Kahoot! Journal

Huge shout-out to our winning peers, digiSchool and RefME, too! Great company to keep.

Best,

Based out of sunny California, Manteca Unified School District is a network of innovative and tech-forward schools that make classroom heroes who inspire us every day. When they heard of Leslie Fisher’s record-busting kahoot played in a single room  (with a phenomenal 1,032 players!) they saw the opportunity to raise the stakes with a DISTRICT-WIDE kahoot to launch the use of our platform throughout all of their schools. (How mega is that?)

We couldn’t be happier to announce that on Monday, May 18th, they did it! 

Holding a kahoot with whopping 2,168 players across the whole district (shattering the previous record for a Global Classroom kahoot by 1K+ players!). Truly astounding - and amazing to watch in livetime via streaming service Twitch.

Not only was this a super fun way to connect and learn, but majorly impactful too. Big learning does a lot more than look impressive numerically - it fosters a stronger sense of community. And community fosters conversation. And ultimately great conversations foster curiosity. By breaking down the physical limitations of the classroom and connecting players to their broader community, Global Classroom kahoots like this connect students to the material in a different context.

By focusing on how the students learn versus what they learn (in this case, the kahoot was Disney themed), it establishes a foundation for deeper learning that can then be built upon with any material in their curriculum. Simple, smart, effective and fun! (Which of course, is the hidden key to making anyone a lifelong classroom hero.)

If this sounds like something you’d like to do in your school district or community, don’t hesitate to get in touch. @KahootSteph and @KahootDaniella are our resident community ambassador liaisons and miracle workers – they’ll help get you up to speed faster than your network connection on a good day!

Best,

Team Kahoot!

1. Master it Faster Using the ‘Play again in Ghost Mode’ button on the final screen, play again straight away to reinforce knowledge with repetition.

2. Desk to Desk Battle Use the link in the results page to get one class playing against the results of a previous group.

3. Bring it Home! Using the new ‘Send a link’ feature, play a game in class and then provide the link for each student to play again at home - trying to beat their in-class score.

4. Time is A Great Teacher Using the link in the results page, play against the ghosts of a kahoot played at the beginning of the topic or module to measure progress over time.

5. Around the World in One Kahoot Using the ‘Send a link’ feature, share your ghost game with another teacher. Give students the chance to compete against other classes around the country or the world.

And just in case you need a refresher on how to use #GhostMode, we have you covered! Click here to check out our detailed #GhostMode tutorials, including all the latest updates.  

Happy Kahoot!’ing,

Here at Kahoot!, we created #GhostMode with one simple goal in mind - to make more awesome, together! With all the love still pouring in for the first releases, we want to thank you by building on that momentum with features that you’ll love - guaranteed to ignite any quiz.

And that is exactly the mission of our latest addition, the ability to share a link from any past Kahoot! with anyone, who can then play against your ghosts!

Now, once you complete a kahoot, a ‘send link' button will appear next to your past games in 'My results'. You can play against anyone - anywhere around the world! We can’t wait to see how you put this to use - and couldn’t help but to dream up some especially cool ways to use it: Play Your Way to an A

Imagine teaching French as a second language to students in grade 9, and playing against the ghosts of native French speaking students at grade 3? Inter-regional math assessment review can go from drab to rad with some healthy competition and school pride fuelling your class’ fire.

Part Two for Review

Now you can introduce a topic during class and assign your students the link to play again for homework, after they’ve had a chance to study it further. This brings a lot of our pedagogical dreams to life with interactive repetitive learning, and it’s fun!

Result!

It’s important to note that when you download the results after a Ghost Mode quiz, ‘Ghost Players' nicknames will be displayed in the game, but removed from the results download.

As always, this is just a starting point - we dare you to push the envelope as much as you can, and send in your best stories to us. We’ll make sure to feature our favorite #KahootTips and keep our eyes peeled for new suggestions we can build into the next update.

Best,

Team Kahoot!

Seriously - we’re loving every second of it, and can’t wait to see what you have up your sleeves next. And yes - we promise to try and keep you on your toes, too! :)

That’s why when we found Tiffany Whitehead of Mighty Little Librarian’s blog post about her blended tech Battle of the Books, we knew we had to share.

Inspired by Sherry Gick and Megan Scott, Battle of the Books is a great event where students are put into teams with 10 book titles to read collectively, and are then put head to head to test their knowledge in a fun, playfully competitive environment. With different reading strategies and team tactics, all the students worked together to be foolproof for the big day, which looked something like this:

As you can see, it was a blend of traditional and online mediums, and it was a fantastic example of what blended learning in a classroom can (should?!) look like, and we were thrilled to be part of it.

