For one of my postgraduate courses in Applied Linguistics, I was asked to write an assignment about my language learning history. Recalling all the phases I went through to learn English made me realize that my teachers had not used any educational games and had barely used technology in class. Only a few years on, and such a state of affairs has almost become inconceivable: digital technologies are ubiquitous in today’s classrooms.
So, what has changed? For starters, the learners have changed, and so have we. Digital technologies have spread out vertically and horizontally in all fields of knowledge and fundamentally altered the nature of communication.
Thanks to the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) wave, gamification has been widely accepted and applied in schools and universities. The introduction of game-based elements into non-game scenarios, such as classrooms, has helped teachers to motivate learners and boost the engagement of students in real-time during classes (Skøien, 2018).
Figure 1
One popular game-based learning platform – or game-based student response system (GSRS) – is Kahoot!. Kahoot! went from being a research project back in 2006 to being used in classrooms in over 180 countries. According to its developer (Wang, 2015, p.218), like other games, it has the potential to increase the academic achievement, motivation and classroom dynamics among K-12 and tertiary students.
Nevertheless, Kahoot! has not been widely used in second language (L2) learning contexts. Where it is used, the main targets are still motivation and classroom dynamics. To gain a better understanding of the potential of Kahoot! in L2 teaching, I conducted a social semiotic, multimodal analysis, using tools from Systemics Functional Linguistics (Djonov, Knox and Zhao, 2015).
From the point of view of its design, Kahoot! provides L2 students with limited learning opportunities regarding reading and writing skills.
The analysis of the website structure (Figure 1) suggests that there is a dominance of vertical relations in the platform. This means that the website provides the first user (teacher) some freedom to choose among four options (quiz, survey, discussion and jumble), but this freedom in navigation is not transferred to the second users (students). Once a kahoot quiz starts (Kahoot!’s games are called ‘kahoots’), learners have to complete it and do not have the chance to go back and examine their answers before submitting them. It is a game; and you either make it to the first place or not.
In a more detailed examination of two webpages of a kahoot quiz, a question and its alternatives (see Figure 2), it can be seen that the overall layout of them shows a rather static design, which may reflect the institutional values of Kahoot!’s creator(s): the game is teacher-centred. In addition, there is interdependency among the webpages of a kahoot quiz (see green arrow), and even though it seems that their relations are horizontal, the above-mentioned lack of freedom of navigation signals its vertical design. Furthermore, the absence of a writing component when answering questions diminishes the possibilities smartphones can provide.
Figure 2
Kahoot! has proven to be an amazing motivation booster in many classrooms. However, its design favors the completion of the “game” over any reflection of the content and this, in an ESL/EFL context, plays against the opportunities L2 learners need, such as going at their own pace, reviewing their answers, and writing practice. In this context, as elsewhere, “it remains unclear whether Kahoot! leads to greater learning outcomes than traditional methods” (Licorish, Owen, Daniel, & George, 2018, p.5).
New teaching and learning technologies are exploding around us. It is our responsibility as teachers to choose the best among them, not based on their popularity but their effectiveness; modify the way we could possibly use them if needed; and keep in mind that technology is always subsidiary to learners and learning.
References
Djonov, E., Knox, J. S., & Zhao, S. (2015). Interpreting Websites in Educational Contexts: A Social-Semiotic, Multimodal Approach. In International Handbook of Interpretation in Educational Research (pp. 315-345). Springer, Dordrecht.
Licorish, S., Owen, A., Daniel, H., & George, E. (2018). Students’ perception of Kahoot!’s influence on teaching and learning. Research and Practice in Technology Enhanced Learning, 13(1), 1-23.
Skøien, J. (2018). User Engagement in Game-based Student Response Systems: A Case Study on Kahoot! Retrieved from https://brage.bibsys.no/xmlui/handle/11250/2562794
Wang, A. (2015). The wear out effect of a game-based student response system. Computers & Education, 82(C), 217-227.
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I totally agree that Kahoot is highly engaging but has certain limitations in terms of language teaching since the learners are given options in all of the rounds or quiz formats. Nevertheless, I’ve personally experienced how effective it could still be with a well-thought-out plan. Besides using it in teaching grammar features through sentence completion, I also find this game effective in letting the students arrange sentences into a logical and coherent paragraph. I believe that the author’s comment on the lack of platform for learner reflection may be addressed through posing processing questions in between the rounds. What I usually do is allow my students to analyze the correct answer after each item and reflect on what has gone wrong with their responses. I started using Kahoot in 2017, and I’m amazed that, a couple of years later, many teachers in my school have started to use it too.
As the needs and interests of students evolve over time, as teachers, we need to adapt to the continuous changes. But as the author mentioned in the post, Educators choose an application or technology that may entice the curiosity of the learner for engagement while sustaining the quality education.
