Kahootz Case Study written by Jack Kenny, freelance journalist

Kahootz at Hundred of Hoo School, Medway

Kahootz is an animation software package that enables students to create and share animated videos.  Exceptional in that it enables all abilities to create stories, Kahootz encourages the design of video sequences and the invention of three-dimensional environments that allow students to use animation easily.  In addition, children can work collaboratively both with their contemporaries and with schools across the world.  The emphasis on learning styles means that children with varied learning and working styles can use this software.There are a range of characters and objects to choose from. Kahootz characters and objects have built in animation and students can add their own simulations.
THE PROJECT

Moya Dean, the LA ICT consultant in Medway, was introduced to Kahootz by Peter Maggs one of the creators and she was impressed by the scope of the program and could see the implications.  Moya felt that it could be a tool to address the problem in the Medway towns with boys’ writing and she saw Kahootz as a structured way of engaging students.

In common with many schools in Medway there is an issue with boys’ literacy.  Moya Dean saw  Kahootz as software that will develop literacy skills and could be an alternative way into literacy for some students. It also seems to be a way of engaging with media without having to buy additional media kit.

The Hundred of Hoo School was chosen to host a project to explore the use of the software.

THE SCHOOL

The Hundred of Hoo Media Arts School is one of the largest secondary schools in Medway.  They have the full range of ability from students joining in Year 7 with SATS results below Level 3; to students who leave at the end of Year 11 with a good range of GCSEs.  Students leave from the Sixth Form to go on to University or to the local colleges following academic or vocational courses.  There is an autistic centre on site.  The location is rural but London is on the doorstep, just half an hour on the train.

There is a culture developing in the school where the Senior Management, under Gaynor Black, are freeing up the curriculum and looking at learning rather than a content dominated curriculum. Kahootz fits into that.

Media work is strong in the Hundred of Hoo School.  That was one of the reasons why the school was chosen for the Kahootz trial.  In addition, the school has been developing ICT across the curriculum. The main areas of use of Kahootz have been in the English department and in Geography. 

Staff are anxious to point out that they did not run Kahootz as part of an ICT initiative. They wanted it to be across the curriculum. The project was not about ICT but embedding ICT in the curriculum.

ENGLISH

The English teachers see Kahootz as a more child friendly version of Flash animation. They feel that the program has a crucial role in the early stages of media education and has a real contribution to make on media literacy.  They argue that students get a great deal out of working with the program as some children find it hard to express themselves through reading and writing.  They feel the program can help students to express themselves visually.  The teachers’ experience is that after a one hour lesson the children will be able to create something that is their own and that they can feel some affinity to. Children who are disenchanted with school can be lead to see that some work can relate directly to their own preoccupations.  The teachers argue that Kahootz reinforces the reasons for teaching media.  The teachers point out that the students have grown up in, and live in, a media saturated society.  A program like Kahootz links directly in to the world as students understand it.

The program has been used for the development of Enterprise education.  It helps students to work in groups and develops their team working skills.  Work on GCSE Literature has been enhanced by looking at characters and asking students to develop character profiles.  Students build a character room for each person and the student explains why they have made particular choices for the room.

The teaching staff point out that the role of the teacher changes with Kahootz.  The software allows student to develop ideas in a different way, putting the emphasis on students doing the work rather than teachers.  A number of teachers emphasised that their role changed from teacher to adviser after an initial period of teaching the use of the program.  In a lesson the children help one another and, at times, some teachers began to feel a little redundant.

Teachers spoke about the difficulty of integrating traditional media work (video camera, microphones and editing) into normal lessons.  Kahootz is relatively easy to integrate into conventional work and the constraints of a timetable. It can be adapted to each class and can suit all parts of the intellectual spectrum.  The more intelligent can have the openness of the software and the freedom to create in their own way.

The school in 2006/7 hope to develop a collaborative project with Pannawonica Primary School, Western Australia

GEOGRAPHY

In Geography the program has been used with a wide range of students and the teacher emphasised how adaptable the program is to all levels of ability. Year 7 has used the program and they have learnt it easily.   It has also been used successfully with a less able group to design the kind of environments they would like to live in.  Literacy is a substantial problem with that group and Kahootz gives them a secure structure to work inside.  The teacher can structure the program so that the challenges offered to the students are within their ability and are not daunting.

One teacher, comparing Kahootz with video creation, made the point that a digital video camera can be too open for some learners.  On the other hand, Kahootz can be left completely open for those students who are challenged by the freedom offered by the program. Through Kahootz children were able to talk almost abstractly about concepts.  Lower ability children were enabled to take part in higher order thinking.

One teacher made the point that his students were easily bored by too much didactic teaching and they thrived on the activities and the almost games like environment of Kahootz.  The teachers were impressed with how students can create something really concrete in an hour’s lesson.  The work within a lesson can be more integrated than most media work. In Geography, Kahootz allows students to express themselves in ways that are more relevant to themselves as individuals  

For more information about Kahootz go to TAG Learning's website, www.taglearning.com or click here.