USB mice that their school already own.
How does Mouse Mischief work?
Its simple. After Mouse Mischief is installed, the Mouse Mischief toolbar will appear as part of the PowerPoint ribbon when a new or old PowerPoint presentation is opened. This intuitive Mouse Mischief toolbar lets teachers add interactive elements such as multiple-choice question slides with a single click.
When the teacher opens a Mouse Mischief enabled presentation, students in the classroom can answer each question by clicking it with their uniquely designed mouse cursor. Once the students have selected their answers, the teacher can display the correct answer.
The best part? Mouse Mischief gives teachers the option to have their students answer questions individually or as part of a team, in order to encourage both competition and collaboration in the classroom.
How does the teacher stay in control?
Special teacher controls allow the teacher to disable students mouse cursors, navigate between slides, set timers, and more. With Mouse Mischief the teacher is always in control, whether there are two or 25 cursors on the screen.
Follow the Mischief
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Comments
Anonymous
April 01, 2010
Thanks for Your Web Page copy on this blog :) The real question is WHERE can I download Mouse Mischief? On Microsoft Connect the project seems to be closed.Anonymous
April 01, 2010
Yo ucan get it from http://www.microsoft.com/multipoint/mouse-mischief/Anonymous
April 02, 2010
@pbubacz - this blog is "unofficial" at the moment. Slated for our 4/20 launch of Mouse Mischief. You will see it change dramatically over the next couple of weeks with REAL content, I promise. =) In the meantime, feel free to reach out to me here: http://www.facebook.com/msmultipoint http://twitter.com/msmultipoint Get ready for the mischief, Eric Burgess Community Manager, Mouse MischiefAnonymous
April 02, 2010
@Eric - I'd love to test the project. I write a blog about education tools and Your project seems to be the one of top 10, but I can’t get it. From http://www.microsoft.com/multipoint/mouse-mischief/ I'm redirected to https://connect.microsoft.com/mousemischief, but can't see any file. Last week I got information about closing the beta phase. Hope to see your project growth, Piotr BubaczAnonymous
April 02, 2010
Thanks Piotr! Unfortunely the Beta has closed and the link has been made inactive. What is your blog? You have peaked my interest! EricAnonymous
April 02, 2010
The comment has been removedAnonymous
April 05, 2010
@Piotr - can you email me by chance? I have some questions I'd love to ask you outside of this comment thread. mischief@microsoft.com EricAnonymous
April 30, 2010
I have downloaded and played with it. The program is advertised as a replacement for clickers (student response systems). The difference is that clickers don't show everyone what you're choosing, so you don't get the screen full of little cursor images. Also, kids can see what others are answering, so they won't answer what they think the answer is. They will answer what the smart kid answers. Another limitation is the number. You can only use 15 wireless mice. Most student response systems allow at least 30. I don't know of very many classrooms that only have 15 students, so then you're having to run cables. I would rather see Microsoft develop something for multiple (i.e. 30+) wireless keyboards, because then at least kids could type their answer (multiple choice letter, y or n, t or f, numbers, etc.) and no one would have to see what they chose. I don't see this meeting much of a need.Anonymous
April 30, 2010
Mouse Mischief will be great to use in the classroom! Now teachers and get instant feedback and assessment from the students! Will use it as a tool to see how much students learned. Could use it as a tool for surveys and polls.Anonymous
April 30, 2010
@Jeremy I have not yet downloaded it but am disappointed to hear the limitations you mentioned. I am interested however to see how this could be used with the interactive projectors and pens that are not dependent on specific interactive software or boards.Anonymous
April 30, 2010
This looks awesome. Although I have 36 students, I see it as an ideal application with smaller groups. With all the new RTI concerns, this provides an engaging platform to pull those learners into the lesson. By using it with the targeted groups, you eliminate the "smart kid" only response. It could also be used in cooperative learning groups or as a partner activity. I think it looks really exciting and I have already alerted some of my most "savvy" colleagues, and my principal, with the news.Anonymous
May 03, 2010
I would LOVE to have this in some of my classrooms!! What an easy way for our students to interact with the teacher. A great thing about it is that students and teachers are already comfortable with powerpoint, so having this tool, would be easy!!! I would love to check it out and see how well it works with my students. The more I love it, the more I would want to purhase more mice !!Anonymous
May 05, 2010
This looks AMAZING! Freebie Man - please pick me! Some of my students have started falling asleep in class. Help me create a more interactive classroom. I also love the idea that I can get real time data from the class. I always struggle to know if they are really getting it. Thanks Freebie Man! You are awesome!Anonymous
May 06, 2010
This is great. Students can be so engaged in the class. I have taught elementary students for 33 years and somtimes find teachers as well as students can fall "asleep" in class. This is so exciting everyone may stay awake. There is a series of story about a mouse called, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. So.....If You Give a Child a Mouse .....then he has the world.Anonymous
May 07, 2010
I would love to have this technology available in my classroom. My 4th graders would be able to show me immediately which concepts they do and do not understand. And what a great way to keep them engaged. Now they'd be talking about my subject matter and not what game they want to play on Nintendo when they get home!Anonymous
May 11, 2010
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May 14, 2010
I'm excited to try this in my classroom--I teach English and it would be a quick and easy way to teach grammar, writing skills, vocabulary....Anonymous
May 27, 2010
What a cool idea!!! I can really see this technology being used in schools that do not have much technology funding. Although I do not like the fact that the students can see each other’s answers; therefore, making the data skewed and unreliable in terms of analyzing whole group understanding of a lesson. Microsoft please fix this design flaw.Anonymous
June 15, 2010
Can you tell exactly who has the right answers, or just the percent of students who got the right answer?Anonymous
June 18, 2010
Hi Jackie, At this time it only shows you the percentage. -Eric Burgess, Community ManagerAnonymous
January 20, 2011
I also have Smart Response installed as an add-in for ppt, and I am unable to use any of the Mouse Mischief options. The entire ribbons is greyed out. Now when I launch Smart Response, the entire program crashes and I have to force it to shut down. Yuck!