Digibuzzer - A funny connected buzzer that will put some fun in your class

A great alternative to the Kahoot!

What is it?

Digibuzzer is an application powered by La Digitale, which allows the teacher (or trainer) to lead a question/answer activity around a connected buzzer (their students' smartphone or computer), based on the principle of a Questions for a Champion, either in presence or remotely.

When logging into the virtual game room, students (or learners) have the choice of providing a name or alternatively using a nickname. They can also select or upload an avatar for further customization. By the way, Emmanuel Zimmert recommends in passing the use of Digiface for creating an avatar.

Then, the teacher communicates the questions orally and the fastest student (or learner) can propose his or her answer, which the teacher will then validate or reject. For more convenience, the allocation of points and ranking are directly managed in the application.

It should be noted, that the accessibility in administrator mode to the game room is for a period of one week and only on the device and browser used when creating the room.

How does it work?

In the following video from the eduLAB team, the seminal Laurent Di Pasquale shows us all the simplicity of Digibuzzer and explains how to create a virtual game room.

For what purposes?

- Laurent Di Pasquale

In his article "Jai-mis-du-fun-dans-mes-derniers-cours-a-distance/", the humanities teacher at the Wallonia-Brussels Federation and ICTE trainer (EduLab) Laurent Di Pasquale, details some practical advice, with an example of an activity he carried out during a distance learning stint. In particular, he explains how he tried to put some fun in these remote moments with the use of a tool like Digibuzzer, but not only.

My opinion on the potential of Digibuzzer

Digibuzzer is for me an excellent alternative to the inevitable Kahoot! Like all the other tools from La Digitale, it shines by its simplicity of use and by the fact that you don't have to create an account to use it. I also find that it brings an extra dimension in terms of interactivity compared to Kahoot! which already allows you to put a hell of a lot of fun let's be honest.

But it's especially the possibility to validate or refuse an answer to a question live, that gives, in my opinion, a much more important educational potential to this application. While Kahoot! is a speed quiz, Digibuzzer offers us the opportunity to go towards slowed down and deep learning, which allows us to explore the right or wrong answers at our own pace and while having fun.

Gerald TIROT