Gimkit for Teachers

This entry is about a technological tool from Doctor Wang's PPT about previous T3PP results. The tool, Gimkit, primarily gathers formative assessment data. Gimkit combines learning with games to provide engaging learning experiences for students. Gimkit is a free tool for teachers, typically secondary, to use within their instruction. Teachers with an account can create virtual classes, assignments, live games, and "kits." 

Once a teacher has created or found a public kit created by a different educator, teachers can play a live game of the kit with their students. Students will enter a code and join the game, where they will answer the questions in the kit. There are many different games teachers can chose between for any kit they desire. Some are inspired by real games students play like "Amoung Us," which is a great way to connect student interest to their learning. During a live game, students earn money when answering a question correctly, and lose money when they answer a question incorrectly.

"Kits" are the collection of terms and questions about instruction content. Kits can be created in different languages and images to create a particular theme. The questions/terms can have pre-recorded audio and images. Questions are in multiple-choice, short answer format, or a combination of both in the kit. Click here to view an example kit that I created. This is a public "kit" and can be played live to provide an orientation of how this tool can be used. After students have completed a live game, teachers can view and share a report of each of the students and questions. The report offers a question overview that allows educators to see which questions were the most and least difficult for students based on the accuracy of student responses. In addition, the report of the live game shows the student overview which offers an accuracy percentage and a specific breakdown of which questions each individual student got correct and missed. This information can be used as formative assessment data for teachers to collect and review.

Teachers can also create classes to help organize assignments and kits they have created and/or assigned for students. Teachers can create assignments for their classes and/or students with due dates that can be clearly seen by students.

Overall, Gimkit is a wonderful tool for educators to use in their classes. It is very easy to use and navigate. The teacher view is simple and easy to navigate, increasing the audience that can implement this tool in their instruction. In addition, this tool is extremely versatile. Given the extent that kits, assignments, questions, and games can be modified and personalized to meet the needs of different students and classes, this tool is versatile in the audience it can reach. In addition, this tool can be used for a versatile set of purposes such as gathering data, assessing knowledge, introducing new content, and gaining student attention and engagement. For example, teachers can use Gimkit in the 5th event of the Seven-Event Framework to check for student understanding. Because of this tool's versatility, ease of use, promotion of student engagement, variety, and many other benefits, I plan to use this tool in my future classes.