[Kahoot] Enhance collaborative group problem-solving features

Unpopular Opinions 2 - Games like Kahoot are also overrated. After the success of last week’s unpopular opinion on learning outcomes, I thought I would turn my attention to online games. My students request Kahoot time and time again but more often than not, their requests go unheeded. I know there are some advantages to using Kahoot. I know it breaks up the lesson, adds variety, and motivates the students. I know it helps to review vocab and grammar, but I still only use it very occasionally. Here are 4 reasons why I think the disadvantages outweigh those advantages. 1. Games like Kahoot claim to be interactive because everyone is contributing an answer. But an interactive classroom for me is when students are working in different groups, problem solving, discussing, using their English. Yes, online games allow all the students to answer, but the focus is on the teacher and the screen and the students spend quite a bit of time doing nothing waiting for their peers to answer or the programme to load, etc.  2. I try to build a classroom community where students collaborate and look out for each other. Learning is not a competition, learning is about being better than you were yesterday, last week, etc. Online games pit students against each other, so instead of cooperation we get competition. Students become unwilling to help each other in case that help leads to them losing at the online game. 3. Beware the computer says no syndrome. Languages are flexible, therefore there is often more than one correct answer. There are also degrees of correctness, if you are looking for the answer ‘shop’ and the student says ‘supermarket’, they are 90% right. The problem with online games is that they are not as flexible. The computer says no, you are wrong,  with no explanation. This reinforces the idea that only 100% correct language is good enough and anything less is seen as a failure. It is widely agreed that  intelligibility, not perfection, is the goal when speaking a foreign language, but these games tend to only focus on accuracy. This focus on accuracy stifles creativity and that is harmful to our students. There is no reward for effort, or for nearly right, or for alternative answers.  4. These games tend to be testing the students’ knowledge of the language rather than the students’ ability to use it. That is fine if that is our aim, but what are we doing with the results to ensure they are formative tests? Do we know that they are getting the right answers for the right reasons or are they just guessing? Why are they getting the answers wrong? Is it because they don’t know or they don’t have time to think?  A colleague said recently it is what you do after the game that matters. This is the time when  students can work out why they were right or wrong and have time to reflect on their mistakes. Do you agree with me? Are these online games overrated? Am I using the wrongly? If you use them, how do you overcome the problems I’ve highlighted?