Kahoot! and Curiosity
Õie Tähtla
Health Care College, Tallinn, Estonia
oie.tahtla@ttk.ee
Abstract
There were four options one could use when creating a Kahoot! learning game (see What is Kahoot!?). The quiz-mode was commonly used by the language teachers at Tallinn Health Care College. However, there were other modes, too: jumble, discussion and survey. This paper introduces the possibilities of implementing other options into the learning process on the example of academic year 2018/2019. The idea of using all options of Kahoot! was born due to curiosity, and language teachers are encouraged to use Kahoot! as a learning game.
Key words: Kahoot!, English classes, group work
What is Kahoot! learning game?
Kahoot! is a game that can be played best in a group. The players answer the questions on their smart devices, for example mobiles phones, while games are shown on a shared screen. One can create their own Kahoot! or to look for suitable Kahoot! games from the database everyone can contribute to. At the end of the game the names or nicknames of top three appear onto the screen. Kahoot! has been used by many teachers, for example a science teacher from Texas Jack Quinn claims that after using the learning game for a year, the results of the learners´ first cumulative exam improved by 11.4% (Quinn: 2017).
Kahoot! games created by teachers at Tallinn Health Care College
The English teachers of Tallinn Health Care College use a quiz-mode Kahoot! when covering the topic “Heart”. It is used by nursing students. The same shared game is used by both English teachers in classrooms.
The author of current article has been introducing other modes of Kahoot! this academic year, for example with the students of Health Promotion Specialists and Occupational Therapists. A survey mode was good as a warm-up during the first meeting with the students. It was played in a classic mode, which means individually. Every question included an option “prefer not to answer”, because it was played on a voluntary basis. The jumble-mode began with the question “How are you?”, therefore the student could answer with “prefer not to answer” when felt uncomfortable with the question.
The jumble-mode means dragging answers in correct order. It can be used when dividing a long sentence into parts, and the learners should use a Kahoot! game in order to form a proper sentence. At Tallinn Health Care College, English courses focus on the vocabulary in the field of health care, therefore a jumble-mode is a great way to enrich the common vocabulary-related classroom activities and add some grammar to it, however it has been played just once so far with the students by the author of the current article.
At one point the Kahoot! lost the discussion-mode for the version of free use this year, and therefore the author stopped introducing the discussion mode.
Kahoot! games created by the learners
Academic year 2018/2019 has been innovative at Tallinn Health Care College because the learners themselves created Kahoot! games for their colleagues as a classroom activity in the English class for the first time instructed by the author of the article. They used the quiz-mode. The first group that tried it consisted of Health Promotion Specialists. After that the Occupational Therapists followed. The learners of occupational therapy were divided into four groups. Each group had to create a single Kahoot! game based on the agreed topic. There were four different topics, and a different Kahoot! was played weekly at the beginning of the class.
The learners were very creative. For example the topic “Assistive devices” involved questions based on pictures of different mobility aids or hearing aids, etc. The learners enjoyed playing these games. They had the option to use nicknames instead of their real names, and many of them used this option. The Kahoot! games were played in a classic mode.
Conclusion
Kahoot! can be used in classroom in different ways. The teachers may create Kahoot! games themselves to enrich the common learning process or the learners can create Kahoot! games as a part of their group work or as a part of their homework. The author of the article has used a classic mode when playing Kahoot! games. However, using the team mode could be the next step in the world of curiosity.
References
What is Kahoot!? Official website of Kahoot! Retrieved from: https://kahoot.com/what-is-kahoot/
Quinn J. (2017). Avid science Kahoot!̓ers projected to perform 75% above district norms. Retrieved from: https://kahoot.com/blog/2017/11/14/kahooters-projected-perform-above-district-norms/