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Outline

Title: How using technological tools as Flipgrid, Kahoot, and Classroom can help teachers

and students to experience a more effective e-learning and e-teaching experience.

Thesis statement: While the teaching-learning process of teachers and students have

significantly changed due to the circumstances, it is essential to say that classroom, flipgrid,

and kahoot bring advantages as engagement, accessibility, and communication which can

contribute to teachers and students in making this learning-teaching process a lot easier and

effective.

1. Engagement

a. Students can highly engage with the class material

b. Teachers can check if students truly understood the material that was covered

2. Accessibility

a. Students can access to the class material easily

b. Students have access to a variety of information

c. Teachers can find material to improve their lectures

3. Communication

a. Students can have a more personalized experience

b. Teachers can provide a more in-depth explanation to students.

Conclusion: By all counts, and with proven results, the use of Flipgrid, Kahoot, and

Classroom provided students, and teachers with whole new and innovative solutions to

keep on learning and teaching as a new era starts to develop for education. Even though it
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may seem as virtual learning brings many disadvantages, these three tools prove that virtual

education can be also worthy.

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How using technological tools as Classroom, Flipgrid, and Kahoot can help teachers

and students to experience more effective e-learning and e-teaching experience.

Over the past few months, education has experienced a completely unexpected challenge

that has affected the previous course of teachers and students due to the circumstances. On

March 5th, Costa Rica confirmed its first case of the current virus called COVID 19 which

has quickly spread around the world. The measurements that the country decided to impose

as a response to the virus, highly affected the education system of the country since

teachers and students migrated from face-to-face education to virtual education. This new

dynamic seemed to erratically affect teachers and students as they expose themselves to a

new process. However, while the teaching-learning process of teachers and students have

significantly changed due to the circumstances, it is essential to highlight that technological

tools like Classroom, Flipgrid, and Kahoot bring advantages as engagement, accessibility,

and communication which can contribute to teachers and students in making this learning-

teaching process a lot easier and effective.

Regarding the tools that teachers and students have been implementing in this new

education process, it is relevant to mention that google classroom has become the number

one alternative for students and teachers to communicate. According to Matthew Lynch one

of the advantages of using Google Classroom in virtual education is that teachers and

students can access the platform via a computer, mobile, or any other electronic device that

allows them to access the internet. [ CITATION Mat18 \l 1033 ] The relatively trouble-free

approach to this platform allows students and teachers to communicate and access the

course without inconveniences. As a result, students and teachers can access the class

material a lot easier than before, making the educational system more productive and
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simpler for both teachers and students. In other words, the use of such a platform provides

students and teachers with the possibility to continue with their teaching and learning

process without any interruption that can affect their routine.

An important aspect to highlight is the fact that communication is not the only

benefit that Google Classroom provides to education. The use of such a useful platform not

only allows teachers and students to communicate, but also allows them the opportunity to

improve their engagement. Classroom gives students and teachers many different methods

to make virtual education a lot more connected and correlational. Teachers providing the

material for students more concisely and easily allows students to improve their focus and

wishes to learn in the course in which they enrolled. [ CITATION Mat18 \l 1033 ] Thanks to

teachers implementing Google Classroom as a via to give lectures, students will be able to

take proprietorship of their learning process and decide which topics deserve more time and

dedication. As a consequence, students and teachers can use communication as a via to

discuss the topics that need reinforcement. The two parties being able to improve their

educational paths will contribute to an education more personalized and active in which

students can ask for help from their teachers in the topics that they consider difficult, and

teachers can relate with their students so that they can provide students with a class material

that will comply with their students' necessities.

Concerning the tools that teachers and students have been using to improve their

levels of communication while being in quarantine, the use of Flipgrid has become a great

incentive that provides students and teachers with a more personalized and in-depth

understanding of the courses. While it is true, that face to face education provides teachers

and students with a more specific and intimate understanding and comprehension of the
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topics of a course, Flipgrid doesn't back off. This platform provides teachers with an

alternative for them to realize how much their students understand certain topics. For

example, if students are having a hard time trying to understand a topic, teachers can ask

their students to upload short videos in which students make a small summary of what they

understand about the topic, so teachers discover the areas that need to be reinforced.

[ CITATION Flind \l 1033 ]Basically, Flipgrid permits students to have a more personalized

explanation according to their needs, and also allows teachers with the tools to provide a

more in-depth explanation of their topics to accommodate themselves to their students'

needs.

Now, when we talk about this platform, the social interaction that this platform

provides for students and teachers is the key. Last March, the whole country experimented

with a total lockdown that affected all aspects of society regarding socialization that even

teachers and students were not able to exempt from. As a result, the educational process

had to face many challenges that affected teachers and students' mental health by bringing

feelings of isolation and loneliness into their minds. In the past, people could interact and

see each other people's faces, but this lockdown heavily impacted the mental health of

millions of people not only in Costa Rica, but all around the world. This is where Flipgrid

became of big help for education. This platform provided teachers and students with a via

to communicate and interact. The feelings of isolation and loneliness were no longer

thought, and students once again could interact, and see their teacher's and classmates'

faces. Even though physical interaction was still not possible, the possibility to talk about a

topic via video message became tangible and real for teachers and students. Consequently,

Flipgrid took this as an advantage and impulsed their platform to make sure that
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educational organizations remembered the importance of communication between teachers

and students.