“Learning isn’t learning when students do not have fun” I have experienced teaching kids for tutorial classes, and one thing I have noticed is that they show excitement in learning whenever I get to introduce them to topics alongside interactive games. Thus, considering the COVID-19 pandemic that happened that totally shifted how I teach from face-to-face to online, I had to create a safe space for my students actually to learn even at the comfort of their homes; thus, as a millennial, I introduce them to brain games and applications like elevate and brain wars that will both utilize learning while having fun. Stimulating these activities would be a benefit for me as a tutor is seeing what is suitable for my students in learning so I can look for more ways, and as for my students, they will get to learn and enjoy like before in our face-to-face classes.
I recently finished a practical teaching unit in a kindergarten class. I noticed that the students were the most engaged and interested whenever there was an interactive game or activity. In this technologically advanced day and age, it is best to keep with the times and use as many of these tools such as digital boards and computer games to assist with learning. In addition to Kahoot!, there are other interactive learning tools that can and should be used to enhance the teaching and learning experience.
We are in the ‘Digital Age’ and as teaching and learning methodologies change it is important for teachers to keep up too. The use of technology in the classroom is highly efficient. Learners are exposed to audio, videos, unlimited texts as well as games to learn languages. Young learners are intrigued by technology and the use in classroom increases interest in lessons. However, as mentioned in the post it is not always the most effective strategy. A teacher needs to take the learners needs and skills into consideration with the incorporation of these methods in classrooms.
From my point of view, Game-based learning involves designing learning activities so that game characteristics and game principles inhere within the learning activities themselves. Game-based learning helps to promote engagement and sustained motivation in learning, but they do not necessarily result in improved learning outcomes. Kahoot! is a good example of applying the game to language learning and teaching. Kahoot’s system is highly regarded as one of the most positive, fun and effective ways for teachers to help students learn. Students tend to take well to a competitive, hands-on game that brings excitement. Kahoot manages to harness that idea and create a super useful classroom tool for educators.
There are numerous ways to teach a second language using media such as movies, music or even foreign magazines. Yet, it is undeniable that gaming is greatly the most effective way to give students a language lesson; which can help them easily engage in lessons and feel more motivated for their learning. Also, promoting games in the language classroom can significantly increase the vital teacher-student and peer interaction that can improve both teaching and learning quality. It’s time to forget the boring books then let the students get involved in more authentic learning materials – gamings.
Technology and games are used to motivate students. From my personal experience, using games to encourage classroom activities helps students to learn. It is true that if we analyze that semiotic and multimodal functions on Kahoot do not encourage students to improve writing and reading skill. However, I found that games and activities in the classroom are used to encourage classroom dynamic, and it should be in the short time period. Considering about short period of time, Kahoot suits well in this situation. Surely, we cannot use it to run classroom activity completely, but since teachers can make a decision and organize classroom activities, this article brings some points that teachers should be more careful when it comes to choose the learning activity.
Given the latest scenario, teaching-learning activities without technology seem inconceivable; it is ubiquitous. Technology has not only made the learning process faster, productive and economical but also accessible to all learners. Because of the advanced digital technology, a student can easily get access to the immense reservoir of knowledge such as excessive linguistic resources-reading texts, writing skills -promoting resources, listening audios, live conversations/debates, Vocabs, and sentence structure related games, so on and so forth. Technology has become an efficient and engaging contributor for making teaching-learning practices as the celebrations. Learning through games is one of the burning examples of this. Recent cutting edge techs have significantly promoted multimodality even in the second language learning classes. Constructive use of the tech-facilitated multimodal approach in the English language classroom is contributive for focused and student-friendly learning; instead of foisting upon a one-sided burden to the teacher, it helps to make the learner more innovative, initiative, interested and responsible to their learning.
In my school days, I couldn’t get the opportunity to get along with technologies like mobile phones, computer, i-pad, laptop, etc neither in different apps and websites promoting practical learning such as wikis, discussion forums, vocabulary.com, Magoosh vocabulary builders, etc. Neither my school had the financial strength to afford the expensive technologies nor there were digitally literate teachers. Even in the Bachelor and Master level, we used to entirely rely on the coursebook and the notebooks provided by the teachers; written examination would be the only way of assessing our learning achievement.
But, Macquarie University has provided the golden chance to be acquainted with the modern technologies and the devices backing up our learning output. In this sense I am the luky one.
This article pushed back me to my childhood when I was in elementary level, there was no technology but our English teacher used to play a wording game among students to improve our vocabularies. In the present context gaming and technology become the helping tool to teach the students. Nowadays students are smart in use of technology and they are more interested to learn by game. By using technology and gaming student can learn language without any stress and tension. In language teaching technology and gaming become the mile stone, because using different technology, apps and video learners can learn faster than other way. Thus technology and gaming is a boon for teaching English language.
