The year is 2019, and we cannot escape the use of digital tools in and outside the classroom. Nor should we want to. Digital tools help us do things that might otherwise be difficult and take an inordinate amount of time to work around. Or, even if we lived without them before they were created, they can add something to our lives that we never knew was missing! Kahoot! is one of those digital tools that I find myself coming back to again and again in the classroom. Check out the Animoto video below to hear me discuss Kahoot! and its affordances and constraints as a digital tool.

One of the constraints of Animoto is that only allows a maximum of 30 seconds per slide, so I struggled to fit in my information regarding Kahoot! in this short amount of time per slide without adding an unnecessary and boring amount of more slides. If you would like to read more about my consideration of Kahoot! as a digital tool, I have included notes that I used to guide my discussion on Animoto, in which there is a little bit more information regarding Kahoot!’s affordances and constraints. For my notes, I generally tried to hit upon the different areas that a digital tool can affect in terms of affordances and constraints laid out by Jones and Hafner in the first chapter (“Mediated Me”) of their book Understanding Digital Literacies: A Practical Introduction.

Kahoot! Affordances:

• Physical: people can play games together in same room and test their reflexes and speed when answering questions.
• Relationships: people can engage in healthy (hopefully) competition together, have fun together, play a game together, collaborate, and work together (if you play in teams). In my experience using Kahoot! in the classroom, when you engage in this sort of social interaction together, it naturally breaks down barriers and strengthens community.
• Thoughts people can think: Kahoot! encourages people to think analytically and quickly, since they have to pick out the right answer to a question in a short amount of time. Depending on who made the quiz, some questions may be tricky, and the answer may not be clear.
• Social Identities: In Kahoot!, students input their names to identify them as players. Sometimes students pick names that mean something to them, as opposed to their given name, and this can be empowering. For example, I had one student go by a name she liked to call herself online, the name of her online persona. This affordance has some drawbacks because if allowed to pick their own names, students can sometimes get inappropriate and need to be monitored; if names need to be changed because students cannot handle this level of responsibility and maturity, then they hold up the class by having to change their name to an appropriate one, and this takes away from instructional. In addition, if students are allowed to choose their own names, this could be hard to monitor who is doing well if you are using Kahoot as an assessment tool. However, there is also a seting that allows for student names to be purposely made anonymous and randomized; for example, after students enter the game pin, they may end up as “rambunctious panda” or “curious ocelot.” Of course, this again doesn’t help if you want to use Kahoot! for a more specific level of assessment, but it’s a fun way to have student not pick their names and still make the game entertaining. Also, I often find that students who don’t seem motivated to try on other classwork often do try on Kahoot!; the anonymity may work for these students because then they can still try on the Kahoot! and not be embarrassed if they get wrong answers or a low score – or, alternately, not be embarrassed if they get high scores and don’t like the attention.

Kahoot! Constraints:

• Physical: I’m not sure how great it would work to do Kahoot! with other people who are not in the same room. For example, it may be somewhat difficult to coordinate what the game pin is. It’s not impossible, I think, so it might not be considered a constraint, but it just seems to work better when all those who are playing are in the same room.
• Meanings: There’s not much leeway in the way of meanings people can express, as Kahoot! is limited to a few forms of assessment, primarily multiple choice answer-type assessment. So, the questions can be as varied and complex as we can make multiple choice questions, but not much more than that. They can’t really be open-ended, for example, unless you make there be more than one right answer (which people do sometimes).
• Relationships: I’m personally not sure how much you can engage on Kahoot! besides playing games. It’s not like social media where you can have “friends,” certain teacher or student groups your are apart of, etc. I do have to look more into this aspect, but Kahoot! seems limited in its capacity for people to communicate.
• Thoughts people can think: Kahoot! restricts your thinking to multiple-choice style questions so you are tuned in to one right answer. Of course, in life and other areas of ELA, “answers” to problems posed in texts are often not clear-cut; indeed, we want students to see that the questions and answers are complex and require out-of-the-box thinking.
• Social Identities: As far as I know, you can’t do much in terms of explore or promote a certain social identity. Maybe Kahoot! could hinder some of your social identity (even if that identity is “Wonderful Hedgehog”; and especially if that social identity is associated with your real persona in the classroom) if the Kahoot! takes a turn for the worse and the competition doesn’t go well.

