Kahoot

Kahoot has become an instant favourite with my grade 4 class. This is a technological based website that was introduced to me this year, although there is still a lot more for me to explore I could not be happier with it currently.

Essentially there are four types of modes offered: survey, jumble (new), quiz and discussion. At this point in time I have only used the quiz mode.  The immediate draw back with Kahoot however, is that everyone needs a device in order to use it.  The device can be a a smartphone, laptop or desktop. So at the least your school needs a computer lab.

Aside from that drawback, everything else about Kahoot is fantastic from my experience using the quiz mode.  All you need to do  is create a free account and you can begin creating quiz’s or any of the other options. There are tutorials that quickly show you how to set up each one.

Even better the students do not have to sign up. All they have to do for each quiz is a simple log in, which is fairly self-explanatory and create a username that you can identify (ideally their own name, this will be explained why further on).

The first time I did the quiz with my class they instantly fell in love with it demanding more quiz’s, yes even though it was a quiz they were ridiculously excited. Essentially the question would show up on the smart board with the possible answers and then on their computer they had to select one and then wait for the rest of the class to choose their answer. You can set a timer for the questions, I usually put mine at 20 seconds, and anyone who doesn’t answer in time will get the question wrong

What gets the students really excited is that you can make the questions worth points as an added bonus, kind of like “pub trivia”. The faster the question is answered correctly the more points they get out of 1000. After each question it shows the top 5 leaders in points and on the student screen it shows their individual ranking. While the points is not the focus which I remind them they can’t help but get excited to see how they are doing in that regard.

Beyond the simplicity of creating the quiz and the pure excitement the kids have, what sold Kahoot for me is the fact that it saves the data from each quiz. That is why it is important students login in with a recognizable username. You can download the data as an excel file or if you have gmail, into your google drive.

The  data provides you with some key information that I was not expecting and is quiet useful. First of all, it marks each individual score for you.  So if the  quiz is out of 10 you can take those marks and whatever the student received and input them into their grades. It tells you exactly each question students got wrong. This will help you identify a pattern if students as a whole or individually are having particular difficulties.  It even goes as far as tell you how many questions as an entire class answered correctly and incorrectly as a percentage.  There are other bits of data that you can go over as well and might find useful. The tracking of results and doing the marking for you makes Kahoot an extremely valuable resource for any classroom as it saves time and creates valuable and usable data.

As a result Kahoot does two key things here, it saves you an enormous amount of time, and provides you with real working data. If you have the technology available you can create your quizes online with no need to print off anything. In fact, you could create a quiz on the spot in about 3-5 minutes. So if you forgot to create a quiz earlier or the students are begging for a go at Kahoot a quiz takes no time. Another bonus is you can search for specific quizzes that have already been created and shared by other teachers.  Next the raw data that Kahoot provides you with can be used with administration, parents or even the student and it is all saved in your Kahoots profile, which you can download later on any computer, save to google drive or simply print off a hard copy.

Although Kahoot is a non-traditional teaching method, it provides you with a different way to assess your students. This is not to say you should stop giving traditional quizzes, however what I have noticed is Kahoot allows your kids to get up and get a bit noisy after the class finishes each question to release their anxiety and nervous energy. Kahoot should be used as another assessment piece for your students to help provide a more holistic picture of your students overall academic performance. For example kids who appear to struggle with the sit down and be quiet quiz or tests, might show a different result with Kahoot. Of course monitoring student behaviour during this type of quiz is not hard but still needs to be done to ensure the results are honest. You are able to kick out a student from the quiz if they are caught cheating. The best part is this site is entirely free to use. With that being said, Kahoot has really been a breakout resource for me.

LINK: https://kahoot.com

Site Break Down:

PROS:

• free membership
• low prep
• provides raw data
• does the marking for you
• easy to create a quiz
• another form of assessment

CONS:

• relies fully on technology (each student needing an input device)

OVERALL RATINGS:

Membership: 5/5

• currently free

Easy to Navigate: 5/5

• site is well laid out
• menu bar is easy to follow and understand
• do not get lest while clicking through the links

Site usefulness: 5/5

• site can be used for any grade
• mutliple uses not just quizes
• engages the class
• exciting

Prep needed for Materials: 5/5

• just create and go

Active Webpage: 5/5

• always updating and communicating with new events and updates

Overall: 5 / 5