Lets Kahoot It :)

Lets Kahoot It :)
Date: 22nd June 2022

This is another interesting blog post on a very interesting edtech tool online known as Kahoot. Kahoot is an online game based learning platform used as education technology in schools. Teachers can create interactive quizzes about a variety of topics and share with students who can complete them at their own time and space using any device available at home or at school.

 

You can create your own Kahoots consisting of different questions. These can be true/false, MCQs, Puzzle, brainstorming ideas about a topic and so on. It hardly takes minutes to create a new Kahoot. You can host za Kahoot live in class or share link and game pin with the students. Every Kahoot has scores assigned, so students get points on Kahoots. The students log in to a different device and play the game, while the teacher can see responses on her own device. You can assign Kahoots to students, you can share them in Microsoft Teams. 

Kahoot lets you create quizzes in minutes, you can add different themes to your Kahoot, you can add images with questions, duplicate and edit Kahoot as and when needed, use already built in Kahoot, select from a library of hundreds of Kahoot, combine multiple Kahoots, insert YouTube videos into questions. The best part you can combine different types of questions in a one single quiz, for example your Kahoot can have quiz, poll, true and false, puzzle type, word cloud, open ended question.  These Kahoots can be played individually in classic mode or with other team members in team mode. Some features are freely available in the classic mode while others cost.

 

You can create Kahoot in collaboration with your fellow teachers, organize Kahoot into folders according to subjects, topics, areas, collaborate with other teachers in the group. Share student challenges to Google Classroom, Microsoft Teams etc. There are video tutorials available on the page where you can check on how to create interactive content using Kahoot for your students. 

You can also get a Kahoot access pass costing 3$ a month which gives you access to ready made content Kahoot with no advertisements on the site, You can make as many Kahoots you want to, on a range of topics. You can click on the discover tab to see the range of content available in Kahoot. You can also join Kahoot Academy, which is a place for global collaboration and sharing your work with a wider community of educators. You can become a verified content creator for Kahoot. The interesting part is you will see content created by your favorite content creators these include Disney, National Geographic, Minecraft, StarWars, Microsoft etc. 

What I really like about the tool is the ease of use, the interface is simple and quiet interactive. It does not have complicated functions, or tools that needs exploration. Even the interface has light tone colors that are soothing to the eyes. You can click log in and create an account in minutes. Just the way you create your account, you can quickly create your first Kahoot. You can preview and play it yourself to see the outcome. You can edit the Kahoot as and when you want. Also its pretty easy to share and play. You just need the game pin and the Kahoot link. 

 

Another interesting feature is that the Kahoot is platform independent, users can play on any device laptops, tablets, mobiles etc. I guess because of the mobiles it has reached a much wider audience that crosses over a million that have played various Kahoots. Also the fact you could easily assign it to your students on different platforms. Another interesting feature is the fact that you get a visual response immediately. An your students can play the game on Kahoot any number of times they want, provided you have not set a timer.

 

Recently I created a Kahoot based on Questioning for a group of teachers. The questions were based on a piece of text about questioning skills and the different types of questions. The teachers were asked to attempt and try the quiz created in Kahoot on their mobiles before reading the text. I also participated in the quiz activity along with the teachers , it was fun actually, we could see each others scores and even as grown up adults it was pretty interesting. It was not a competition but all of us wanted to get the highest score. The teachers were able to identify their mistakes once they had read the text on questioning. The quiz helped create a tempo for the rest of the activities, it kept them motivated and engaged. The second quiz that I tried was the quiz about being calm. It was a short quiz consisting of true/false and MCQs. Their were quotes and images attached. And I shared the link through whatsapp with teachers. They are on vacations and it was a relaxing activity. Usually during school days it gets tough for them.

Another quiz that I tried was from the already built in quizzes in Kahoot, this was chosen from the library of disney Kahoots, and this was about anger management with angry birds. And it was pretty useful, it helps you see how we react during stressful situations and how we should react instead. It's a different of way of teaching a concept at times through these interactive quizzes. It was pretty helpful. I was tinking of trying these daily in order to learn anger management techniques. Its good to get enrolled in courses, and attend workshops but these require time. For simple topics we could use built in quiz in Kahoot to teach these skills to students , these can be anger management, social emotional learning, stress management etc.

 

Kahoot can be used for checking prior knowledge in class about a previous topic, it can be used as a brainstorming tool for generating ideas about a new topic, it can be used for assessments both formative and summative, it can be used to teach a new topic, to introduce a new topic, it can be also used to share extended knowledge and information about a new topic, it can be used as self reflection or or self assessment, it can be used to practice a topic, or it can also be used for exploring new topics. Students and teachers can both create new Kahoots. The number of players will be limited in the free basic Kahoot with limited features and question types available. But the learning experience would be great.

You can find built in Kahoot on almost all topics, almost all subjects and these are created by verified Kahoot educators. You can share these along with the link and game pin to the students. 

 

Kahoot offers different pricing plans and role out plans for individuals, teams, enterprises etc. Te individual plan for Kahoot 360 looks flexible for individuals trying to explore Kahoot and use it for training sessions of larger audiences. Each of these plans has different features. Kahoot 360 lets you customize the look and feel of your Kahoot. It lets you add around 2000 participants per session. You can also add a company logo. With Kahoot 360 you can have zoom integration, variety of questions (t/f puzzle, brainstorm, word clouds, multi select, slider, open ended questions, power point integration, add your own courses etc) so it is a pretty powerful tool. It costs around 79$ a month. You can explore more plans on their website.

Enjoy Reading till my next blog post soon InnShaaAllah. Exploring another education technology tool.

Regards and prayers

Sheeba Ajmal

References

Kahoot. (n.d.). Kahoot! | Learning games | Make learning awesome! Retrieved June 22, 2022, from https://kahoot.com/