HOT POTATOES

Hot Potatoes is a downloadable freeware which I came across as part of the module.  I found it easy to use and it enables you to enter questions and answers to create crosswords, multiple choice quiz, short answer quiz, fill in the blanks type exercise, jumbled sentence, matching or ordering.  As Sadeghi & Soleimani (2015) state, the software will allow teachers to be creative by creating web based interactive resources which learners can use.

Will I use it during my teaching?  It is useful as a tool to create quizzes, crosswords etc. to be used as lesson starters or as a form of assessment for learning.  Reece and Walker (2006) state that Hot Potatoes helps with differentiation as it allows for different assessment methods and the learner is physically interactive with the software.

The main requirement is that it does require an internet connection, uploading the quiz file on to the server and use of computers with Java installed.  So, ideally if you are in an ICT lab then it would be suitable, however for the majority of my lesson delivery in accounting this would not be suitable as it is in either lecture theatres or tutorial rooms.  There are other alternatives such as LearnClick but there are subscription costs.

In my volunteering role, I have used the quiz as part of assessment but also as part of a competition between teams of learners.  The learners engaged with it as it was different to a quiz sheet but also helped with teamwork and communication skills.

The application can be downloaded at https://hotpot.uvic.ca/index.php.

References:

https://hotpot.uvic.ca/index.php (Accessed on: 20 October 2015).

https://www.learnclick.com/ (Accessed on: 16 December 2015).

Reece, I. and Walker, S. (2006) Teaching, training and learning: A practical guide 6^th edn. Sunderland: Business Education Publishers.

Sadeghi, N, & Soleimani, H 2015, 'A Description and Evaluation of Hot Potatoes Web-authoring Software in Educational Settings', Theory & Practice In Language Studies, 5, 11, pp. 2407-2415, Education Source, EBSCOhost, viewed 13 January 2016.