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Kialo Edu

Kialo Edu

Kialo Edu

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What is Kialo Edu?

The free tool for thoughtful, inclusive discussion. Hear from everyone instantly, make your discussions more inclusive, and develop students’ critical thinking skills with Kialo Edu.

Starting from a central thesis, students add pros and cons, engaging with each other’s arguments to build an interactive map of the entire discussion.

Why Kialo?

Maximum Participation

It can be hard to get everyone participating in a class discussion. But it’s no problem on Kialo, where students can contribute instantly, simultaneously, and from anywhere.

Safer and More Inclusive

Ease common anxieties around class-wide discussions with Kialo’s text-based format. Features that separate the argument from the arguer ensure the focus is always on ideas — not who said them!

Deeper Topic Comprehension

Kialo is designed for breaking down arguments into understandable chunks. The connective format makes it easy to follow how these simple ideas build on one another to form complex reasoning.

Better Contributions

Kialo pushes students to show their reasoning! The argument-mapping structure encourages concise, substantive contributions that have to be connected to other points in the discussion.

Better for Critical Thinking

It can be hard to find the time and the right activities for teaching important critical thinking skills. Research shows that argument-mapping tools like Kialo are one of the best ways to teach it!

Teacher-Focused Tools

Kialo Edu is all about supporting educators, which is why we have an enormous library full of ready-to-go discussion resources, a built-in Grading tool, a Tasks feature to keep track of student progress, and much more!

Our user interface is currently available in five different languages — English, German, French, Spanish, and Portuguese — but users can hold discussions in whatever language they choose. Educators have facilitated Kialo discussions in 49 different languages and counting!

Plus, Kialo Edu works with all your favorite platforms. Check out our Help Center for more information on how we integrate with Google Classroom, Canvas, Blackboard, Moodle, Brightspace, and more.

Kialo Edu is free and always will be. Head to our website to learn more, sign up, and start discussing!

CompanyBusiness Name: Kialo
HQ Location: Germany
Founded: 2019
Age Range8-10, 11-13, 14-16, 17-18, 19+
FeaturesDiscussionArgument MappingSmall Group ModeAnonymous ParticipationAssign TasksGrading And FeedbackTopic LibraryStart And Stop DiscussionsInstant Access (no Accounts Required)
LanguagesEnglish, German, French, Spanish; Castilian, Portuguese
AccessibilityRobust features
PoliciesTerms of ServicePrivacy PolicyGDPR
RequirementsInternet - Low BandwidthInternet - High BandwidthDesktop - MacDesktop - WindowsDesktop - ChromebookDesktop - LinuxMobile - iPhoneMobile - iPadMobile - WindowsMobile - Android

Kialo Edu works with all major internet browsers — meaning all that participants need is a device with internet access. Computers, smartphones, tablets, or any combination thereof all work fine!

Set Up

You can set up a Kialo Edu discussion in a couple of minutes. The fastest way to try out Kialo Edu with your class is to:

  1. Sign up using an existing Google, Microsoft, or Clever account, or by setting up a new Kialo Edu account.
  2. Choose a ready-made starter discussion from our Topic Library.
  3. Turn on Instant Access and share the link with students. This account-free option requires nothing more than a name!

And there you are! From signup to a lively student discussion in less than two minutes!

TrainingLive OnlineDocumentationVideos
SupportEmailFAQs/ForumKnowledge Base
Home LearningParent Access

Anyone can create the account.

Kialo is completely free, so parents can set up their own account for home learning.

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Pedagogy

Certified Pedagogical Quality

Certified by Education Alliance Finland,

EAF Evaluation is an academically-backed approach to evaluating the pedagogical design of a product. EAF evaluators assess the product using criteria that covers the most essential pedagogical aspects in the learning experience.
Passive
Active
Kialo fosters critical thinking through group discussions where arguments can be tested and countered. This learning method provides an excellent way to engage with others, and inspires students to keep pushing forward. There are multiple ways the teacher can use the tool, and specific task features provide structure and goals.
Rehearse
Construct
Kialo is an excellent example of how technology can facilitate deeper thinking. Its debate and argument formation assets help learners internalise complex topics, and its structured approach fosters a comprehensive understanding. Voting and author appreciation features motivate students, while claim review and duplicate detection tools aid in evaluating arguments. Kialo's lesson plans and guides provide strategies for classroom use and extended writing tasks.
Linear
Non-linear/Creative
Kialo's approach to learning is centred around students, meaning outcomes may vary from one student to another. The non-linear form of learning is clear as the tool is designed with the learner activities at the forefront. The example discussion templates are very open-ended, which encourages further exploration and enables students to acquire learning outcomes that they find beneficial.
Individual
Collaborative
Although students write individually, the full experience is highly collaborative. Kialo provides an open learning community to share information, thoughts, and experiences, and structured debates promote the sharing of learning outcomes. The planned new features, such as Small Group Mode, will make argument forming even more of a group effort, making the tool suitable for even more learning situations in the future.

