Review of Padlet

Today, I will be looking at Padlet (like embedded in name), another online collaborative tool.

What is Padlet?

The concept behind Padlet is very simple. It mimics a real-life board where one can put up sticky notes, except that it is all online. This online element provides an added dimension and modality to a simple idea, and also allows for collaboration and communication to happen.

The customisability of the Padlet board to make it as colourful as one wants it to be does also makes it more visually enticing. 

The other great thing about Padlet is that one can modify the url of a particular board to make it unique and easy to remember and share with others. Privacy settings allows for the creator to make the board as open or as close as possible.

In addition to text, anyone who has access to the padlet board can insert pictures, urls and videos into their "sticky notes". This multimodality allows for greater flexibility and creativity, which makes it more interesting and fun for students.

The comment function allows for collaboration and communication as people can come together to discuss ideas that have been posted.

As you can see in the picture, under the "Modify" settings (which appears as a tiny cog on the top right hand corner of the Padlet board), the creator of the Padlet board is able to adjust settings on "posting" and "collaboration". 

The different ways for readers to show their reactions to posts, by liking, voting, giving a star or grading it, presents many opportunities and ways for the authors to get feedback.

For teachers, "attribution" (to track the authorship of posts) and "profanity filter" (to ensure that the language is kept clean) will be especially helpful.  

Should one not have a computer, Padlet is also available on Apple Store as an app, and the website can be easily accessed using a smartphone or tablet. 

Uses

As with any collaboration tool, it is best served as an online discussion or brainstorming platform about a particular theme or topic since many different ideas can be showcased and students are able to leave comments and feedback about what they see. Moreover, since there seems to be no expiry date, as long as they have the url, students can refer back to the Padlet board at a later time and date to revisit the ideas that were exchanged.

Another use could be for students to showcase their work that had been done on another online platform so their classmates are able to view them. I had actually done this before -- I had my students (who were starting their first year at the secondary school) do up an online poster on Glogster introducing themselves, and they had to submit the url to their Glogster on a Padlet created for this purpose. This was meant to encourage them to look at one another's work so as to help them get to know one another better.

In the language classroom, Padlet can encourage students to share their opinions, especially students who are afraid to speak up in the classroom. Therefore, they will have the opportunity to practise using the language. As with the numerous research done on how writing blogs aid in improving language, because students see that their classmates will be able to view what they have written, they would be more mindful about their spelling and the grammatical structure of sentences. 

Teachers can even have students create their own Padlet board about a particular theme or topic and this can be shared with others. This allows for content knowledge to flow easily between students, and places the onus of learning on the students. As Ghasemi & Hashemi (2011) said, in this day and age, the role of the teacher should no longer be seen as a repository of knowledge, but as a facilitator and guide to help students" to be skilled in selecting, accessing, evaluating, organizing and storing" the vast amount of information available.

Advantages & Disadvantages

The online element allows for students to learn about multimodality as they have to think about the suitability of the visuals that they are going to put up on the board in relation to the theme or topic that has been assigned.

Moreover, students are not able to modify what other people posted. This protects their work and prevents them from copying one another, or even worse, deleting and erasing the effort that others had put in.

However, the open nature of Padlet means that, while it prevents outright plagiarism, students are still able to view what others have posted and rephrase those words to pass them off as their own ideas. This would hinder original thought and might also end up creating a sort of "herd" mentality, where students all present ideas that support only one particular stand, especially if it is on a controversial topic and students do not want to stand out or to be seen to be different since all posts and comments are tagged to a particular username. As such, teachers will need to create an environment where students feel safe to voice out differing opinions and not be judged based on that.

In Singapore's context

There is so much potential for Padlet to be used in Singapore schools. Since it is available as an app, and the website can be easily accessed with a smartphone or tablet, should there be limited time (which is usually the case), teachers can continue class discussions online, or have students post their thoughts on a particular topic online after the lesson or at home. It would be a great alternative to traditional paper and pen in gathering ideas, and is also in line with Singapore's ICT Masterplan 4, where student learning takes place anytime, anywhere.

Conclusion

Padlet is a simple tool which does not require much technical expertise on the part of the teachers or students. It is easy to create, and allows for much collaboration and practise in terms of language use.

References

Ghasemi, B. & Hashemi, M. (2011). ICT: Newwave in English language learning/teaching. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 15, 3098–3102.

Review of Wordsift

Today's post will be about Wordsift, which is a useful tool to help learners with increasing their vocabulary bank.

What is Wordsift?

Wordsift is a web-based site that allows word clouds to be created from any text. This helps students and teachers to identify the most commonly used words in the text. The bigger the font in the word cloud, the more common the word in the text. Below is an example of the word cloud from Martin Luther King Jr's famous "I Have a Dream" speech. As can be seen by the size of the word, "freedom" appears most frequently in the text. 

