Should there be a Blooket Ban?

By: Craig McPherson

In my opinion, teachers should stop using Blooket to help students review curriculum materials because the game is poorly designed. 

One of the most commonly criticized aspects of Blooket’s game design would have to be that it prioritizes luck over knowledge. An example of this would be in the mode, “Gold Quest”. In it, players choose one of three treasure chests for each question they answer correctly. They can obtain a certain amount of gold from the chests, and the winner is whoever has the most gold at the end. The contents of each chest are seemingly random, and two possibilities include losing gold and the ability to swap gold with another player. This can be rather unfair because students who understand the materials, and answer more questions accurately, can still get unlucky and lose their gold. Meanwhile, other students who don’t understand the material, and perform worse, can simply get lucky and still end with more gold. 

Another reason that Blooket has poor game design would be that some aspects do not accommodate more sensitive or younger students. Elements such as the bright, oversaturated colors or loud music can be overwhelming for students higher on the spectrum. The time limit, which only allows a student at most a minute, to answer a question, can also be stressful. 

As an article on the pros and cons of Blooket said; “Many game modes reward fast answers, not just correct ones. This disadvantages kids who are still developing reading fluency or processing speed. A first grader who knows the answer but takes an extra few seconds to sound out the words will consistently score lower than faster readers, which can feel demoralizing” (Screenwise). Younger students who need more time to think before answering are generally less rewarded than students who answer more quickly. This can be damaging to the self-esteem of these more sensitive students.  

One last flaw with the game design of Blooket would be how it is notably easy to hack. A fairly accessible platform called GitHub enables students to download software that allows them to directly manipulate games. This means that a student could easily hack the game and gain unfair advantages, such as tricking the game into thinking they answer questions correctly when they actually do not, or gaining more points from questions than they are supposed to. 

Another way that this can be an issue is presented by the following quote from Anne Ogg, MEP Technology Facilitator for Millard Public Schools; “Around mid-April, Blooket was hacked twice during a middle school class, and the second instance displayed racist and hateful language,” (Prokupek). Not only are students using the hacks to cheat, but hackers can also use them to include highly offensive, explicit language in games for all classes to see. 

Overall, the game design is poor because it prioritizes luck over knowledge, it does not accommodate more sensitive or younger students, and it is notably easy to hack. In conclusion, teachers should stop using Blooket to help students review curriculum materials because the game is poorly designed. Therefore, teachers should refrain from using Blooket because although it’s a more interactive way to learn, it can cause more harm to a student’s learning process compared to other education methods.