I was very surprise to see show technology is used in the classroom of Australia institutions when I first experienced the lessons in Macquarie Uni. In Vietnam, there are insignificant attention paid to the use of technology seemingly due to the teachers’ lack of knowledge or information about the cutting edge tech used in classroom. Therefore, the language teaching that uses games or even technology is pretty rare. It could be great for students in my country to experience the game mentioned on this article because they are exposed to new things. However, how to change the traditional teaching ways in Vietnam where the tech is not popular could be a great question for teacher students who experienced new learning and teaching environment like me. Hopefully, I could figure out some ways to improve the situation.
Technology advancement has transformed the way language is taught. More images, videos, sound, music, games are used to make the lessons multimodal with the hope that the content of the lessons can be conveyed easier. However, we should bear in mind that the final goal of using technology in the classroom is to make the lesson more understandable or to make us communicate more effectively. In some developing countries, it is a trend that teachers try to apply technology in classrooms rigidly in order not to be recognized as lagged behind teachers. When I was in secondary school, a high tech board was bought for my class, then teachers can brag with parents that their kids are learning with state of the art technology. However, in fact we barely used the board for learning activities because it was not user-friendly.
Technology has long been an integral part of our lives. The education industry is also supposed to be affected by technology. Similar to the author’s experience, when we were children, there were not so many educational technologies in the classroom, such as multimedia, computers, whiteboards, games, etc. But in recent years, these technologies have appeared more and more in English classes. However, as I saw in the comments section, many people are not very optimistic about this new drive. They think there are still many restrictions on technology. Because of this, I advocate research on the use of new technologies. Only in practice can we find a way to integrate technology with English education.
Thank you, Luis for sharing such an interesting point of view.
However, as some friends might also agree, I believe that games cannot play the central role in the teaching-learning process but rather serve as complementary aspects integrated into the lesson plan. And the games are merely functioned to gather students’ attention or boost their moods when they, let say, get bored with the lesson.
It is said that Kahoot! provides limited opportunities in terms of reviewing the lesson being asked in the quiz and I might partly agree with this. However, if the teachers really want to make the most benefits out of Kahoot!, they can still do some pauses or screenshot and get students to review their answers. As the teachers, we can both use other technologies to handle technologies or, as you said, “modify the way we could possibly use them”
Thanks, Luis and congratulations on having your post published!
I have started using Kahoot in my teaching in law. I completely agree that it lacks integrated feedback/followup and this could definitely be a great future feature for their design team. However, as some of the previous commenters have suggested, it really comes down to how Kahoot! is used, and for what reasons.
I find that Kahoot! motivates and engages my students and creates a break or change of pace. It is also a useful way to gauge what the students have understood from the lesson (I usually do the Kahoot towards the end). If there are a lot of incorrect responses to a particular question it’s a good live indication that I haven’t explained something clearly or that there’s been a misunderstanding and I can then go back and look at that part of the lesson again. And then it really just comes down to how well you design the questions/responses, depending on your goals, and how well you integrate that feedback or follow-up yourself.
Just some reflections!
One must not underestimate the value in engaging students with games like Kahoot when as a teacher you can feel them drifting and disengaging. Kahoot is not a learning tool as such, it is a game where students test their knowledge against others for bragging rights. Yes, there is no reviewing and leisurely moving at one’s own pace, because it is a competition. However, as a teacher, it can be paused and vocab explained for example. Be it that these types of games are still a work in progress as far as language acquisition is concerned, they have opened the floodgates to permitting ELT to keep up with the times of technology and interacting at the students level. Improvements surely will come with time, but in my opinion, they can be a lifesaver.
This was a very informative and interesting post. I have never heard before of Kahoot! and I have never used a gaming platform either for learning or teaching. However, I have used technology in different learning environments, and I can say that in my personal experience the usage of technology amounts to a learning revolution in some ways. I have lived the transition from analogue learning to digital learning; when I did my undergrad studies we barely used technology as an aid. There are so many benefits to the use of technology during learning, such as quick access to online learning materials. However, caution needs to be deployed when it comes to digital tools because they can also create distractions (such as being constantly online) that could detract from the learning experience.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts about the use of gaming in education. For my master’s program, I taught at an international school that was very different from my high school days. When I was a high school student, we always carried heavy textbooks with our backpacks. Also, our quizzes and exams were all paper. Now, all of the students were expected to purchase a laptop so they could use it during class. However, the most surprising shock that I found was that the quizzes were all digital. The teacher used a website called Quizlet.com to test his students. I was surprised because everything was done on the computer, and the students were divided into teams to compete against each other like an old quiz show that I watched on TV. Honestly, I am a little skeptical about the use of computers in primary schools but I believe that with great care that digital programs such as Classdojo.com, Ted.com and Quizlet.com will change schools.
