Three Awesome Alternatives to Kahoot!
Do you remember the feeling of walking into a classroom when you were a kid, but instead of seeing your teacher’s smiling face, there was a tv cart and a substitute? I truly feel that when students hear that Kahoot! theme song that same feeling of euphoria hits their blood stream. The class gets a little bit louder, the engagement builds, and by the end of the game, you have 100% of your students’ attention.
We have always loved using Kahoot! to help gamify our curriculum for our students, especially at the end of a unit to help support the review of the content we have taught. We also love using Kahoot! as a way for students to review the content for up and coming history tests.
This year we branched out and tried some different websites to gamify our curriculum. If you have been stuck in a Kahoot rut, fear not, dear teacher friends. We have a list of other delightful websites to try.
Blooket
First up is Blooket. Blooket has easily become one of our favorite websites to review content in our classrooms. Blooket is a web-based game platform that allows for solo or group competition. The great thing about Blooket is that there are multiple game modes that a class can choose from. What makes Blooket unique from other sites we have used with students is that the same set of questions can be used to play a variety of game styles. For instance, the teacher can host a Gold Quest, a Battle Royale, or a Classic game (think Kahoot) along with 5 other choices.
My students love Battle Royale, where students are randomly put into teams and they compete in a head-to-head challenge against another group of students. Another class favorite is Gold Quest. This game includes a little bit of speed and luck. Students will see each question from the set on their device to answer. The questions are self paced. If they answer correctly, they will be given a choice of three chests to open. Some have gold, some have nothing, and some allow you to take gold from other players. The winner can be set to who has the most gold at the end of a time limit or an amount of gold a player collects.
Gimkit
Another great website for content review is Gimkit. Gimkit is a classroom game-show platform where students compete by answering questions on their electronic devices. Instead of earning points, students earn virtual currency, which they can "invest" during the game to boost their score. Gimkit has a basic subscription which is free and a pro subscription which is $59.88 a year. The free plan offers unlimited access to the currently featured modes (Usually there are four offered, and they change). Gimkit Pro, the paid subscription plan, offers unlimited access to every mode, no matter what. Gimkit is highly engaging, much like Blooket. The only drawback is that students usually have a favorite play mode, and if it is not one of the featured game modes, then they are a bit bummed.
Quizizz
Our last option for gamifying your curriculum is Quizizz. Quizizz is a gamified student engagement platform that offers multiple features to make a classroom fun, interactive and engaging. As a teacher, you can conduct formative assessments, assign homework, and have other interactions with your students. This is our least favorite platforms of the three. The game play is pretty similar to Kahoot, and we felt Kahoot was easier to navigate. If you are looking for a platform for review that allows you to assign homework or create more student paced learning, you may really enjoy Quizizz.