Hovering over each word tells you how many times it appears in the text.

Clicking on it will enable you to see the word used in context within the text.

The other interesting feature is that it has WordNet embedded in the site. This allows for exposure to related words and phrases.

Hovering over each node in the diagram will give the definition of the word which shows how it is related to the other word(s) that branch out from the main word. The example provided is also useful for learners.

The other useful thing about Wordsift is that it calculates the readability level of the text, among other things, if you click on the "Text View" button at the top of the page.

From the screenshot, you can see that it provides quite a bit of statistical information about the text - like word count and lexical density - on top of the Readability Index and the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level.

A note of caution about interpreting the different readability indexes - the numbers may not correspond to the actual readability of the text and is only a guide. A text that has a low Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level only means that it contains shorter sentences and words that have fewer syllables. It does not measure the pragmatics of the text. Hence, a text with a low Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level score can still be dealing with a topic that is not easily understood by students even though the words and sentences are short, thus making it difficult for students to comprehend.

Uses

Wordsift is especially useful for teachers when helping students comprehend a text on a particular topic or revolving around a certain theme. It does not work quite as well as with narrative text types, since words are unlikely to be repeated.

The visual representation of the text in the form of a word cloud helps students to see the gist of the text immediately, since the higher frequency words appear larger than other words, indicating what the text is about. This could then be used to activate students' schemata, which will help them with processing the text.

Words in the word cloud can also be sorted in alphabetical order or frequency, which can help teachers narrow the focus of what to look at.

The WordNet part will allow teachers to introduce new words and phrases that are related to certain words in the text. This could be the lead-in to another activity that is related to the topic.

Wordsift can even be used as a tool to encourage learner autonomy since students can input their own text and ascertain what words are most frequent. They can also look at the WordNet section, and discover new word associations or revise what they already know.

Advantages

The site is user-friendly and is a quick and simple way of helping learners figure out the main idea of the text in a way that is visually appealing as there is colour. The WordNet part also helps teachers extend students' learning beyond what is found in the text.

Disadvantages

The WordNet part is still a work in progress and hence, there may be some inaccuracies or might not contain as much information. However, the concept behind it is still innovative and useful for learners.

One major drawback is that if the teacher or student does not have the text in soft copy, it will have to be converted before it can be put into WordSift and that takes time.

In Singapore's Context

As the site is easily accessible, Singapore teachers will find it useful and be able to integrate it easily into the lesson. Wordsift is definitely useful in helping students break down the text and understand it better. The WordNet section is also a powerful tool to help students create word associations and expand their vocabulary.

Conclusion

Undoubtedly, WordSift is valuable as a resource for teachers and students to see a text being represented in a different manner, enabling students to see it from a different perspective and gain greater understanding of what they are reading.

Review of Educreations

Today, I will be looking at the mobile app, Educreations (link to webpage embedded in name).

What is Educreations?

Educreations is available as an iPad app and can be accessed via the Internet. It is meant for teachers or students to create content of multimodal means via an iPad. You can draw and write as you record yourself speaking, and a video is captured of everything that is happening on the screen. As such, when used on an iPad, you would need a stylus pen to aid you. If you are accessing it via the web, you will need to hook up a drawing tablet or an interactive whiteboard. Hence, for all intents and purposes, I feel that it is best used as an iPad app since one does not need as much equipment.

There is a free and a paid version. As a free version, it only has the most basic of features, like only allowing 50MB of video space (which is not a lot considering that even short videos can take up a lot of space depending on the quality) and uploading of images and background to be used in the video. The paid version provides more options, like 5GB of video space and uploading of documents and presentations. It also gives you the option of exporting the video so it can be saved and stored separately.

Hence, I would say the free version provides a taster, and is meant to entice educators or schools to pay for the app. That is not necessarily a bad thing, since the paid version can help to create flipped classroom content fairly easily. Essentially, using Educreations on an iPad is like using a whiteboard with a recording function as you can draw or write anything on it, and you are only limited by the iPad screen dimensions or by whatever material that you are using as a backdrop to record and teach with.

While it seems like Educreations is similar to VoiceThread (link embedded in name), VoiceThread is web-based and has a more collaborative element to it as others who have access to the videos can comment, which allows for students to discuss what they watched. Educreations is more of a one-way street, in the sense that teachers push information to the students, albeit outside the classroom.