An interesting thing when study combining with technology is that I feel time passing faster than just sitting and reading. In my opinion, not only IT students can know about technology, but everyone if they own a smartphone or a computer or a laptop, they can access any language learning applications by clicking a button. Technology awakes people’ curiosity and exploration. One more thing that teachers should notice is about how to turn technological attraction of students into useful teaching materials by making the best use of students’ attraction like a way to parallel their desire with their hobbies in learning. In contrast, teachers should be more cautious with the uncensored contents when assigning tasks using the Internet to access because it is easy for them to suffer from bad reputation of poisoning the learning atmosphere.
Thanks for your valuable sharing about using games and technology to improve learning outcomes. As a matter of fact, I have done the research of using games to improve EFL/ESL students’ English learning when I studied at ELC and the research results were similar to yours. As a popular application designed to boost students’ motivation to learn, Kahoot can be regarded as a model. However, the effectiveness of introducing it into classrooms depends on different teaching as well as learning contexts. As educators, we expect more effective teaching applications can be designed and introduced into different types of classroom to cater for various teaching and learning needs. As the development of Internet technology, combining technology with traditional teaching methods can be a unstoppable trend.
Thanks for your insightful post about gaming language learning. Educational games and technologies can be incorporated into the classrooms as they can improve students’ academic achievement and classroom dynamics. But some technologies have some disadvantages when teachers use them in the ESL / EFL context, including overmuch teacher-centered and cannot completely developing students’ writing skills, providing time for students to review their answers. Therefore, teachers as the facilitators should firstly identify students’ needs, then select suitable learning and teaching technologies, and examine the effectiveness of technologies and flexibly adjust any appropriate ways of utilizing technologies.
It is true that technology has benefited in-class learning and facilitated teachers at schools. However, I agree that, just like any other system, there are imperfect features and inappropriate structures or details in those digital learning games that needs to be adjusted to meet particular kinds of learners. Since there is no one-thing-fits-all on-screen program, educators play an important role in considering suitable contents and adopting appropriate activities to help their specific learners achieve the best from these facilitators. As in ESL environment for instance, learners’ problems and needs should be identified carefully at the beginning, plus trial runs could be implemented to test the suitability of these activities in real class sessions.
Thank you for sharing this post.
I agree with Luis that we should consider choosing the most suitable teaching resources for our students. With the increasing diversity of communication modality and the development of technology, it is inevitable for teachers to adjust their teaching methods to engage the younger generation learners with language learning. However, it is also important for teachers to balance the need for gaming technologies and the classroom teaching quality as inappropriate use of new technologies may sometimes distract the students’ attention.
Hi Luis, Thank you for your interesting article.
Using games and technology is very important to learn languages. In the beginning of using technology to teach, my school in my hometown starts to use gaming just in our English class. All the students were very excited to learn the language because they have fun while learning, not as the other classes or other subjects. Nowadays, teachers are using technology and games to teach the students not just in learning languages but to teach them everything.
The Internet explosion and the development of technological devices have had a significant influence on language teaching and learning for decades. I several times used Kahoot to review grammar structures and learnt vocabularies at the end of the lesson. To me, using game or other fun activities besides the lesson can help involve students more in the class. They have opportunities to interact with other classmates and also learn from each other actively. In case that there may be some technological problems with using devices, teachers may want to prepare several traditional games (using papers instead of modern devices), “Stop the bus” or crosswords for example.
Digital technology is ubiquitous in today’s life, not just in the areas of education and learning. From this point of view, it is impossible and unwise to isolate education from digital technology. Although a large amount of research is now focusing on the widespread use of digital technology, students’ literacy declines, and attention is difficult to concentrate on various aspects. But technology is always neutral. We can’t say that technology is bad. We can only say that we may not really use these technologies to improve our capabilities. Therefore, I am not in favor of the current academic world’s singular decline in digital technology. It is precisely because we are not perfect in the use of technology, we must study how to make full use of existing technology, strengthen the effect of education, and achieve the purpose of education. Rather than slamming the use of technology to stop the criticism.
I think nowadays technology plays a crucial role in many fields including education. In the present days, teachers apply technology into lessons so that they can make lessons become more interesting and encourage the attention and concentration of learners into lessons. Moreover, students feel excited the lessons designed from technology-related software; therefore, they will acquire knowledge more easily and the interaction between teachers and learners will become more flexible. Although technology brings an array of advantages for teachers, they should not overuse technology into teaching. They should prioritise in using traditional teaching methods because machines can’t be exact always, sometimes they have troubles.
I had not previously tried Kahoot in any learning environment until I started my study in Macquarie university. When teacher asked us to engage in an activity by texting a word online and we could simultaneously see all participators’ answers, most of students showed their interest. I do agree that this kind of game-based learning platform can help increasing students’ “motivation and classroom dynamics”. Teachers today can use various of new technologies in class to arouse students’ curiosity and improve their participation and communication. This is also useful for language teaching. For teachers, and also for people who are planning to become a teacher in the future, knowing how to integrate technology into the classroom seems increasingly important.
