Teaching in Cahoots with Kahoot

(Source: Pixabay)

It is a well-known fact that quizzes are terrifying as well as nerve-wrecking for students. For teachers, it is a dull affair. Every teacher fantasises about designing a quiz that will be so enjoyable for their students that they will be entirely engaged in it with a smile on their face. Although making a regular quiz that interesting may not be anything more than a fantasy, but with the help of Kahoot you can certainly turn that fantasy into reality within minutes! Kahoot requires teachers to use the computer and projector screen to initiate the quiz and requires students to use their mobile phones and the internet to participate in the quiz which helps learners to come out of the traditional classroom setting and develop their mobile literacy (Hockly, 2015, p. 83).

What is Kahoot?

Kahoot is mainly an online platform for creating game based and multiple choice quizzes that can be used in class to review lessons, assess vocabulary knowledge and conduct short classroom tests. It also has a mobile application version. It works quite differently than Triptico. While Triptico offers a number of different types of activities, Kahoot is mainly suitable for formative assessment tasks. It can add a a fun factor in classroom activities since it is highly engaging and enjoyable. While the teacher initiates the quiz on the computer and shows it to the whole class with the help of a projector as well as provides a code to the students to participate in the quiz, students use the code to log in and connect to the quiz on their mobile phones or other personal devices. 

Once students join and start playing, one by one the quiz questions appear on the projector screen accompanied by music. On their mobile phone they will get to see the question for a while which will be then replaced by two red and green flash cards or four multi-coloured flash cards depending on the number of options. Students look at the board and see the flash card that the probable right answer is on and they simply click on that coloured card on their mobile phone. The earlier the answer is given, the higher are the chances of getting the top score.

Once the quiz is over, the projector screen will display who the winner is as well as the two runners-up. At the very end, there is an option to receive feedback from students, which can help the teachers to understand students' feedback on the quiz about what was good, what went wrong and what could be changed in future to improve it further.

Target Users 

The target users of this online software are teachers and students. Although anyone could use this website for making fun quizzes, be it for a party or as a leisurely game, but it is apparent from the available resources and options that this website was designed mainly keeping teachers and students in mind. Teachers can make innumerable quizzes for students on a variety of topics that can make the classes more fun-filled and enjoyable for students.

Layout and Navigation

The best features of Kahoot are its wonderfully colourful layout, background music and user-friendly navigation system. It is an extremely interesting website for both teachers and students. Teachers can create their own quizzes easily and all the students need to do is to log in on their personal devices using a pass code displayed on the projector screen. 

The music makes the quiz fun and the colourful multiple choice options excite students since they give out a cheerful vibe. Students can participate in the quiz anonymously or in groups and the immediate display of scores keep the learners engaged in the task. Moreover, after every question and answer teachers can avail some space and time during the quiz in order to explain the answers to students in case they feel an elaborate explanation is required to enhance understanding. 

Language and Pictures

Kahoot gives the teachers an opportunity to add pictures of their own choice with  every question. It also gives an option to teachers and quiz makers to add videos if they want. This makes Kahoot a very user-friendly and easy-to-customise website. Also the background music that runs with every quiz is very catchy and intensifies the excitement among users.

Teachers can use any level of language while making the quiz keeping in mind their target group of students . However, the language for navigation is lucid and conversational, thus it is very easy to understand for teachers, quiz makers as well as students.

How Can English Teachers Use a Website like Kahoot?

English teachers can use Kahoot as an effective warm-up activity to start the class or as plenary to end the class. Using a Kahoot quiz at the beginning of the class may help to break the ice or get students engaged which can help to conduct the rest of the class smoothly. 

Also, it can be used at the end to end the class joyously or to review what the students learned during the class. A Kahoot based review can prove to be really useful at the beginning of the class as well. Also, teachers can use it in revision classes to revise important aspects of a lesson in a very short period of time. 

Here's a fun quiz that I created to review the vocabulary knowledge of pre-intermediate or intermediate level students.

Limitations

Like Triptico, Kahoot also requires a fast internet connection, a projector and a projector screen. Similarly, the students must have access to personal tech devices to participate in the quiz. Therefore, it may not be an ideal teaching resource in low-resource educational contexts, however, educational institutions with adequate technological support can avail this wonderful online resource to make classroom activities a little bit more interesting and engaging. 

How to Create Kahoot Quizzes?

There are plenty of tutorials on how to use Kahoot on the internet, starting from basic level tutorials to more advanced ones. The tutorial below is a very basic one that I created for beginners. Have a look!

Why Kahoot?

The answer to this question is easy. First of all, because it is FREE! Secondly, Kahoot is one of the easiest, most creative and very time-efficient online material building software out there! Not only students, but teachers generally love to be creative and have an engaging lesson. Therefore, it does not only motivate the students but it equally motivates the teachers. 

As Henry (2013) said, teachers need to create scopes for students to be involved in various types of creative interaction that requires them to apply necessary effort to achieve their learning outcomes on a digital platform (p. 133). Therefore, it is important for us as language teachers to create opportunities for our students so that they can learn creatively and enthusiastically.

References: 

1. Henry, A. (2013). Digital games and ELT: Bridging the authenticity gap. International Perspectives on Motivation. Palgrave Macmillan: London. Retrieved 16 March, 2019 from https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9781137000873_8

2. Hockly, N. (2013). Technology for the language teacher: Mobile Learning. ELT Journal, 67(1), 80-85.  Retrieved 16 March, 2019 from http://eltj.oxfordjournals.org/