Weekly Teaching and Learning Email - Kahoot! for in class edutainment

22nd May 2015

Dear Colleagues,

I hope this email finds you well.  This week is going to focus on an assessment for learning tool that can be used to really help you understand what your students do and don't understand during a lesson and can help inform the next steps.

The tool is called Kahoot!  It is a learning game created on the Kahoot! platform, which consists of multiple choice questions - as a quiz, discussion or survey - in any topic, language or ability. It’s projected at the front of the classroom, & played by the whole class together in real-time (answering on their own personal device).  This creates a great deal of excitement amongst students but more importantly is a fantastic tool for assessment of the learning from the previous part of the lesson. This creates a great deal of excitement amongst students but more importantly is a fantastic tool for assessment of the learning from the previous part of the lesson.

Signing up for an account is free and it genuinely is really quick.  To get started follow the instructions below.

Getting an Account

1. Go to http://getkahoot.com
2. Click Get My Free Account 
3. Complete the information requested and click Create Account

You can review a comprehensive guide from the Kahoot! website below that explains how to Create a Kahoot!, change the settings, play your Kahoot! with students, share your Kahoot!, provides scenarios for using Kahoots! and many other wonderful things.

As with everything there are some drawbacks to consider:

Some students will not have smart devices, so I have my students pair up and also allow students to use my phone.  This encourages conversation about the answers but doesn't give a true reflection of individual learning.

When I first tried it out with Year 9 students they loved it so much they couldn't even recall the questions, never mind the answers.  So it may take a few sessions for the novelty to wear off and the learning to kick in.  

When creating a Kahoot! you are very restricted in the number of characters you can enter for the answers.  Therefore, longer answers are not always possible which unfortunately rules out a lot of CIE MCQs.

It is a lot of fun and there are Public Kahoots! which have been created and shared by other users, so you don't even have to make the quiz.  Have fun and I hope everyone has a great weekend.

Best regards,
Neil