Thanks Luis for your analysis. Technology is very common in almost classrooms. The Kahoot is beneficial for motivating students’ interests and creating an atmosphere which helps the class to be more active. In fact, Kahoot is a useful tool to test results of studying for students. As far as i am concerned, many English language schools use this app in the class in western countries. However, in China, the tool like Kahoot cannot be used in the class because students are not allowed to have phones when they are having classes. But teachers are more likely to use technologies to improve the classroom efficiency, such as a short video or music which are related to the content in the class. For learners, technology usage can provide convenience for them. For example, learners can take notes and find the exact knowledge quickly. Moreover, searching for different information of related knowledge is also helpful to expand their horizon. For teachers, technology provides their convenience to express meanings by using multimodal ways such as pictures, music, videos and etc. But there is another problem for teachers about how to use technology appropriately. This means that many teachers rely on the technology by reading powerpoint in the class. The debate about technology seems to be endless. Using technology appropriately still needs to be explored in the class for teachers and learners.
Contrary to the tone of the blog post, I have some differing opinions on the effectiveness of games such as Kahoots; derived from my own personal experience in using the game in my ESL classroom. One aspect this post focused on was Kahoot’s inability to achieve the greatest possible learning outcome. In my experience, Kahoots is not designed as a focal point to an ESL lesson but as a supplementary device. The game was designed to garner interest in the lesson topic, lesson or quiz review, and to engage with students in an interactive and academically competitive atmosphere, one which is conducive to learning. I think there is a generally accepted consensus among ESL teachers that we would never center an English lesson around a computer game, but rather incorporate the game into an established lesson plan as a way to engage the student’s interest in the topic at hand, in an academically stimulating environment. As any language teacher would attest, the initial building block established in language learning is to first gain the student’s interest in the language and using that motivation to further construct a foundation of English, that will be essential to their growth as learners in the future.
As digital technologies have been applied on language teaching and learning, they give teachers and students more efficient methods to choose and makes the classes more interesting and attractive. However, how to choose a method that is most suitable for every student is a difficult task for teachers, so teachers may need to learn, analyze and try different methods in order to find the best one. In that case, using digital technologies in education may make trouble for teachers.
Games and technologies like computers and smartphones were non-existent in my English classes at school in the early 2000s, and I honestly didn’t quite acquire too much L2 knowledge from my formal K-12 education. However, I was fortunate enough to build up my linguistic competence thanks to the PC games and programs with elements of gamification that were at my disposal in the comfort of my home.
Years later, aware of the motivation and engagement boosting benefits of gamification, I incorporated various game-like activities in my lessons for my students. Still, I suppose I was a bit old-fashioned back when I was still teaching in my country as the gaming activities I did use didn’t involve any digital technology (I didn’t even know of Kahoots! until my first semester at Macquarie).
With the current ubiquity of computers and mobile devices, it might be useful to take advantage of gaming not only inside but also outside the classroom. Certain apps can be introduced to students so that they can play and learn at their own pace for their own interests.
Hello Luis,
thank you for the discussion of such a relevant topic in our time! I currently work as an English tutor for high school students and each lesson is 2hours with my class ranging from 5-8 students. I usually play games such as hangman or spelling bee during the last 30mins of class. However, I realised my students were getting quite bored and I was only limited to choosing words relevant to the subject from the dictionary. Therefore, I started using Kahoot! in the class and it has certainly brightened up their moods! As you mentioned, it does have limitations due to being “teacher-centred” and due to my time constraints, I am unable to create my games so I browse the “discover” section and choose a quiz suitable for my students’ learning needs. Another thing I’d like to note is that mobile phones are prohibited at the tuition centre that I work at, however, using Kahoot! has changed the perception of mobile phones as a device that CAN lead to positive outcomes rather than being seen as a device that is just distracting in class. I look forward to seeing how technology will advance to change/modify teaching styles!
Hi Luis,
Thank you for sharing. When I start to learn English, I use an application named Memorize Vocabulary Easily to helps me. There are many games in the application. For example, there is a shooting game which requires me to find the correct meaning and shoot it. These games help me to remember the vocabulary and do the self-check. Nowadays, digital technology enriches language teaching and learning methods. Obviously, it makes classroom teaching lively and interesting. However, it is difficult to ensure that students can focus on the knowledge behind multimedia. How to use digital technology correctly and effectively is a problem that both teachers and learners need to think about.
