First off, I am going to start with a disclaimer…. I am currently on Paternity Leave so I will have to wait until January 5 to be able to use this new assessment technology with my class.  

With that said, I am going to do a review of Quizziz as a possible assessment tool to incorporate when I am back in the classroom.  I choose this tool because of its similarities to Kahoot in the sense that students would be able to make the transition fairly seamlessly.  When doing research for our presentation last week, one thing that kept coming up when it came to technology integration was that teachers should try to meet the students where they are at.  They should be looking to use tools or programs that students have experience with and are familiar with how they operate.  

What is Quizziz?

Quizizz is a Learning platform that offers multiple tools to make a classroom fun, interactive and engaging.  Quizizz takes the excitement of a gameshow-style review game and puts the whole experience in the students’ hands. With a traditional Kahoot! game, everyone sees the question and possible answers on the projector and answer simultaneously. Quizizz is different because the questions and possible answers are displayed individually on student devices.  As a teacher, you can create lessons, conduct formative assessments, assign homework, and have other interactions with your students (for all grades) in a captivating way. 

Quiziz Features

• Instructor paced Lessons/Quizzes: Teachers control the pace; the whole class goes through each question together.

• Student paced Lessons/Quizzes: Students progress at their own pace and you see a leaderboard and live results for each question or lesson.

• Bring Your Own Device (BYOD): Students always see the content on their own devices, be it  PCs, laptops, tablets, and smartphones.

• Access to millions of Quizzes: Import any public quiz as-is, edit and customize them.

• (Quiz + Lesson) Editor: Choose from 6 different question types to add images, video, and audio to teleporting questions from other quizzes and lessons.

• Reports: Get detailed class-level and student-level insights for every quiz. Share with parents/guardians to monitor student progress.

• Options to Customize: Options to customize your quiz sessions to toggle the level of competition and speed.

• Sharing & Collaboration: Share your quiz with other instructors and/or ask them to be collaborators.

Unique Features

• Memes – you are able to embed funny pictures as  treat for your students 
• Homework Mode – students do not have to complete the game in person.  Teachers can assign to be completed by a deadline.
• Media Add ins – Adding audio, images and math questions.
• Power ups – where students can have advantages throughout the assigned activity.

Alternative Modes  of Play

• Fast and Furious – using it as a teaching tool or  formative assessment  tool to see if reteaching needs to happen for a particular lesson and complete the Quizizz after the content is re-taught.

• Student Created Quizizz – have students submit questions to be asked in a game using Google Forms survey.  You can import the data directly from the spreadsheet and into your Quizizz accounts.

Pros & Cons

Below are some of the pros to incorporating Quizizz into your classroom:

• Answer explainers, 
• Audio/video responses
• Asynchronous assignments
• Good reports for assessment
• Student paced 
• Student progress board for teachers

There are also some cons to Quizizz:

• LMS integrations limited to district plans
•  Challenging to sift through the library to find top-quality content
• Loss of excitement with students working at different paces
• Question isolation for further instruction

This tool has come a long way, adding handy customization options that allow teachers to create learning experiences that exceed other quiz platforms.

Classroom Purposes

This tool can be seen as a swiss army knife or a multi-tool for teachers.  There are numerous ways in which we can utilize Quizizz and other apps just like it in our classrooms.  Teachers are able to use in ways that are not limited to assessment.  Some ways that I plan to use Quizizz for in my classroom: 

• Formative Assessment tool – create quizzes and games to test students knowledge of taught materials.  Teachers can use reports to analyze the performance of students to plan individualized interventions or notice any areas that may need to be retaught.
• Use poll type activities to collect student feedback and engage them in decisions surrounding everyday learning.
• Have students create Quizzes to be shared with the whole class as a way of review or formative assessment.
• Quizzes act as a exit tickets to check understanding 
• As a way to introduce new topics in fun, interactive and engaging ways. 

Challenges to Technology In Classrooms

As with any technology integration into our classrooms there are going to be challenges.  The major challenge that resonates with me is the student to computer/device ratio.  Many of these games’ best use is when each student has their own device.  For that to be accomplished, not using personal student devices, there needs to be a  1:1 ratio which depending on your school and access to tech can be a daunting task to accomplish.  Personally, I am grouped with the other grade 8 teachers to share 2 carts of 20 or so computers.  To ensure that each one of my students has a device that is not their cell phone, I have to book both of these carts as I have 30 students.  This affects other teachers’ ability to use the tech a the same time. 

Another challenge that always seems to come up is the quality of the internet or having the internet not functioning properly when you need it to be.  This requires teachers to redirect on the spot and cna affect the quality of the lesson they may be getting.  Students’ technological savviness can also be a challenge when integrating technology.  Just like learning where every student learns specific ways and at different paces, they also have varying levels of technological abilities.  Even though our students can are known as ‘digital natives’ there are still some that are going to struggle using technology.  To help limit or rectify this problem, teachers need to ensure they are using trial runs with the program that they are asking their students to use.  This helps students be more comfortable and alleviate some user issues that may arise.

I personally like these types of game show apps as a formative assessment tool where I can get a significant amount of data in a relatively quick manner to help guide my teaching practices.  I find it difficult to use this as a way of summative assessment as I feel these  apps  do not lend themselves to assessing topics to a deeper understanding or application level.  Students love them so I think they do hold a value to incorporate in our classrooms, but maybe not as a summative assessment tool.

 

Cheers, 

Bret