Advantages and Disadvantages

As mentioned, Educreations is very ideal for creating lessons for flipped classrooms, which means students are able to learn at their own pace since they can view the video as often as they want or even pause it to crucial points. Teachers can upload pre-lesson videos so students can learn concepts at home before the lesson and more time can be devoted to higher order thinking skills during class time. Post-lesson videos can also be created to reinforce learning. Moreover, since these videos can be reused over the years (barring any changes in syllabus), it can be time-saver for teachers in the long run.

Having said that, flipped classrooms hinge on the idea of students being self-directed learners who will put in the time and effort outside of classroom time to watch these videos. This can be a huge disadvantage in itself since some students might be reluctant to put in that extra effort, which means they will start the next lesson lagging behind those who had put in the effort to be prepared. 

While it can be difficult to encourage students to become self-directed, motivation can and is a strong factor to push students in the right direction. The teacher just needs to find the right trigger. If the teacher is persistent in driving home the idea that students need to self-directed, it also sets the right tone for them.

Uses

Educreations can be used to create any sort of video relating to anything from grammar rules to the four skills of reading, writing, listening and speaking. For example, a video recapping the structure in a narrative story - i.e. Introduction, Problem, Series of Events, Climax, Resolution and Conclusion - can be created. Or a video introducing the different types of figurative language like similes and metaphors could be uploaded as a pre-activity before the actual lesson of learning how to use them effectively to enhance one's ability to write creatively. The list is endless.

In Singapore's context

Being self-directed learners is what the Ministry of Education wants Singaporean students to become. Hence, Educreations would be a useful tool for teachers and schools to invest in, since it is a handy platform to create flipped classrooms which is a means for students to become more self-directed in their learning.

Conclusion

Educreations is a useful iPad app for teachers and it is easy to use. It will definitely help in flipped classroom content creation.

Review of H5P

Today, I am reviewing H5P (link embedded in name), which is a website that allows for teachers to create interactive content for learners and post it anywhere.

Overview

H5P allows for creation of all sorts of activities which students can interact with instead of being passive learners. Teachers can modify videos to include quizzes that pop up at specific junctures, or a fill-in-the-blank activity that gives immediate feedback to the learners. There are also game templates available. What I have mentioned here is just the tip of the iceberg as to what H5P offers, and while their list is not exhaustive, there is an impressive range to choose from.

In my opinion, I feel that H5P is somewhat similar to Triptico (for my review on Triptico, click here), in the sense that there are many different types of tools and activities which teachers can pick from and modify according to their learners' needs. However, what I feel is a big difference is that H5P allows for teachers to export the activity onto a platform of their choice, while Triptico limits teachers to using their website to run the activity. H5P is a free website and allows anyone who has signed up for an account to have access to all of its features without needing to pay, whereas Triptico users are required to pay in order to be able to do the same.

Having said that, it is not to say that H5P is definitely better than Triptico, since both websites serve different purposes. Activities in H5P are more for use outside classroom time, either as pre- or post-classroom activities or for blended learning purposes, where parts of a course happen online. This is in contrast with Triptico, which is intended for teachers to use in class during a lesson, to enhance learning by injecting a technology-based, fun element to it.

How to create interactive content

H5P provides tutorials (link embedded) on how to use each of the different tools, which is extremely useful.

I have also included a video below that gives an overview of H5P and some of the tools available.

Advantages

Since everything is in HTML code, it can be embedded anywhere, like a Learning Management System (LMS), and even on a blog, like Blogspot or Wordpress! This is a definite advantage since blogs are free to create and can be easily accessed by anyone who has the link.

As you can see below, I have embedded the sample "Fill-in-the-blank" activity that is found on H5P onto my blog. This can be done by clicking on the "< > Embed" button after you have created your activity, copying and pasting the HTML code onto your blog. (Do take note that you need to be in the HTML version when writing your post in order for the code to be embedded correctly.) 

The other advantage is that every step is guided and you do not need to know coding in order to create an activity for your students. Everything is assisted via buttons and drop down menus.

Disadvantages

Not all activities can be embedded in a blog or LMS. Activities that require the H5P plugins, like Interactive Video, will not work on Blogspot. Currently, the H5P plugins have only been developed for Wordpress, Moodle and Drupal. There seems to be a workaround (link embedded), but it requires more technical expertise than what I currently have, hence I cannot give much advice about it.

Creation of certain activities, like Interactive Video, require more time and commitment on the teachers' part. As such, one has consider whether it is worth the investment. There might also be institutional limitations which prevent or deter teachers from putting in the time and effort into creating these online interactive activities.

Uses

Generally, the activities on H5P are more suited for students to complete outside of the classroom, either as a pre- or post-activity. Moreover, since students receive immediate feedback after completing the activity, teachers might not need to go through every single answer the next day during lesson time, and can focus on specific questions that students have. (This presupposes that students have been independent learners and have completed the task before attending the lesson.)