When I studied a foreign language, teachers hardly used technologies or games in the classroom. I find that the reason why technologies is barely used is that grammar-translation method was dominant. Nevertheless, technology has been used commonly in foreign language learning/classroom these days. I find that technology enables learners to study a foreign language in advanced level without going abroad. There have been a wide range of application which are used to learn languages and Kahoot is one example ot it. Frankly, I’ve never used Kahoot, so I cannot tell how this application effective and fruitful. Even though, technology has brough enormous advantages, there is flaw in it. Some people are not good at technologies and they cannot benefit from it because of their tech ability.
Thank you Luis for an interesting read!
I totally agree with you that thanks to the BYOD wave, teachers today (including us probably) have so many available facilitating tools to assist our teaching and our students’ learning. To be honest, I had not known about Kahoot until I came to Australia around more than a year ago. Previously I tried to use technology in my teaching, but mostly just to enhance classroom dynamics and somehow to make students more comfortable with the modes that they were comfortable with (since I believed students could learn better if we put them in their comfort zones, with an element of challenge of course). Reading your post, now I believe that we can actually enhance our students’ proficiency through the use of technological devices, and that way language teaching and learning today can be made so much efficient and effective!
Hi Luis, thank you for your interesting post to express your own view on the use of Kahoot in classroom!
With respect to my prior teaching experience, I mainly use Kahoot to motivate students to learn rather than to teach the language. For example, I created a Kahoot for students to look at logos of fashion brands to match them with their names, and it is effective with most of my class. In fact, they were exciting and willing to start the lesson for instance. However, as you mentioned that Kahoot is not helpful to develop students’ writing skills, I agree with your view, but, as a teacher, I usually use more than one technique to teach the language ,namely, writing skills. So, my suggestion is that a teacher should deploy other resources such as group writing tasks during Kahoot time to encourage students’ writing skills.
Dee
Thank you for your analysis Luiz. I still remember the first time I have the opportunity to interact with my classmates via Kahoot. Everyone seemed so interested in the moment their answer appeared on the screen, however, the effect didn’t last long while no realistic communication took place.
In my home country, over the last decade, teachers have had more chance to imply the digital technologies in their classrooms, which means that their lessons are conveyed in an interesting way and attracts their students’ attention effectively. However, the technologies applied only limited to the powerpoint slides and some interaction video but the games like Kahoot.
I concur that the use of modern technologies in the classroom can benefit both teachers and students in terms of language learning if teachers know how to utilize such sources. On the other hand, if teachers rely on the technologies too much, their students may be overwhelmed by the retrieving knowledge. In my opinion, teachers should consider their teaching context carefully and adopt appropriate technologies if they want to impart their lessons to students effectively.
Kahoot! is an interesting game used to motivate students to learn in the classrooms. However, when I studied at schools, I didn’t have a chance to do this activity. It was not until I studied at the university, the teacher showed us as a tool of teaching and learning. At first, I was impressed by this game, and I thought I would apply this game in my classes. I tried to find out more apps like this (E.g: quizlet) to engage students in the classroom and also created some activities outside the classroom such as creating Facebook group to give comments and share interesting things about topics they learnt in the classrooms or recording a short clip. I think with the help of technology nowadays, students who are technological experts (maybe better than us) can do some projects beyond our expectation. What we can do is to encourage students to take advantage of technology for their learning development.
Technology provides us with great teaching and learning opportunities indeed. I have used Kahoot! both with my adult ESOL students as well as primary school kids whose mother tongue is English. For my ESOL students, it is a good tool providing a fun way how to revise grammar or vocabulary. While the game is fairly competitive and learners usually enjoy it, I also make sure that I take some time between questions to reflect on available options and correct answers. This allows me to elicit answers from students and get them to explain why something is correct or incorrect. As some other people have already mentioned, also Quizlet is quite good. Although I find it more practical when using computers rather than smart phones.
Thanks for the post.
I agree that a game like Kahoot has not been so widely common in the ESL context but it is without doubt gaining ground. While I have never personally used it in the classroom yet, I have seen it in action and do know many ESL teachers who use it regularly and claim that it is very popular. I do intend to use it once I have time to learn what I can do with it as well. I am very sure that such a game can be extremely beneficial in creating motivation and thus, positive learning outcomes however, I feel that with technology in general, there is becoming a reliance on it that may often not be necessary nor helpful. Overall, I think that technologies can be very positive if used in the right way.
Hi Luis,
Thank you for your interesting article. I agree with you that using Kahoot! for language teaching is greatly restricted as it can only support the structural knowledge about the language, but not the communicative sides of it. However, it’s still good to know this game because it can still be used in some cases like reviewing vocabulary, and its fast-paced nature is helpful in catching students’ attention. For the communicating purposes, students could be engaged to more real-life games like Second life or the Sims online although it is necessary to create a safe zone inside the games so that they would not meet and talk to bad people.
Thanks for the interesting analysis Luis.