“The Kahoot rounds were so much fun and brought a lot of energy to the competition.”

Big thanks to Tiffany to sharing this with us, and amazing librarians like her who keep students passionately curious and excited about learning. Keep up the great work!

She single handedly managed to organize one of the most collaborative games of Kahoot! yet, and as soon as we caught ear of it -- our bright eyed and brilliant @KahootSteph jumped at the opportunity to join.

The United Classes of Kahoot!

Sarah took to social like a butterfly and showed everyone just how small our beautiful Earth can be,putting out a worldwide call to classrooms to organize her Earth Day kahoot. With a response so strong that she had to put a cap on participants - we’d definitely suggest this method to any future Kahoot!’ers wanting to get in touch with new classrooms!

Control-Alternate-Compete

The most interesting thing about Sarah’s approach wasn’t only how she prepared for it - but the execution. Like a grand composer, she managed to keep all of the many working parts involved in a #GlobalClassroom kahoot in perfect harmony -- while maintaining calm control over the entire situation. We’re convinced that she is an absolute expert at the art of planning  - I mean, just LOOK at how awesome this guide is! She created and sent it out to all of the classes beforehand, to make sure it went off without a hitch.

The game was a total success - ultimately including classes from Illinois, Connecticut, two classes from Pennsylvania, Kansas, Florida, Iowa, Wisconsin and of course - us here in the UK! Steph was totally buzzing on the energy after the game, and couldn’t stop telling everyone about how much fun it was.

Having world class leaders and learners makes us so excited to see what the future holds for us as a community, and global classrooms everywhere. We can’t congratulate Sarah enough on her out of this world effort! Impressed is just the tip of the iceberg. Be sure to check out Sarah’s blog post on the event, too: http://mrsbarnettfirstgrade.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/kahootin-round-country-part-two.html

Inspired to organize your own #GlobalClassroom? Tweet @GetKahoot with the details, and we’ll make sure to retweet them to our followers!

Best,

But amongst the leisure was some work, and I spent most of my time prepping for our #LoudLearning talk at EdTechist where the question of the hour was as simple as it is complex:

“Do you think learning should be fun?”

This is the fire in our bellies, and we’re lucky to have Kahoot! heroes that bring a constant supply of lighter fluid. Sharing our story to an over-capacity room was a really big moment for me, and all of us here at Kahoot! We’re constantly humbled by all the love that we get to help facilitate for learners worldwide, and to see an audience respond to what we believe in so positively was a treat that left me speechless.  

After EdTechIST wrapped up I was whisked off to my favorite type of exclusive club - classrooms! In an unbelievably generous move, Avrupa Koleji (massive shout out to@SesilOzdal @lamiaktas@ozlmksgn for helping to make it happen!) took me from EdTechIST to their school, where Robin Vande Zande from Kent State University gave an awesome (if not serendipitously related) talk on Design Thinking. And then it was time to play a Kahoot!

The quiz was a lot of fun, but the photo frame that was made ABSOLUTELY stole the show, along with all of the students’ enthusiasm! It was too much and I loved every second of it - definitely the biggest ‘rockstar’ moment of my life. :)

Then, it was off from one incredible school to another - Bahçeşehir Koleji - where I was greeted by some of the most keen Kahoot!’ers yet! This clip absolutely floored Team Kahoot!, students were chanting my name and banging on the principle’s office to get my attention! 

Just when I thought it couldn’t get any better, I was surprised with cake and a cheering crowd! It’s funny, yes - and I loved it, yes! - but most of all, it makes us all misty eyed to realize this is all in celebration of enthusiastic learners, and that is the best gift any of us here at Kahoot! have ever received. An an extra special mention to Hakan, Didem, and everyone else who made it happen too!

It’s not hard to see why we love Turkey so much, and we’re working on making our connection even stronger in the future with our community. We send our biggest, warmest hugs and love out to everyone who made the trip such a success - and we’ll definitely be back soon!

Best,

Jamie

How does he do it?

Cory uses Kahoot! at the beginning/middle of his lessons to gauge his students’ understanding - and to keep them on the ball during dense lectures. The immediate results help pace his lesson plans, and make sure everyone is participating - he even plays against the students himself for extra competition!

Speaking of which - that’s his (and his students’) favorite part. The leaderboard is the wall of glory, and everyone’s hooked!

