Communication Tool #2: Kahoot!

Kahoot! is a learning game software tool. Teachers can create quiz-style games for students to participate in. Teachers can put together a variety of question types for students to try to answer. Most common is multiple choice questions. There can be a variety of text, pictures, and even videos into the questions themselves. Students log into the game on their smartphone, tablet, or laptop using their own unique login names. The software tabulates student responses and a leaderboard after each question for students to compete against each other, and for teachers to check how many students are answering their review questions correctly.

Kahoot! gets a 4 from me on User Friendliness. It is very easy to create review games using this software compared to traditional methods of doing it on a whiteboard by hand. 

Kahoot! gets a 4 for Safety. There is no outside public access to these games, although there is a very slight chance that students accounts could get hacked, exposing whatever personal information is asked for when the account is set up.

Kahoot! gets a 4 for Customization. I could see this used as a really fun professional development tool with all teachers logged into a game on their own devices and competing against each other on questions regarding our new collegial learning.

Kahoot! gets a 3 for Cross-Curricular. There is no more or less cross-curricular opportunities with this software than any other. All teacher-driven to create the questions.

Kahoot! gets a 2 for Cognitive Differentiation. This tool is mostly used to create multiple choice questions for review purposes and to check for understanding after a lesson. There is not much opportunity to get into the higher levels of the taxonomy.

	User Friendliness (Julie)	Safety (Lauren)	Customization for Educators (Brandon)	Cross-Curricular Application (Brandon)	Cognitive Differentiation (Julie)
EXCEEDS 4	Is more user friendly than traditional means/methods of teaching and/or completing standards, and/or can be used as an alternative method for students who struggle with the traditional methods of instruction/assessments.	Can be closely monitored by teachers/gatekeepers to ensure all participants (students, community members, etc,) abide digital citizenship standards with strict security measures and clearly stated privacy policies.	Can be customized to support collegial professional development AND classroom instruction, assessment, and/or reporting.	Can be used to develop units of study that tie in learning targets from multiple subject areas and connect to the world beyond school in order to increase relevance.	Can be used in all levels and a variety of processes of Marzano’s taxonomy.
MEETS 3	Can be used on a variety of devices and is easy to use for students and teachers.	Can be monitored by teachers/ gatekeepers and allows for opportunities to select/edit for instances of non-compliance of digital citizenship and with moderate security measures and a reasonable privacy policies.	Can be customized to meet the needs of individual educators according to grade level, subject area, class size, experience with technology, professional development needs, etc.	Can be applied to multiple learning targets across multiple subject areas and/or can be used to help design or support cross-curricular units of study.	Can be used for a variety of processes and levels of Marzano’s taxonomy.
PARTIALLY MEETS 2	Can be used on a variety of devices or is easy to use for students and teachers.	Can be monitored by teacher/ gatekeepers with limited opportunities to be select/edit for instances of non-compliance of digital citizenship standards and minimal security measures.	Can be partially customized, but not enough to fully meet the needs of individual educators.	Can be applied to only one or two learning targets in one or two subject areas and does not support the development of cross-curricular units of study.	Can be used for a variety of categories on one level of the taxonomy or a few processes on various levels of Marzano’s taxonomy.
DOES NOT MEET 1	Has several barriers which make it difficult for students and/or teachers to use.	Does not allow for monitoring by teacher/gatekeeper and permits disregard for digital citizenship standards.	Does not allow customization to meet the needs of individual educators,	Does not apply to learning targets in any more than one subject area.	Is limited to only a few categories of one process of Marzano’s taxonomy.