CUE (Computer Using Educators) recently held their annual conference. Several VUSD teachers attended the event. Monica Buescher, from Buckingham High School, attended and was inspired, motivated and excited to incorporate what she learned into her classroom. In this issue of the Digital Cafe, Monica is sharing what she learned in one of her sessions.
Kahoot is a highly-customizable website where you can make quizzes to review any topic with your class. It requires a smartphone, tablet, or computer with an internet connection for each student. Students don’t need accounts -- they just log into the website, put the game code and their name in, and are ready to go! Their devices work as personal “clickers” to answer multiple-choice questions posted on the screen. There’s a time limit for each question, and students receive points for answering quickly and accurately. Overall, it’s a fast-paced, engaging, colorful, and musical way to make the learning fun.
Kahoot is a wonderfully versatile tool for students of all ages and grades. At first glance, it seems to target elementary school students, yet high schoolers find it just as exciting and engaging. It’s great for formative assessments in the shapes of quick, fun reviews. Not only that, but it adds an edge of competition by ranking students by how quickly they answer correctly, which makes it more of a game than a tedious review session.
Teachers can create their own quizzes for highly specific and customized content, or they can search through the thousands of public Kahoots to find one to suit their needs. They can include pictures or videos specific to each question, can have multiple correct answers, and provide constant feedback on every single question. Teachers and students instantly see the correct answer as well as how many people chose each answer choice, which can allow for immediate re-teaching if needed. For the data nerds out there, at the end of each session, a spreadsheet of results is available to download; it contains a list of each student participant, his or her answers to each question, and color-coded questions and answers to easily identify struggling students or particularly challenging questions.
Kahoots can also be used as “brain breaks” -- there are some “Most Played” public quizzes that are full of fun trivia, including pop culture knowledge, Disney character identification, logo identification, and other random topics. So, whether used for learning or laughter, Kahoot is a versatile, engaging tool worth adding to any teacher’s arsenal.
