Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

Blooket is a game-based learning tool that allows you to play or create your own trivia and review games for group competition or solo study. There are two ways to set up games: you can Host a live game to play together during class, or assign games as Homework for students to complete asynchronously. There are countless games in the Discovery area that are ready to go. When creating your own game, you can create a question set manually or import questions from Quizlet. The games are set-up by the teacher as a Host game or Homework. A Host game is assigned live and completed together during class. A Homework assignment is a game assigned for students to complete asynchronously. Currently there are nine different games to choose from, five of those can be assigned as Homework to be completed at any time asynchronously.

Applying the Triple E Framework

The Triple E Framework, created by Dr. Liz Kolb, is built on the belief that “effective technology integration begins with good instructional strategies and not fancy tools” (tripleeframework.com). Dr. Kolb wrote a book on the topic, Learning First, Technology Second (ISTE, 2017), that lays out the three main uses for technology in education: to Engage, Enhance, or Extend learning goals. We can use this framework to decipher why we are using specific tools in the classroom. Here is a rubric based on the Triple E Framework you can use to evaluate whether Blooket (or any other technology) is a good fit with your learning goals and whether you should use it in your lesson.

• Engage in learning goals: Blooket games are very motivating to students because students are engaged in the variety of games. Students are also more engaged as they pick a personalized “Blook” to be their game piece throughout the games. Blooket helps to motivate students to begin the learning process by engaging them in the activities. Blooket is easy to navigate and can be teacher-led or completed as homework. When using Blooket, students take on the role of active learner as they view and participate in the games and assessments that have been shared by their teacher. Blooket can allow students to complete the lesson in a self-paced format when they are doing the homework mode. The game can be repeated for additional review. Students are more focused on the task because they are engaged in online games.
• Enhance learning goals: Blooket creates paths for students to demonstrate their understanding of the learning goals using gaming in a way that they could not do without technology. Depending on the type of questions asked, this tool enhances learning goals because it allows students to demonstrate a more sophisticated understanding of the content by answering questions throughout the nine games on the site. Activities are not isolated in workbooks or stand-alones – the games and activities are designed for review and formative assessment. This demonstrates understanding better than just reading the text and it puts students virtually into the games. All of this enhances students’ learning and offers a more sophisticated and deeper understanding of the content. 
• Extend learning goals: Dr. Kolb describes extended learning as an opportunity for students to learn, connect, and collaborate outside of the regular school day and as a bridge between the school day and real-life experiences. This tool would work well with flipped, blended, and remote learning lessons, as students could complete the games at home or in school. Games can be set-up so that students play at the same time or play asynchronously at any time. We are preparing our students for a world that doesn’t exist yet, but most jobs do require independent motivation and knowledge of technology. Blooket allows students to practice skills they will use in the future, as many classes and careers will require students to use technology and to work through various steps of lessons or projects to completion.

SAMR Connection

The SAMR Model, by Dr. Ruben Puentedura, suggests that technology implementation has four levels. We can use this model as a guideline to analyze how we’re using technology tools in the classroom. Blooket, depending on how it is used, can be at all four levels of SAMR.

• Substitution: At this level, the technology acts as a direct substitute, with no functional improvements. An example of using Blooket at this level would be if the teacher hosted a game at the end of a unit rather than giving a paper/pencil test. 
• Augmentation: At the level of augmentation the technology acts as a direct substitute, but also includes some functional improvements. Blooket allows teachers to add images to a game. Blooket also offers nine different games, to differentiate by interest. 
• Modification: The level of modification allows us to make (or modify) the activity into something more integrated with technology, meaning there is significant task redesign. There are countless ready-to-go games, all searchable and editable. Another functional improvement in the asynchronous games is the ability to play more than once for extra review. 
• Redefinition: The highest level of SAMR could be reached by having students collaborate and compete together outside of the classroom. The games can be set-up to be completed remotely. Students (ages 13+) can also create accounts and design their own games from scratch or edit an already-created game. 

Don’t miss Part 2 of the Tech Tool of the Month: Blooklet, where we’ll discuss how to use the tool and introduce ways to use it in the classroom. In the meantime, let us know in the comment section below how you have used Blooklet in your education setting.