Gimkit: You and Your Students Will Love It

       Does your class love Kahoot?  Now is the time to learn about Gimkit!  Gimkit was definitely a new favorite last year, but I found there was a learning curve to figure out how I liked to use Gimkit.  Here are some of the reasons why I really love Gimkit.

       First let's just start with a description of Gimkit.  Gimkit is similar to Kahoot, but kids can use the points they earn to buy "powerups"...which they absolutely LOVE!!!  There are some other important differences that you should know between Gimkit and Kahoot.

• One important difference to mention is that if you're going to use Gimkit very much, you will have to pay for a subscription.  I think it is about $50, and I thought it was well worth the price, but you're limited to creating just a few games before you have to pay.
• Another big difference between Gimkit and Kahoot is that Gimkit is self-paced for students.  Each student sees the questions on their own screen, and goes through them at their own speed, unlike a Kahoot.  
• Another difference between Gimkit and Kahoot is that with Gimkit students may see the same questions multiple times.  
• Gimkit gives you several options for how to run the games. First, you can choose between individual and team mode.  In addition, you can run a game as Time, Race or All In.  Time lets you set the length of time you want to play the game.  Race means that students race until a student reaches the set dollar amount.  All In means that the game runs until the class reaches a total amount of money.  In all modes, you can customize the time or money amounts based on your needs.  Personally, I prefer to play for a set amount of time, and I'll tell you more about how I do that later!

• Another difference between Gimkit and Kahoot is that Gimkit allows for open-ended questions, as well as multiple choice.  I  LOVE having the ability to go beyond multiple choice.  If you're going to use this feature, make sure to be very specific with students about how to enter answers (for example, are you rounding to a certain place value, do they need to label, etc...).  
• You can import decks from Quizlet to use as your Gimkit. (Note: It randomly mixes up all the answer choices for each question, so I didn't find this to be the greatest option for math questions.  Often the distractors were not really reasonable.)
• With a Gimkit, you cannot see how your class is doing on individual questions until the game is over.  This really bothered me until I figured out how to use Gimkit effectively (again, I'll tell you more about that later).

Because there are some major differences between Gimkit and Kahoot, I found I really needed to be thoughtful about when I was using them.  For me, I could not use Gimkit and Kahoot the same way.  I found that if I was early in the process of teaching something, I prefer Kahoot so I could instantly see how my students were doing on questions and teach as needed. For my class, Gimkit was a better fit when we were further along in our learning and ready for more independent practice.

Now the absolute best reason to use Gimki....the kids LOVE it! As kids answer questions correctly, they can purchase Upgrades, Powerups, and Themes.  Upgrades allow students to get more money per question, a streak bonus, a multiplier or insurance (so they don't lose too much for wrong answers).  Powerups change from time to time, but they allow students to team up, reuse powerups, and lots of other things (note:  some of them are things like freezing other players, but you can turn these off if you want).  Finally, students can purchase themes to change the colors of their dashboard.

Give Gimkit a try and see if your kids are as obsessed as mine are, or read here about some other online game options besides Gimkit. Leave a comment telling me how Gimkit works for you!