Leveling up your Kahoot! game:

Cory uses Kahoot! alongside other applications, such as ClassDojo and NearPod. “The scores from Kahoot! feed nicely into ClassDojo points”, motivating his class even more.

The download results feature is great for retrospectively reviewing lessons, which compares the outcomes of different lessons and classes - which is especially handy when you have nearly 200 learners like he does.

Keep your Kahoots consistent (say that five times fast!) - Cory uses a 10 minutes/10 questions format, which is a breeze to drop into any lesson plan. It also means that his Kahoots are a wonderful asset to other teachers, as you know what to expect!

Cory’s Mega World History Kahoot Playlist (created for 10th Grade: 14-17 year olds)

Industrial Revolution

World War 1: Causes and Characteristics

European Exploration

Altlantic Slave Trade

The Ottoman Empire

Mesoamerica

The Reformation Quiz

Trade and Ideas

Lastly, a huge thank you for Cory taking the time to chat with us - and for being such a Kahoot! rockstar from day one. We are huge fans, and can’t wait to feature more inventive user stories - make sure to get in touch if you have one to share so we can spread the love!

Best,

Here’s a peek at the new feature in action:

And here’s how it works:

When you finish a game, you can find the results under the Profile tab and ‘My Results’. You will now see a brand new button next to ‘Download results’, which will give you the opportunity to play in Ghost mode against these scores.

Virtually play against any previous game, at any time! This means you can challenge separate classes against each other, or the same class from a previous lesson - whether it was yesterday or a year ago.

Not only does this open up a lot of creative options (for example, students can play from home and compete against their ghosts for quiz prep or homework), but it also creates an even wider platform for deeper learning through repetition. We think with exams coming up, Ghost Mode could be an amazing way to test students against the scores from when they first learnt the material, too!

Do let us know if you have any other great ways of using this new feature, and we’ll keep our eyes peeled for future developments.:)

Best,

1. Connection Protection

If you experience network issues often, be sure to check out this IT guide, which highlights the bandwidth and setup needed for group games of Kahoot!

If the 3G connection in your school or location is unreliable, players should connect to the WiFi, or vice versa. (And of course - if you still have questions about technical requirements or you experience slow or glitchy games, be sure to email our team for help at [email protected]!)  

 2.  Behave with your nickname

Players…..tempting as it may be, don’t risk using a cheeky or inappropriate nickname! You risk being automatically kicked out, either by our profanity filters, or manually -- by your teacher !

 3.  Rethink “Refresh” It’s really tempting to “refresh” your browser when things start to lag. However, Kahoot! is designed in a way that this will drop you from the game - and you’ll then have to enter with the same game pin and a new nickname. A little patience goes a long way here, giving the network a chance to catch up.

UPDATE: Once you’re successfully reconnecting, you’ll see the message pictured below. Previously, when reconnecting, you were brought to a holding screen until the next question. This update means you’ll be able to continue the quiz where you left off and answer the current question!

  4. Get Back In There!

If your player screen freezes, or your network connection drops, you can continue earning points with this workaround:

Re-join the game as quickly as possible (it helps to have the game pin written down or displayed for the whole class), and use your original nickname+1. That way, the teacher/game facilitator can add together your points / answer choices for both nicknames, ensuring you’re never penalised for a poor network connection.

Happy Scoring,

That’s why we’re especially happy to announce our latest release, which includes improved profanity filters and allows you to kick out a nickname at any point in the game if it appears on the leaderboard, instantaneously.

As you can see above, a black line now appears through the name in question when you hover over it - simply click it and the user will be kicked out of the game!

As always, we feel incredibly lucky to have a community that continues to help us grow. And thank you to all of the users who suggested we make this happen! Let us know if you’d like to see anything in particular via our user suggestion page or Twitter. :)

Love,

A few weeks ago, we were delighted to hear from Sean Smith at Desert Edge High School in Phoenix, AZ, who was attempting to break the Kahoot! World Record by playing some school-wide Kahoot quizzes as part of a school spirit trivia event.

The Kahoots, which took place last week, were a huge success - although the world record wasn’t quite broken, over 800 students took part (822 to be exact!) and the excitement is not only visible in the students’ faces but can be HEARD in the video below!

Sean noted that:

“...having over 800 students actively participating in an event simultaneously is really something amazing.”

Sean also went on to thank the Kahoot! team for their support, adding:

“...thanks for making such a great product that really benefits kids. Our assistant superintendent was at the event, and he was thoroughly impressed with how beneficial Kahoot can be in education.”

