Games and Engagement: An Exciting Classroom

Recently in my Educational Technology class, we spent a class period creating and playing games with different online resources designed to engage students in a fun and interactive way. The goal of this class assignment was to familiarize ourselves with some different ways in which we can engage our students with technology, all while reinforcing the work that they are doing in class. I found many of these to be very useful and I could see myself using them in my classroom when I become a teacher. Some of the resources we used include the following:

Kahoot: Kahoot offers a new and entertaining way to review subjects in and out of class. The game-show style interface will engage students by tuning into their competitive nature and desire to have bragging rights after winning the game. Kahoot can be played by individual students or in groups, whichever works best for your classroom. Kahoot is very easy to set up and offers teachers the chance to put in pictures, videos, and audio clips into their questions.

Quizizz: Similar to Kahoot, Quizizz is set up similar to a game show and taps into that competitive nature of young students to keep them attentive. Quizizz will show data on how students performed on the game/quiz which can be valuable for teachers looking to measure their students abilities. The downfall of Quizizz, at least in my mind, is that students finish the game at their own pace, leaving time towards the end where some students don't have anything to do.

GooseChase: GooseChase was a hit in our classroom. It was definitely the most fun we had out of any of the games. This fun does come with its potential dangers, however. GooseChase is very much what it sounds like, where students are tasked with finding or doing certain things around the school, and snapping pictures on the app to receive points. You run the risk of your students being a distraction in the hallways if they are noisy, so some ground rules need to be established. If working in groups, at least one student will have to have the app downloaded on their phone, but it is free and shouldn't present too much of a problem. As long as the students are not too wild, this is a wonderful game to improve class chemistry by completing goals together.

Plickers: Plickers is a very unique online game in which students are given a four-sided printed sheet that works as a QR code. Each side of the sheet will work as an answer to the questions. The question is presented on the board, and students will hold up their answer which is read by the teacher/presenter's phone. The phone picks up the answers extremely quickly and puts them up on the board. The one negative to this is that teachers will have to navigate through the classroom for each answer. However, this is a really cool way to review and students will be interested in how the QR code system works.

Quizalize: Similar to Kahoot and Quizizz, Quizalize will challenge students in a game show style interface to review a certain subject. Quizalize offers statistics and graphs to show the students performance which can be used to measure the students progress or readiness for the exam. This can be played on computers or on the students phones and is very easy to operate.

As with any technological resource in the classroom, you run the risk of causing some distractions. However, is it my belief that if the student is having fun and is interested in a new way of learning something, you will be eliminating other distractions that occur in a traditional classroom activity. If used in the right quantity, these resources can help your students become motivated to study and participate in class. With the new generation of students, it's clear that technology is a successful way in reaching them.