I have always enjoyed gaming, especially when I was a child, and as an eager second language learner (of Japanese), I am interested in the potential of games for second language acquisition, and have dabbled in the use of games as a means of studying Japanese. Unfortunately, one thing I repeatedly notice, that you allude to in your article, is that most games emphasize progress and ‘winning’ over and above deep and meaningful engagement with the language and content. The fun and addictive nature of many games is tied to a smart and adequately challenging progress system, that rewards you with ‘points’ and congratulates you when you ‘win’ and get to the next level, and promotes speed and progression. What is missing, for me, is any opportunity to really engage with the language in the game – a sense that you are really communicating with the world (beyond the notion of ‘pressing the right button’).
As such, my use of technology for study generally does not extend beyond the use of flash card systems and ‘space repetition systems’ (such as Anki) for reviewing and memorizing new language.
It would be nice to one day be able to enter a rich and immersive video game world where you can encounter and use ‘language in context’ and be rewarded for successful usage with realistic communicative responses and narrative progression, and which could also simultaneously cater to your language level and provide appropriate scaffolding to push you to improve. I will stay optimistic and keep on the lookout for such a game.
I agree with you that it is our role as teachers to choose the suitable learning technologies for our students. As a teacher we should identify the good advantages in any technology as well as the functions it has that our students need. I agree that to improve writing it is important to rewrite, make revisions and review because by rewriting, students will think more critically about the same topic, while keeping more words in their memory, which makes retrievals of those words more easy
I was born and raised in a small coastal region in which little are school children exposed to English. I still remember that we started to learn English since secondary school and all lessons were delivered with no support of digital technologies or hi-tech devices. What I mean is we just experienced traditional teaching methods. From the 2010s onwards, I could see that tech has been present in many educational institutions and in various English teaching classes. However, it is not necessarily a fact in sub-urban or bucolic regions in my country where a majority number of schoolgoers are technology-illiterate and have so little exposure to this magic.
In the modern well-equipped classroom, the presence of the Internet and technology have altered the methods of teaching and learning in both positive and negative ways. I concur that the employment of tech in class is beneficial but I doubt about the skills and knowledge of English teachers of utilizing such great sources. If teachers over-employ or apply tech during direct instruction in a wrong way, learners, rather than get engaged in lessons and retrieve knowledge, are likely to get distracted and overwhelmed in the world of knowledge. Therefore, it is crucial that teachers are well armed with the knowledge and skills of exploiting tech in class and strategically select hi-tech teaching tools or products appropriate with their target students.
Hi Luis,
Thanks for the posting. Yes, technology teaching and learning is a trend in this modern world. Teachers ourselves need to understand the importance and help students enter technology learning in a positive way. In my previous teaching context, we are required to teach with touch panels and web-school established by the institution; we have to learn how to combine traditional teaching with technologies and it is challenging for some teachers who used to teach in the traditional context. After working few years in this institution, I found technological teaching has its structure and students can be motivated to participate in the class more than before. However, there could be a limit for young students because the internet addition is serious. Therefore, I think ESL/EFL teachers should be aware of the importance as well as the dangerous in new technology teaching and learning.
As I do not have a background in TESOL or language teaching, I found this topic quite an interesting read. The implementation of technology in the classroom on a more frequent basis seemed inevitable as I went through my senior years at high school and started university. However, I had never thought of the implications or benefits such a digital shift in the classroom would have on learning. I can see how technology and games at times may be relied on as a mode of entertainment, and can be abused by teachers, in which may hinder the students’ ability to learn effectively. These games and technologies definitely have their place in learning, in my opinion, however they need to be tailored and carefully selected depending on the topic and learning outcome that is to be obtained. Further, I do believe that such games should be followed up with reflection discussions or questions from teachers, I always find these types of activities extremely beneficial when learning.
Thank you for sharing your insightful views about the technology use in class. As you say, it is true that technology tends to abused for the sake of motivating students, or I’d say, entertaining them. I have heard from an expert teacher from my previous workplace that truly good teachers can teach just by a whiteboard and a pen. This might sound exaggerating a little, but I interpret this as a message that we should improve our core ‘teaching skills’ not ‘superficial’ skills which only can be meaningful with a good methodology. This article reminds me of the word from her and makes me think of the proper use of technology.
Digital technologies deeply affect aspects of our lives. The field of education is also inevitably influenced by the development of digital technologies. On the one hand, the development of digital technology has changed the process of teaching to a certain extent. A typical example is that in the past, teachers only used the blackboard to display all the teaching content in the class while computers, iPads, mobile phones, and so on can be used to display the teaching content today. On the other hand, the development of digital technology also affects students’ learning process. In the past, students used paper and pen to take notes and complete homework. Recently, computers, smartphones, and the Internet also play an important role in this process. The development of digital technology has not only changed the mode of teaching and learning but also changed the way of knowledge acquirement. In the past, knowledge sharing comes from paper books, magazines, newspapers, and so on while a vast amount of information can be shared via the Internet today.