At Kahoot!, it’s awesome to be able to connect with such wonderful educators and it’s truly inspiring to know we are benefitting educators and learners globally.

Thanks to Sean, and the whole of Desert Edge High School for making this possible!

Love,

What were we so engaged by I hear you ask? Well, thats where Mr Ryan Dahl's (@PE_Dahl) experience comes into play, literally! Ryan is a Physical and Health Education teacher who teaches at Wheatland Center School in Burlington, WI ( #wcsflight) and after using Kahoot! in his health class he decided to cleverly implement it in his PE lessons.

Ryan tells us that "I was using this as a review tool in my health classes and wanted to incorporate this into my PE classes because the students enjoyed it so much.  I was able to get a projector and the set up for it through my PE account and our athletic account."

Once Ryan had divided the class up into groups of three, each group member had to complete a form of calisthenic activity, such as 10 push-ups, 10 jumping jacks or 10 sit-ups. Once each set was completed the team members were then able to sprint to the other end of the sports hall to hit their correct answer on the player devices Ryan had set-up. This is an exceptional way to creatively integrate a great workout with a unit test review. Ryan told the Community team at Kahoot! that the school has a great 1 to 1 laptop programme, making this set-up easy to execute on a regular basis.

Kahoot! loves to encourage 'out of the box' uses of the platform and this is no exception! 

If you have use the platform in a creative and interesting way please share you stories with us. Tweet @GetKahoot using the #UnlockAwesome or join our Facebook Community! and post there.

Our team are often asked why questions and answers don’t appear on the students devices whilst playing a game. While other in-class learning platforms show questions and answers on students' devices, the research carried out at the Norwegian University of Technology & Science surmised that Kahoot! is so effective because of it’s collaborative nature, confirming that group play isn’t only fun - but smart! the unique experience Kahoot! creates within classrooms diminished the moment a student wasn't required to look up and away from their personal device. What's known as the "Blackberry prayer" (when a person is fixated on their own device, oblivious to what's happening around them) is something we absolutely want to avoid.

(Picture credit: @pmcgonagle_JME)

Kahoot!’s open and accessible learning platform encourages students to communicate and engage in conversation with their classmates around the educational content they are playing - because they are forced to look up to the questions and answers displayed at the front.

However, we always feel our users say it better than us! Stephanie Castle, a science teacher at United Nations International School who did her master’s research on the use of mobile devices in teaching, said she’s an early adopter and had tried a number of different tools to create engagement, but “Kahoot! pretty much wiped them all away.”

“This is the only one that has come close to eliciting this level of enthusiasm,” Castle said. “Others created some energy but they didn’t feel social in any sense…. This makes the kids look up and look out…. the smart phone just becomes the tool - it doesn’t become the object of attention.”

For more community insights check out this article from Stephani Itibrout:

"The interesting part about this game is that the answer choices do not appear on the students’ devices; they must look at the main screen to access the questions and the choices.  This creates a group dynamic that is often missing when students use their devices for quizzes.  Students must focus on one point together rather than look down at their screens individually.  To reinforce this group dynamic, Kahoot flashes a leader board after every question.  Students get points for the correct answer and for speed.”

Fun is fundamental to developing great minds, and great minds work better together.

For more insights into the research that has gone into Kahoot!, please read these articles:

Results from using various quiz-approaches in class

Perhaps that’s why we were so excited when we met Tilt, a crowdfunding platform that makes it easy to do more together. They won us over with their bright and powerful community who’ve been achieving some really great things - from training teachers affected by Hurricane Sandy on how to post projects online and rebuild their classrooms to funding an international student’s tuition when his loans fell through.

When serendipity brought our CEO’s together at our new office in Austin, we knew we wanted to partner up on a project. Within minutes we discovered a middle school in San Marcos, California who were crowdfunding to attend the Global Classroom International Model UN Conference event in New York City. It’s a huge event which attracts students from over a dozen countries - aged from grade 6 to university!

There are few programs as committed to international critical thinking as Global Classroom is. As a huge supporter of them, and recent participant in the Norwegian Government’s Vision 2030 Conference, we were ecstatic to jump in and fulfill their goal immediately.

“The energy and passion from Johan and Asmund was so infectious. And it’s not everyday that you meet founders that speak about a cause they care deeply about like the Global Classroom initiative, and then see them donate $3,000 for the cause within minutes on Tilt.” — James Beshara, Tilt CEO

We can’t wait to see what great things happen for San Marcos at the conference and beyond - and hope this inspires more of our enthusiastic leaders to think global, even if you’re staying local!

Love,