My Take
Overall, I think that this is a great tool to help students practice skills. I like the fact that students are notified when they get an answer incorrect, since that allows them to see what they should probably go back and review later on. I also like the competitive element where the top scores are displayed, for it keeps students motivated to do well. Lastly, I like the fact that the quicker students answer a question correctly, the more points they get, so this encourages students to stay focused on the Kahoot! and put forth their best effort. Generally speaking, it is a fun addition to the classroom, so it helps students study and learn in a way they enjoy. Most students do not even view it as a "learning tool" but instead a game, so this helps teachers educate their students in a way that is guaranteed to keep their attention. It also ensures the whole class is actively participating. The only critique I have is regarding the time limit placed on the questions. To my knowledge, the longest a question can be displayed is 120 seconds, which is usually plenty long to answer most questions. However, when Kahoot! is used in a math classroom, sometimes problems might require more thought and scratch work that might take some students longer than two minutes to complete. Thus, it would be beneficial to math teachers especially to have longer time options, for then they could still keep all students engaged and make their studying fun, but also allow them to practice those more complex problems that result in more time needed to submit an answer.
How I Use It
I personally am not yet teaching in the classroom, but I saw a teacher utilize this app during a class I was observing. The students were in a middle school math class, and Kahoot! was used to help them practice fraction skills for an upcoming test. The teacher displayed questions such as "What fraction is NOT equivalent to the others?" And "What is the most simplified version of 9/18?", and students would chose their answer from the available options. This application worked great to engage the whole class because it is so fast paced, interactive, and includes a competitive element, since the students with the top scores are displayed on the screen. What did not work so well, at times, was the time constraint students had to answer each question. While the teacher did try to keep this in mind when creating the questions, sometime the students needed more time than was allotted to process the problems and answer options.
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