Learning goals

Certified by Education Alliance Finland

The supported learning goals are identified by mapping the product against the selected reference curriculum and soft skills definitions most relevant for the 21st century.

  • Learning to understand and interpret diverse types of texts, from vernacular to academic
  • Encouraging to build new information and visions
  • Practicing to notice causal connections
  • Practicing to use imagination and to be innovative
  • Learning to combine information to find new innovations
  • Encouraging students to be innovative and express new ideas
  • Familiarizing with the influences of media and understanding its affordances
  • Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products in response to ongoing feedback, including new arguments or information.
  • Practicing to improvise
  • Practicing to give, get and reflect feedback
  • Practicing to express own thoughts and feelings
  • Practicing creative thinking
  • Learning to understand and interpret diverse types of texts
  • Re-reading literature and other writing as a basis for making comparisons.
  • Understand and critically evaluate texts through reading in different ways for different purposes, summarising and synthesising ideas and information, and evaluating their usefulness for particular purposes.
  • Practicing to argument clearly own opinions and reasonings
  • Practicing to work with others
  • Learning to recognise and evaluate arguments and their reasonings
  • Encouraging to build new information and visions
  • Practicing to notice links between subjects learned
  • Develop claim(s) and counterclaims fairly and thoroughly, supplying the most relevant data and evidence for each while pointing out the strengths and limitations of both claim(s) and counterclaims in a discipline-appropriate form that anticipates the audience's knowledge level, concerns, values, and possible biases.
  • Seeking evidence in the text to support a point of view, including justifying inferences with evidence.
  • Learning to face respectfully people and follow the good manners
  • Introduce precise, knowledgeable claim(s), establish the significance of the claim(s), distinguish the claim(s) from alternate or opposing claims, and create an organization that logically sequences the claim(s), counterclaims, reasons, and evidence.
  • Learning to listen other people’s opinions
  • Practicing to argument clearly own opinions and reasonings
  • Practicing to work with others
  • Encouraging to build new information and visions
  • Supporting student to build their own linguistic and cultural identity
  • Learning to understand people, surroundings and phenomenons around us
  • Learning to face respectfully people and follow the good manners
  • Practicing to notice links between subjects learned
  • Learning to combine information to find new innovations
  • Encouraging to build new information and visions
  • Practicing to notice causal connections
  • Practicing to take care of own and other people’s safety
  • Practicing to take care of one's own and other people’s safety
  • Encouraging the growth of positive self-image
  • Make notes, draft and write, including using information provided by others [e.g. writing a letter from key points provided; drawing on and using information from a presentation].
  • Selecting, and using judiciously, vocabulary, grammar, form, and structural and organisational features, including rhetorical devices, to reflect audience, purpose and context, and using Standard English where appropriate.
  • Selecting and organising ideas, facts and key points, and citing evidence, details and quotation effectively and pertinently for support and emphasis.
  • Make an informed personal response, recognising that other responses to a text are possible and evaluating these.
  • Making critical comparisons, referring to the contexts, themes, characterisation, style and literary quality of texts, and drawing on knowledge and skills from wider reading.
  • Seeking evidence in the text to support a point of view, including justifying inferences with evidence.
  • Identifying and interpreting themes, ideas and information.
  • Drawing on knowledge of the purpose, audience for and context of the writing, including its social, historical and cultural context and the literary tradition to which it belongs, to inform evaluation.
  • Understand and critically evaluate texts through reading in different ways for different purposes, summarising and synthesising ideas and information, and evaluating their usefulness for particular purposes.
  • Draw evidence from informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.
  • Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products in response to ongoing feedback, including new arguments or information.
  • Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on addressing what is most significant for a specific purpose and audience.
  • Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
  • Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the information or explanation provided (e.g., articulating implications or the significance of the topic).
  • Use precise language, domain-specific vocabulary and techniques such as metaphor, simile, and analogy to manage the complexity of the topic; convey a knowledgeable stance in a style that responds to the discipline and context as well as to the expertise of likely readers.
  • Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from or supports the argument presented.
  • Establish and maintain a formal style and objective tone while attending to the norms and conventions of the discipline in which they are writing.
  • Use words, phrases, and clauses as well as varied syntax to link the major sections of the text, create cohesion, and clarify the relationships between claim(s) and reasons, between reasons and evidence, and between claim(s) and counterclaims.
  • Develop claim(s) and counterclaims fairly and thoroughly, supplying the most relevant data and evidence for each while pointing out the strengths and limitations of both claim(s) and counterclaims in a discipline-appropriate form that anticipates the audience's knowledge level, concerns, values, and possible biases.
  • Practicing strategic thinking
