Educational Games

    The field of education is constantly expanding with all the technological tools that are available to teachers.  We can create test, quizzes, and polls with a few taps on the keyboard.  Responses from students can be sent straight to the teacher so they can quickly assess student’s knowledge.  However, even though these tools are available, they might not be very helpful or practical.  In one of my classes this past week, we have been investigating many educational tools to determine if we would use them.  There are three main tools I want to share about here: Gimkit, Poll Everywhere, and Quizizz.  

    Gimkit is a great tool for online learning.  As a teacher, you can find question sets called kits on many different topics or you may a create a new kit tailored to what your students are learning.  Within each kit you will have questions in for your students to answer.  You can assign a kit to your class or share a link for the students to compete.  You can expand beyond your individual classroom to other classes and have the different classes compete.  There are 12 different modes of competitions and with each right answer, the student earns a dollar. They can use these digital dollars to buy upgrades in the game.  The teacher can set a dollar amount the student must get to in order to pass the kit.  Gimkit allows the teacher to see what questions the student got wrong so that they can help the child understand.  This platform is very useful as a fun way to assess your students online.  It is very user friendly for both the teacher and the students.  I was able to make a kit in about 10 minutes.  I had my college aged friends play my set and they had so much fun that they forgot it was for my project.  The only downside I can find to this platform is that it can make the children with disabilities stand out more since they tend to score lower in the game.  All the students in the class can see the leader board with their classmates’ names on it.  Students with disabilities already are dealing with feelings of unworthiness and stupidity.  I could see Gimkit making this even worse.  If you would like to create a Gimkit kit yourself, you can make an account at this link.  

    Poll Everywhere is one of my favorite teaching tools.  The teacher can login and create a new activity.  You name the activity and then add different kinds of questions.  The options include multiple choice, question and answer, open ended questions, and many more.  After you are satisfied with your new activity, you can press create and you will get a text number for people to join the poll.  As students join the class, the teacher can put her screen on the board and show the kids their answers.  No names are attached to the answers so kids can feel safe taking a guess.  Once again, I played this educational game with some of my classmates, and we really enjoyed it.  There was no penalty for wrong answers, and we were able to get to know one another better through the open-ended questions that put our responses up as a collage.  This created a great sense of community.  A teacher could even take the collage and have it framed for the classroom.  I honestly do not see any bad sides to this platform, and I hope to use it in my own classroom.  Test it out for yourself by going to this link. 

    Finally, Quizizz is a teacher tool that reminds me of Kahoot and Quizlet.  However, instead the student designing the quiz, the teacher creates it and shares it with the students.  The teacher can choose from a variety of question forms such as multiple choice, true or false, and more.  Once it is done, it can be shared to the class and the game can begin.  The students have a limited amount of time to answer each question and they can watch their names on the leader board.  The platform shows the kids funny memes when they give correct answers.  The teacher is able to see what questions might need to be discussed further in class and what concepts the students understand.  Quizizz seems like a helpful tool for the classroom, but I still am not fond of the idea of the children having their rankings up for all to see.  Additionally, this form is already use by Kahoot.  Why do we need two?  I also like the idea of the students creating the quiz themselves on Quizlet because writing out the answers helps the students remember what they have learned.  To try this platform out for yourself and form your own opinion, you can sign up at this link.   

    Overall, I can definitely see that appeal of these technological education tools.  They are useful for assessing students in a fun way and keeping little minds interested.  However, we have to be honest about the limitations and negative side effects.  Teachers must think about the feelings of their students when we are putting leader boards up.  Students have to be honest about their answers since they can get solutions online.  Even with these drawbacks, many of these platforms are ingenious and can positively impact the classroom.  

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