Upon Reflection:

Like Kahoot!, Animoto has its share of affordances and constraints. I saw Animoto be used effectively by a classmate in a video in which she introduced herself; she used both pictures and videos, and they seemed to transition seamlessly while she narrated the information. I knew that I wanted to use a platform like that, that essentially allowed me to make a video (much like VoiceThread, but I wanted to see what else is out there besides VoiceThread!) and narrate my analysis of Kahoot! because I felt that using some kind of image platform or even an animation wouldn’t let me get enough of my information across. And still, I feel like Animoto’s constraints in that regard were noticeable. Animoto wasn’t perfect for what I needed, but it did the job, and did it well, so I would recommend it to other teachers.

When I went to the Animoto website, it was pretty easy to navigate and figure out what to do. I checked out a few of their sample videos to get a sense of what Animoto was all about, and then I set to work without looking at any tutorials. I created a log in to sign up for a free trial — which, by the way, I could not find any information anywhere about if this free trial lasts for only a limited time, so that’s kind of sketchy? Anyone know if I have to cancel my “trial” before a certain amount of time? I couldn’t find information on that anywhere — and boom, I was ready to create my Animoto. There are video templates to choose from depending on the type of video you want to make or what your purpose is; I could really see the appeal of using these pre-made templates and substituting your own information in them. I aimed to do this at first and chose a video about “game time” because, y’know, Kahoot! In place of their pictures of nachos and guacamole and what not, I substituted screenshots I took of different pages of the Kahoot! platform. On some of the pictures, there was text overlay that could be changed according to what you want to write, but I decided to only use this feature for the first slide. After fiddling with the pictures, I recorded my comments on each, and I quickly learned that there is a 30 second limit per slide, which I can see the reasons for, but I would have appreciated more speaking time per slide. The pressure was on!

In the end, I am fairly pleased with my product. I could have added more information by adding more pictures of Kahoot!, but I thought it was enough to provide a sufficient analysis for teachers wanting to know about Kahoot! Animoto was really easy to use, and I never ended up having to look at any tutorials, though I’m sure if I did, I could have done so much more with my video. Heck, I could have done more with the text overlay and the music, but I decided to tone those aspects down because I thought the music was annoying, and I just wanted to get my information across. It was obvious, though, that Animoto is a quality platform that allows you to create engaging videos depending on your needs, so I see why it requires you to pay for it beyond if you want the benefits beyond the free trial — though, I’m pretty frugal, so I’m not sure if I would actually pay for the platform unless I could really, really see myself using it often (but I would definitely use it if my school paid for it). By the way, unless you pay, you will have a watermark on your video.

Hypothetically, if cost weren’t an issue or if my school paid for me to have Animoto, I would definitely use it in the classroom. I could see myself both using it to share information to students, much like how information is given to us MAT students in an online class — weekly videos that give an overview of what the week will look like, direction videos that explain assignments, fun videos to share information on a topic we are studying, etc. I could also see it being used by students: they could use it at the beginning of the year to give the class a more in-depth introduction to themselves, they could use it to give presentations, book talks, reaction videos, create photo essays . . . the possibilities are endless. Aside from its few constraints, I would highly recommend it to teachers.

Questions, Concerns, Suggestions, etc.:

• Has anyone subscribed for a paid version of Animoto? What is it like?
• Do you have any other ideas about Animoto’s constraints?
• Are there other platforms out there like Animoto, but better? Or platforms that are free (and don’t have a watermark)?
• How might you envision using Animoto in your classroom?
• If you are gung-ho about Animoto, I suggest becoming comfortable with all of the things that Animoto can do; I’m sure it’s a small learning curve to really get good with Animoto and make great videos.