  • Practicing to look things from different perspectives
  • Practicing to create questions and make justifiable arguments based on observations
  • Practicing to notice causal connections
  • Learning to recognise and evaluate arguments and their reasonings
  • Learning to find solutions in social conflicts
  • Developing problem solving skills
  • Practicing to use imagination and to be innovative
  • Practicing to use imagination and to be innovative
  • Encouraging students to be innovative and express new ideas
  • Practicing creative thinking
  • Creating requirements for creative thinking
  • Learning to find the joy of learning and new challenges
  • Practicing to take responsibility of one's own learning
  • Practicing to find ways of working that are best for oneself
  • Learning to notice causal connections
  • Practicing to observe spoken and written language
  • Practicing categorization and classification
  • Using technology as a part of explorative process
  • Using technology for interaction and collaboration (also internationally)
  • Using technology for interaction and collaboration
  • Understanding and practicing safe and responsible uses of technology
  • Using technology as a part of explorative and creative process
  • Using technology resources for problem solving
  • Learning to plan and design own written content and textual representations
  • Familiarizing with the influences of media and understanding its affordances
  • Practicing to find, evaluate and share information
  • Practicing to use information independently and interactively
  • Learning to acquire, modify and produce information in different forms
  • Using technology as a part of explorative and creative process
  • Learning to understand and interpret diverse types of texts, from vernacular to academic
  • Practicing logical reasoning to understand and interpret information in different forms
  • Realizing the connection between subjects learned in free time and their impact to skills needed at worklife
  • Connecting subjects learned at school to skills needed at working life
  • Practicing versatile ways of working
  • Practicing decision making
  • Learning to plan and organize work processes
  • Enabling the growth of positive self-image
  • Practicing to give, get and reflect feedback
  • Practicing to express own thoughts and feelings
  • Learning to understand the meaning of rules, contracts and trust
  • Practicing communication through different channels
  • Learning decision-making, influencing and accountability
  • Learning to combine information to find new innovations
  • Practicing strategic thinking
  • Introduce precise, knowledgeable claim(s), establish the significance of the claim(s), distinguish the claim(s) from alternate or opposing claims, and create an organization that logically sequences the claim(s), counterclaims, reasons, and evidence.
  • Learning to build information on top of previously learned
  • Develop claim(s) and counterclaims fairly and thoroughly, supplying the most relevant data and evidence for each while pointing out the strengths and limitations of both claim(s) and counterclaims in a discipline-appropriate form that anticipates the audience's knowledge level, concerns, values, and possible biases.
  • Establish and maintain a formal style and objective tone while attending to the norms and conventions of the discipline in which they are writing.
  • Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from or supports the argument presented.
  • Introduce a topic and organize complex ideas, concepts, and information so that each new element builds on that which precedes it to create a unified whole; include formatting (e.g., headings), graphics (e.g., figures, tables), and multimedia when useful to aiding comprehension.
  • Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question) or solve a problem; narrow or broaden the inquiry when appropriate; synthesize multiple sources on the subject, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.
  • Selecting and organising ideas, facts and key points, and citing evidence, details and quotation effectively and pertinently for support and emphasis.
  • Make an informed personal response, recognising that other responses to a text are possible and evaluating these.
  • Learning to face respectfully people and follow the good manners
  • Learning to understand people, surroundings and phenomenons around us
  • Seeking evidence in the text to support a point of view, including justifying inferences with evidence.
  • Supporting student to build their own linguistic and cultural identity
  • Encouraging to build new information and visions
  • Encouraging to build new information and visions
  • Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products in response to ongoing feedback, including new arguments or information.
  • Draw evidence from informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.
  • Practicing to work with others
  • Encouraging the growth of positive self-image
  • Practicing to argument clearly own opinions and reasonings
  • Learning to listen other people’s opinions
  • Learning decision-making, influencing and accountability
  • Practicing to express own thoughts and feelings
  • Encouraging students to be innovative and express new ideas
  • Using technology for interaction and collaboration (also internationally)
  • Using technology to express one’s emotions and experiences
  • Using technology for interaction and collaboration
  • Practicing to give, get and reflect feedback
  • Understanding and practicing safe and responsible uses of technology
  • Using technological resources for finding and applying information
  • Practicing to recognize and express feelings
  • Enabling the growth of positive self-image
  • Developing problem solving skills
  • Learning to find solutions in social conflicts
  • Practicing creative thinking
  • Creating requirements for creative thinking
  • Learning to recognise and evaluate arguments and their reasonings
  • Practicing to create questions and make justifiable arguments based on observations
  • Practicing to look things from different perspectives
  • Practicing to find, evaluate and share information

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