Online tools #1- Kahoot
Saturday 7 January 2017
Kahoot is a great free online tool for formative assessment or just for a bit of fun at the end of a lesson.
Students could make their own quizes (it's that simple) to use in their own revision.
It doesn't take long to make a quiz and it runs smoothly making for a nice formative assessment activity.
There are 13 million Kahoot quizes freely accessible online so you may even
get lucky searching for public Kahoots.
I find that it is best to try out the quiz before using it with students.
If you click "Duplicate" you can edit the quiz.
The music is lively and participation is easy. Students use computers, cell phones, or tablets to join in the game. You can create flashcards for review. You can also embed videos and images into the questions.
Running the quiz in the lab
It is quite a learning curve the first time you use Kahoot, but once you have used one you will be reassured that it works well. Take a little look; click this link Kahoot quiz on Synapses for IB Bio students
and follow the instructions below.
1. First choose the type of game.
If this is your first time choose "Classic" but if some of the class don't have their own computer or phone "team mode" allows everyone to participate.
The left side of this image is what the whiteboard display will look like, and the phone is what the students see.
2. Enter the Game pin on the phone to preview this quiz.
Students will have to navigate to the website "kahoot.it" and enter the six number pin.
3. Enter a 'nickname' in the box
It's best that you know who is who, and if students enter a "naughty nickname" just click the name to remove it.
4. Click 'Start' on the teacher's screen (left hand side)
The whiteboard display will look like, and the phone becoomes the students' answer pad.
They read the questions and choose the correct answer.
There are points for answering fastest, and obviously zero points for a wrong answer.
Students get instant feedback about their answers.
5. Click 'Next' to move on to each new question.
6. Click 'Get results' to see a summary of the students answers.
At the end of the quiz there is a podium for the students showig the best three scores.
7. Editing or Creating your own Kahoot quiz
This couldn't be simpler. Just click the "pencil" icon to edit the quiz, then the "+" symbol - add question
and you fill in this form. It is also possible to change the thinking time for each question.
Getting more help…
There are plenty of instructions and help sheets available on the site too.