Thanks Luis for your analysis.
Obviously, technology is ubiquitous in almost all classrooms regardless of the subjects being taught.
In terms of ELT, I think the issues arising from the use of technology somehow look like what people have been debating about using textbooks in the class. On the one hand, technology livens up the atmosphere and helps lead the learners to the lessons more smoothly. Learners can also find it more convenient to retrieve knowledge and learn new language items. On the other hand, technology has been abused by many teachers (sadly, including me sometimes). I suppose, since teachers may not have enough time to prepare thorough lessons and to weigh up the pros and cons of utilising particular technologies, they end up introducing some games into the classroom so that the teachers themselves and the learners ‘feel’ like the acquisition of knowledge is going on. In this sense, technology, like textbooks, can be judged as the tool for inexperienced teachers.
I believe the debate over the use of technology in the classroom seems to be endless. People might argue that teachers should know how to critically introduce technology into their classrooms; however, with more and more technologies (eg. apps, games) to be released in the market every year, I doubt that teachers have enough capability to evaluate and use technologies in the most strategic ways.
Digital technologies have been increasingly used in foreign or second language learning and teaching in recent years, breaking the traditional mode that teachers and students present in the classroom in person using school textbook. Language learners embrace digital technologies as they create virtual community where they can meet native speakers or they can access authentic language materials or context. Since there have many new learning technologies, which one is best for the learner? Individual learners can try, experience, reflect and eventually choose the best one. But it is not the case for school teachers for they have to choose the best ones for a group of individuals, young learners. There is no such thing as one size fits all, which means even the best digital technology can be able to satisfy the requirement of all students. Teachers should fulfill the responsibility to compare, select, verify, reflect and alter it necessarily as they have the best insight of the specific teaching context where they teach. As teachers, they should be able to think critically about the digital technologies, finding out the most suitable and efficient ones for a specific group of learners.
Digital technologies started over ten years ago and teachers were required to immediately instill digital skills and digital understanding into both primary and secondary school classes in Australia. However, teacher’s experiences using technology and implementing it into the classroom may have affected the way in which digital learning tools and resources were encouraged or discouraged in the classroom (Lau & Sim, 2008; Russell, Bebell, O’Dwyer & O’Connor, 2003; Smerdon, Cronen, Lanahan, Anderson, Lannotti & Angeles, 2000).
Using digital technology and its myriad of resources is not a simple argument about the willingness of teachers. Often the geographic location and school education curriculum as well as the school’s resources and funds play a pivotal part as to whether the use of technology will be utilized for students learning or not. Depending on funding from the government, some schools receive more than others (Thompson, 2015).
There is now a digital divide. And the gap is growing. Regional and rural schools of Australia are often not prioritized compared with Sydney or Melbourne city schools. Therefore, students being automatically labelled as ‘digital natives’ is not necessarily a fact in regional and rural locations (Hyndman, 2018). Teachers may be mistakenly blamed for not immersing their classes in technology for learning purposes when often there are restrictions that are beyond their control. Restrictions such as the recent mobile phone usage in all Victorian classrooms – the complete banning of mobile phones in classes. This type of ban only causes a greater digital divide as mobile phones can create a great opportunity for class engagement and interaction.
From my own 15 years of teaching experiences and current teaching experiences, using technology in the classroom does enhance students’ motivation, concentration and involvement in the lessons. Especially at the English for Academic Purposes level, students really need technology not only as a helpful resource but as a digital tool to fulfill research, writing, listening, reading and speaking requirements. I have gone against the grain and utilize mobile phones as well.
Students now can have the autonomy to study further and outside of the classroom by using technology to their advantage.
I really hope that regional and rural schools will be taken seriously as technology and learning with it and from it can only serve to improve learning and classroom enjoyment.
Thank you Luiz for this post.
Personally, I concur with your point that Kahoot! are one of the most useful technological tool to boost classroom’s motivational level rather than writing skill as a result of its design and the competitiveness provided. Kahoot! used to be on the top of my list of games during my lessons, notably on vocabulary and grammar.
However, there are one particular point that I may question. Although learners have a short time read and review all the answers before submitting their choice, they can go back to the answers after the teacher shows the correct one and then raise discussion over the point. For example, in terms of grammar, when showing the correct answer, teachers can ask students why the other options are incorrect and ask students to create sentences using the grammarical point being discussed. (this is how used to do it in my classroom).
It is true that the design of Kahoot! restrict the reading and writing capacities that smartphones can offer to their users. However I think that teacher should be flexible in using such games by integrating more activities during the games such as having students explaining and discussing their answers.
I would like to suggest another useful online technological tool for language learning especially L2 learning, that is Quizlet, which can provide several follow-up activities for students to revise their lessons.