This the best blog I’ve read for ages. I love it and love the idea of swift key testing. So quick to work!
If you’ve ever used either Quizdom or the ActivInspire voting paddles, you’ll realise that they’re quite good for assessment and for plenaries. Unfortunately they have a few draw backs. For one, most schools don’t have many sets (the voting paddles are expensive) and the equipment is often bulky. This is really inconvenient when you simply want a ten minute plenary at the end of lesson.
Kahoot! aims to make things a little simpler. For a start, it’s free. That’s always a bonus as a teacher. Secondly, it’s got a nice, simple web interface that makes creating quizzes a breeze. I find the fact that Kahoot! looks lovely, with nice snappy animations also makes pupils more engaged than the comparatively boring/laggy Quizdom animations.
All you need to do is pick your questions and answers and get students to go to http://www.kahoot.it on their mobiles. There they can you use their fancy smartphones (which most kids have) to answer questions and compete. The website also has a fantastic section of public Kahoot!s you can browse and search for. I like the sharing element. I also like the idea of getting students to create their own Kahoot! as a homework exercise.
There are a few things I’m less keen on. I think quizzes often promote a frantic ‘me me’-ness that I think often ignores higher learning in favour of surface level facts. I often make the other answers common misconceptions, but I still find the class frenzied at the idea of completing the quiz and not particularly bothered about the maths.
The other problem is with Kahoot! itself. It’s a lovely website, but lacks a few features (it NEEDS image embedding for answers, so I can show a picture of a circle as a possible answer) and the initial setup can be a bit of a trial. But I’ve enjoyed using it, and I recommend that you at least try it.
It’s interesting how websites are slowly starting to fill a lot of educational need. With Desmos, Kahoot! and the new, revamped, FANTASTIC Class Dojo, I’m really excited to see what else people come up with in the next few years.
PS: Sorry for the lack of updates recently. I am going to try and get more stuff on here soon.
How Much To Fill A Panini Sticker Book
http://codehesive.com/worldcupstickers/
I really love this. Could be an interesting statistical investigation.
This website contains loads of flash presentations on both foundation and higher revision topics.
I used it with my year 11s and they loved it. Presents it as a game and times them in doing questions.
There’s at least 3 lessons in the first 4 paragraphs of this article.
Interesting stats analysis by my new favourite website.
Wilshaw would like to see the government reintroduce external testing at the end of key stage 1 and at key stage 3.
He said: “Talk to any good headteacher and they will tell you it was a mistake to abolish those tests. If we are serious about raising standards and catching up with the best in the world, we need to know how pupils are doing at seven, 11, 14 and 16.”
Next paragraph:
One suggestion was that pupils should be encouraged to read for pleasure more. The report said some schools were distracted by national tests, which do not always assess pupils’ wider reading skills well.
This is a really interesting post, and a great starting point for a debate.
Interesting article on the idea of ‘school reform’ as it’s presented in the press. Well worth reading.