Who owns the tool? What is the name of the company, the CEO? What are their politics? What does the tool say it does? What does it actually do?
An Education Technology Tool that I am familiar with is Kahoot! this was founded in 2012 by Morten Versvik, Johan Brand and Jamie Brooker, who all teamed up with the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (Kahoot!, n.d.). The current CEO of Kahoot! Is Eilert Giertsen Hanoa who was appointed in 2019. Their goal is to become the leading learning platform in the world and have made great progress by having 9 billion participants in more than 200 countries and regions. According to their website the headquarters is located in Oslo, Norway and has offices in the US, UK, France, Finland, Estonia, Denmark, Spain, and Poland. In terms of politics Kahoot! has not run into any issues that causes any of the governments to be concerned about their privacy or any other matters. Kahoot! is a online learning platform used to help students test their knowledge by quizzing them while trying to have the highest score against your other classmates. Kahoot! fulfills what they say the website is used for and does not lie about it not being able to do anything. Additionally, Kahoot can be done online or in person and allows people to create, share and host different learning sessions.
What data are we required to provide in order to use the tool (login, e-mail, birthdate, etc.)? What flexibility do we have to be anonymous, or to protect our data? Where is data housed; who owns the data? What are the implications for in-class use? Will others be able to use/copy/own our work there?
Kahoot will collect personally identifiable information from individuals who are creating content on the website, along with other automatically collected information (Common Sense Privacy Program, 2022) . This information includes a login, your email, your geographical location, your payment information if you pay for the service, and in some cases your organization or school (Kahoot!, 2023). Kahoot! also reports collecting “personal information form other sources likes public databases, joint marketing partners and other third parties” (Kahoot!, 2023). Additionally, Kahoot! may share your information with other third-party sources and if the person agrees their information might also be shared for concerts and marketing promotions (Common Sense Privacy Program, 2022). However, if the person is only using the website to play the quiz, then no information is required. However, according to Common Sense if someone creates an account under the age of 13 then their name and email address are collected but no other information is collected, after collecting the email address Kahoot permanently alters the child’s email so that they cannot be contacted. Kahoot! also allows the parents to request that no further collection of information be collected and that they delete any prior information. In Canada data is housed in OVH Hosting GmbH, and they process personal data, as well Kahoot! owns all of the data and is responsible if any of the data is breeched or misused (Kahoot!, 2023). In terms of in-class use the only other way people will be able to access any information is if you make your quizzes publicly available, and even then, it is hard for them to access your data. People can most definitely use your work on Kahoot if you make the quizzes public, however if they are private then they cannot.
How does this tool act or not act as a mediator for our pedagogies? Does the tool attempt to dictate our pedagogies? How is its design pedagogical? Or exactly not pedagogical? Does the tool offer a way that “learning can most deeply and intimately begin”?
This tool acts as a mediator for our pedagogies because it allows for many different types of learning to occur, it can be done in large groups, or by themselves. Additionally, Kahoot! provides students with a way of learning that is fun and interactive. The tool does dictate our pedagogies since it would be hard to do this in a constructivism way since there is not much room for collaboration while the students are trying to answer the question since it is timed. This is design is pedagogical because it allows for connectivism. This occurs because not only are students given the opportunity to display what they know and learn what they don’t know you are also working together as a class to achieve and understand the content. In between questions it allows for other students to help explain to those who got the question wrong why this occurred. This allows the teacher to see if the students have the proper tools to learn the topics and which topics students did not understand to reteach them. This tool does offer a way when learning can most deeply and intimately begin, because it allows students to have fun with learning, while being competitive providing some motivation for the task. Additionally, the student will learn what they do and do not know, allowing them to realize what they should focus more on before an assessment.
Reflection
I choose this activity because I think it was beneficial for me to reflect on not only what different education technology tools there are, but also if they are problematic in their data collection. This learning portfolio made me realize that a lot of companies do not make their data bases and their privacy information super available so using common sense helped me realize and understand parts of what their privacy policies are actually saying. I also choose this activity because as technology is advancing the goal seems to be that companies want as much information about you as possible, so this helps me realize how to avoid them from accessing some of my information. This also achieved one of my learning goals of learning more about the future of education as well as how it is progressing through technology. Through this exercise I was also able to reflect on how Kahoot! has changed as technology has progressed and how now it is not only used in classrooms but also in corporate settings.
References
Kahoot! About us. (n.d.). Kahoot! retrieved June 1, 2023, from
Kahoot! Privacy Policy. (January 9, 2023). Kahoot! retrieved June 1, 2023, from https://trust.kahoot.com/privacy-policy/
Standard Privacy Report for Kahoot! (January 10, 2022). Common Sense
Privacy Program. Retrieved June 1, 2023 from https://privacy.commonsense.org/privacy-report/kahoot