Just Kahoot It!
This week, I explored a variety of tools that can
all be beneficial to me as a librarian now and in the future. In particular, the article, entitled, “An
Exploration and Explanation of Device Agnostic Tools” was filled with many
resources that I can introduce to student in the library. The article also
brought my attention to Device Agnostic tools, its meaning, and great examples
of how to use them in the classroom/library.
“According to PC Magazine (2013), when an
online tool or app is not tied to any particular device, it is considered to be
a device agnostic. In other words, the tool is independent of any machine (Moorefield,
2014)”. In my opinion, all classrooms
and libraries should be required to ONLY use Device Agnostic Tools. There have
been so many times that teachers have approached me with issues with apps that
would work on the students ipads but not their chromebooks or on the desktop.
Other issues we found were that the apps appeared in a different format on
other devices besides the one that it was compatible with. Before reading up on Device Agnostic tools
this week, I never realized that this
could be the reason why. This issue has
become even more challenging being that our students often switch classes for
different subjects throughout the day. Some of those classes have chromebooks
while the others have ipads. Therefore, if there is an assignment that is only available
on the ipads, students will have to bring the ipads to the class. However,
recently, this became an issue being that the ipads were getting damaged due to
students dropping them while in the process of commuting from one class to the
next. Device agnostic tools and sites
give educators and librarians the freedom to use and explore the technology
while not being tethered to certain devices (Moorefield, 2014). Although, there
were many tools that the author spoke about and they are all very helpful, I’d
like to elaborate on one my all-time favorites, the “Kahoot” app.
Kahoot
is another student response system where teachers and librarians can create
quizzes, discussions, surveys (which they call Kahoots) for students to answer
and respond (Moorefield, 2014). This app makes it easy to create, share and play
fun learning games or trivia quizzes in minutes.Prior to becoming the school librarian, I was a
computer lab facilitator for two years. One of my students’ favorite past time was
being able to play a Kahoot in the place of taking a quiz or test with paper
and pencil. I also allowed them to play it for fun during free time. In my opinion
Kahoot is one of the best apps that have ever been invented. It is very easy to use, kid-friendly, and it
benefits both the teacher and the student.
Kahoot does not only allow you to create activities for students, it
allows you to gain access to other Kahoots that have already been published.
For example, on last week, we celebrated Dr. Seuss’s week, I was not able to
create my own Kahoot, so I searched for quizzes on Dr. Seuss for the grade
level of my choice and it came right up. The students ended up enjoying a 10
question Kahoot that was created by another wonderful education. ANother example of integrating Kahoot into the classroom is by creating the weekly math or spelling test questions on a Kahoot instead of using the normal paper and pencil method. Not only will students be more engaged, they would simply be excited about playing Kahoot, when really they're taking a test. One issue that I have noticed teachers running into is students cheating off each other's ipads. Luckily Kahoot has the option to change the answer choices around for students so that they don't all have the same choices for each question. Also, using dividers could mitigate the problem as well. I love the
fact that educators can collaborate on the app and provide resources for each
other. Most importantly, it is absolutely free and students are able to use it
on any device. Another thing that is amazing about Kahoot is that even the
teachers loved playing it! Just recently, I used the app in a professional development
to test the teachers’ knowledge on the topics that were discussed. Some of the teachers
were panicking because they forgot their laptops. Luckily, Kahoot is one of
those apps where you can use it on any device, so I directed them to their cell
phones.
More advantages to using
this app includes, the lovely music that it plays in the background while
students are answering the question. I
usually have the app on the smart board as well and the music coming through my
classroom speakers which makes the app even more fun. It also gives you the
option of add how many seconds the students have before the question needs to
be answered. On last year when I moved
into the library, I was a little disappointed that I would not be able to play
Kahoot with the students as often as I used to. However, after discovering that
the Accelerated Reader Program was no longer active and the students were upset
about it, I decided to replace Kahoot for it. Now I create Kahoot quizzes for popular reads
and I allow the children to come in and take the quizzes once they are done
reading their books. Although, I have added more work on myself, along with the
other many task that I complete daily, it was well worth it. The students are
eager about reading the books and look forward to taking the quizzes and
receiving incentives. The biggest
advantage to using Kahoot is, the layout and design of the app makes it look
like a game based response platform. I have never seen students this excited
about take test and quizzes, however, it is all in the way we present the
information to them. This was a
wonderful reading this week, I have learned so much about Agnostic tools and I
am looking forward to introducing these wonderful apps to my teachers and
students. Everyday technology is changing, and as a librarian it is my job to
learn stay up-to-date on the changes so that I may keep my teachers and
students in the know. I have listed some links below that teachers and
librarians can visit to get more information on how to access Kahoot, signing
up for kahoot, and how to use it.
What is Kahoot?
How to Create a Kahoot
Hosting Kahoot Games
Kahoot. (2018, September 18). What is Kahoot
[Youtube]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XzfWHdDS9Q
Modern Civics Project. (2014, November 14.) 5 minute
guide to kahoot [Youtube]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAfnia7-rMk&t=14sv
Kahoot. (2018, August 22). How to create a Kahoot
[Youtube]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiB3gmSTPog
Kahoot. (2018, August 22). Host Kahoot! Games-a
step-by-step guide[Youtube]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqEqjasf-5g
Moorefield-Lang, H.
(2014). An exploration and explanation of device agnostic tools. Library Media Connection, 33(1), 8-9.
Although I have used Kahoot in professional development classes, I have never made one of my own before. After reading this and seeing the how-to tutorials, I will definitely be trying it out in my library. I feel that students love this student response system as it gets them engaged in the process. Great review and videos!
ReplyDeleteJayme Lively
You presented many inventive ideas about how to implement Kahoot in various settings and with various subjects. I never would have thought to use Kahoot for a math quiz, nor would I have thought to use it as an alternative to Accelerated Reader. I believe I will use Kahoot to engage one of my book clubs more deeply. They are quite the competitive bunch, and I can see that they will be more inclined to stay up to date with our reading if they have a Kahoot to look forward to at our meetings. Thank you!
ReplyDelete