Finally, regarding the last tool which has become of great help for virtual education,

we have Kahoot. According to Jonathan Mendoza, Kahoot is a platform based on a trivia

and quiz format in which students and teachers can challenge their knowledge to prove

themselves how much they understand the class material. [ CITATION Men18 \l 1033 ]As a

result, this source became very well known in the last few years to the extent of becoming

one of the most common ways to test students' knowledge both in virtual education and

face to face education. As a consequence, in the past few months this tool, already known

in the educative community, was applied even more than before. Since the new pandemic

that was quickly spreading around the world became an obstacle for teachers and students,

the massive use of this tool called Kahoot brought so many benefits for the virtual

educative process of thousands of teachers and students during the pandemic. For example,

Thanks to Kahoot, students were able to engage even more in their classes' content. One of

the most important aspects of such a tool is that it makes learning a lot more different and

interesting for both teachers and students. The purpose of Kahoot is to provide students

with a new way to learn by interacting and having fun with your teachers and classmates at

the same time. Thanks to that vision, students were able to interact with their teachers and

classmates despite the fact of people being isolated. Having the possibility to learn in a fun

and dynamic way brings in students' curiosity and wondering about the class material

which consequently contributes to students enjoying the class and the lectures because of

the fun dynamic that teachers promoted in their virtual teaching.

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As for teachers, they also faced many challenges that heavily impacted their

teaching process, but teachers were able to benefit from Kahoot was by using this tool as a

via to improve communication between teachers and students. Also, thanks to it, teachers

were able to reinforce their students' knowledge and understanding about a topic thanks to

this quiz format tool. In the first place, having a well-developed sense of communication

between teacher and students is a really important characteristic of virtual education, if

there is no communication between them, e-teaching and e-learning won't be effective for

any of the two parties. That is why Kahoot became a major source to improve

communication between teachers and students. Teachers and students discussing a topic in

a quiz format, help teachers to see how much their students struggle with certain topics

when answering the Kahoot questions, at the same time, students become more conscious

of which aspect they need to study and practice more. As the idiom says, being able to kill

two birds with one stone contributes to the mutual comprehension of the two parties.

Thanks to this contribution the experience becomes more personalized and effective for

both teachers and students. Teachers deliver more effective teaching to students by

challenging their students' knowledge in a quiz format, and students develop more

personalized and improved learning of the lectures taught by their teachers in a more fun

and interactive way.

Eventually, even though this tool provides teachers and students with benefits that

mold to the necessities of teachers and students separately, there is also a big benefit that

applies to both teachers and students at the same time. First, Kahoot made sure to develop a

user-friendly interface that is easy to use for both teachers and students. [ CITATION Men18 \l

1033 ]The relatively easy to use tool provides teachers and students with the possibility to
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work with it in any electronic device like for example, computers, smartphones, tablets, and

any other source with the ability to access the internet which certainly contributes to people

being able to use it anywhere and anytime. Second, the players of the Kahoot quizzes don't

need to create an account to challenge the Kahoot quizzes. This platform created to

improve education in a quiz format that promotes the possibility to perform a quiz without

having to register contributes to students saving their time by not creating an account just to

play a five- or ten-minutes long quiz. Finally, this platform is completely free for both

teachers and students which means that teachers and students have to possibility to create

Kahoots without spending any money, and they don't need to spend any cent when

challenging a quiz. Being completely free for teachers and students marks a big when

talking about education. Being accessible to everybody despite their economic status is

what education is really about.

In conclusion, for many years most schools had tried to promote technology in the

classrooms to improve their teachers' abilities and also improve the educational level of

students, but coming up with useful tools that will easily become of great help was never

really used until virtual education became a reality for millions of teachers and students. A

worldwide pandemic left teachers and students with no other options. COVID-19 forced

teachers and students to find new ways to continue with their educational process, and these

three tools became the main focus on education. Communication, engagement, and

accessibility were once again available for teachers and students throughout the use of these

three tools in virtual learning education. By all counts, and with proven results, the use of

Flipgrid, Kahoot, and Classroom have provided students, and teachers with whole new and

innovative solutions to keep on learning and teaching as a new era starts to develop for
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education. Even though it may seem like virtual learning brings many disadvantages, these

three tools prove that virtual education can be also worthy.

References
Mendoza, Jonathan. (2018, September 27). Retrieved from Learn Safe:
https://learnsafe.com/using-kahoot-in-the-classroom/

Flipgrid. (2019). Building a Higher Education Flipgrid Community. Retrieved from Flipgrid
integration guide: https://static.flipgrid.com/docs/Flipgrid_k12_community.pdf

Langevin, S. (2019, August). Common Sense Education . Retrieved from Google Classroom:
Simplifying communication, collaboration, and document sharing:
https://www.commonsense.org/education/website/google-classroom

Lynch, M. (2018, September 4). The Tech Edvocate. Retrieved from Early Childhood & K-12 EdTech:
https://www.thetechedvocate.org/10-benefits-of-google-classroom-integration/
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