…in my Spare Time, I write Software. 17 August, 2008
Posted by paralleldivergence in children, education, games, ICT in Education, Internet, TV Shows.Tags: educational, gameshow, jeopardy, windows
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That’s what I’ve been doing lately instead of writing more articles here at Parallel Divergence. So I thought I’d share with you my latest hobby project. It’s called Stu’s Double Jeopardy! version 3.1 – and as usual, it’s completely free for anyone who wants it.
For a free product, it’s actually quite impressive and it’s already been downloaded over 27,000 times. So what is it?
Stu’s Double Jeopardy (for Windows) borrows from the lasting legacy of the popular TV gameshow, Jeopardy! to make an exciting, interactive and educational computer-based gameshow available to everybody. It can be used in so many different situations – in schools and colleges, at conferences, trivia nights and parties. But the main use is expected to be in classrooms.
As Interactive Whiteboards (IWBs) and data projectors become more widely used in schools, there is a need for motivating, interactive and educational software to complement them. Many of the IWB titles available involve working with one student while everybody else looks on. That’s where Stu’s Double Jeopardy is different. Firstly it’s all about teamwork – Jeopardy can be played by up to 6 teams!
So, once you’ve split your class up into the desired number of teams, it’s time to select a Jeopardy Quiz to play. This is where real interactivity starts and why my Jeopardy website is so important. With Stu’s Double Jeopardy, you can quickly and very easily create your own quiz files. Now I’m hoping that everybody that creates a Jeopardy quiz file will be happy to share it – making the site grow into a huge repository of Jeopardy quizzes covering every subject under the Sun and beyond. There’s already a good range of quizzes available for download, provided by people from all over the world.
You keep score automatically by pressing [tick] or [cross] against each team as they answer the questions. Play on through the board to reveal hidden “Daily Doubles” where the team in control can wager any or all of their score on the outcome of the next question. Then it’s through to the showdown – Final Jeopardy. Everything you know and love about the TV show, Jeopardy! is in Stu’s Double Jeopardy! But then there’s the real power of this program – The Question Editor.
With the Question Editor, Teachers can create question files. Students can create question files. One class can create a question file for another class to use. Build question files that cover every Key Learning Area and topic. Make the creation of question files a whole class activity! Every student can contribute questions individually, or groups can contribute a whole category of questions. Use the games for topic review. Use the games as a reward. Share your question files via the Stu’s Double Jeopardy website. Download shared question files from the Jeopardy website. It’s a great group activity that can be used over and over throughout each year.
To better explain the program before you go and grab your free copy, I’ve put together a short video to explain it a little better.
Alternatively, if you’d prefer to see a full-screen high definition version of the video in your browser, click here.
Do you think this would work well in a classrom?
Parallel Divergence 
Stu, that’s a remarkable piece of software. I’ve just downloaded it and am playing with it right now. It’s absolutely gorgeous. I can see lots of uses for this with my students – particularly in the area of revision of work. I can see me using this at the end of each topic as a fun activity to go over everyhting we’ve covered.
I aslo see a huge benefit with the students actually creating the quizzes! With 30 students in my class, I could split them into six groups and have them work on one category each. The colloborative aspect of this program is excellent.
I’ll make sure we send through the games we put together. Will let you know how it goes!
Thanks for this great program.
Excellent program! I’m definitely going to use this with my students. I can see so many uses for it. Thanks very much for the freebie 🙂
Thanks for this great program. I passed it onto a friend who was preparing her team of ESL students to enter the TV competition, It’s Academic. My friend used it to cover and revise a number of categories with the whole class and the students worked at home to create their own questions using the software. They found the software a lot of fun to use and I’m very happy to say that their team won the heat and are through to the semi-finals.
@Geoff B – Looking forward to getting some of the quizzes your class makes.
@Jennifer Tilby – You’re very welcome.
@Judy Martin – I didn’t foresee students using my simulated TV quiz show to practise for a real TV quiz show! Hope they get all the way to the final.
This is a very valuable and fun tool, thank-you so very much for sharing it freely!