For language-based activities, depending on how the teacher would like to structure the quizzes, there can be many forms, ranging from quizzes on vocabulary to usage of grammar.

As Singapore schools already have their own LMS which provide teachers with the ability to create online interactive lessons, and even track the students' progress via the system, I do not foresee that many Singapore teachers will opt to use H5P over their own LMS.

Conclusion

H5P is very useful and great fun to explore as there are numerous activities one can create for learners to do outside the classroom. The major drawbacks are the compatibility of certain activities with the platforms utilised by the school, and the amount of time that needs to be invested into creating these activities for students.

Review of Popplet

Today, I will be looking at another online collaborative tool, Popplet (link embedded in name).

Popplet is an extremely easy tool to use and its bright colours would probably appeal to students. Popplet is a free tool, though it only allows 10 popplets to be created. There is a special subscription plan for educators and schools that allows for the creation of unlimited popplets and access to more features. However, in my opinion, the free version is sufficient as a basic tool for students to use to collaborate.

Creating and navigating popplet

After signing up for an account, one just needs to click on 'make new popplet' near the top of the home screen to get started.

The name and the background colour of the popplet are customisable. In the free version, it also tells you how many more popplets you can create. It says 'you have 8 popplets left' in the screenshot, so this means once I reach my limit of 10, I have to start deleting some before I can create new ones.

After you have given a name and chosen a colour for your popplet, you will be taken to the blank wall of the popplet. You just need to click anywhere and a box (called a popple), like the one you see below, will appear and you can enter any text, picture or video (from vimeo) into the box. You can also resize it.

By clicking on the grey circles on the four sides of the popple, a new link is created. This allows for the building on of ideas by anyone having access to the popplet.

The other interesting feature is the 'comment' part of the popple, which enables anyone who has access to the popplet to comment on any of the popples.

Uses of Popplet

As mentioned, Popplet is a great collaborative tool. The most obvious use for popplet would be for brainstorming ideas for a particular topic as the popplet can be shared by making other people collaborators through the 'share' button at the top right hand corner of the popplet. Teachers can either create popplets and invite students who have been grouped to a popplet to discuss and share ideas about an essay topic, or have students create their own popplets and invite the teacher to join in (for monitoring purposes).

Another use of Popplet could also be for when students have to share or present whatever research they had to do on a particular topic. Since Popplet allows for multimodality, it would allow for an added dimension to students' research since they can add pictures and videos. Since students can also download the popplet as a jpg or pdf file, the research being done by various students can be compiled and will be a useful resource for them.

Advantages of Popplet

• Since popplet is easy to use and create, teachers and students should not find it too much of a hassle to begin using this tool. 
• Popplet is also real-time, so everyone invited to the popplet can see the changes made on the spot. 
• The fact that Popplet allows for pictures and videos will allow for a wider range of resources to be added, making it richer. 
• Popplet can also be found as an app for iPads and so teachers can use those in place of laptops.
• Names are included in each popple, so teachers can monitor who has written how much.  

Disadvantages of Popplet

• Popplet is rather simple, and so is limited in terms of font size or ability to organise the popples.
• It can look quite disorganised and/or overwhelming if there are too many popples. 
• The relationship between popples might also not be clear as the lines disappear behind popples if they are too far away (as seen below).
• Limited number of popples in the free version, so teachers are not able to create that many, should the paid version not be a viable option. A workaround is to have the students create one and the invite the teacher. This does not add to the teacher's popplet count.

Conclusion

Popplet is simple to set up and easy to use. I feel that because there are limited choices, this helps students to focus as they are not distracted when creating their popplet as they will not be tempted to spend the bulk of their time customising their popplet and making it look "pretty" (which I have found that many students are liable to do).

It will definitely be useful to have students use this online tool to collaborate and brainstorm inside and/or outside the classroom.

Review of Simple English Videos

Today's review will be on Simple English Video (link embedded in name) and how it helps students become more autonomous in their learning.

Simple English Video is produced by an American husband-British wife team who speak English as their L1. Their credentials can be found here (link embedded).

Types of videos

As the name of the websites suggests, there are many different types of videos which help people learn English in a simple manner. When browsing, there are two ways in which the videos are organised: by difficulty level and by grammatical component or function.

Should the learner want to focus on a specific component, the videos are divided into 10 categories: Grammar, Vocabulary, Pronunciation, Everyday English, Songs & Stories, Speaking Practice, Hang out with us, Business English, British & American and How to learn faster.

Ways to use this website

The teacher can use this website as a teaching tool if he/she wants to focus on a specific component. For example, the teacher would like to introduce or draw students' attention to particular pronunciations in the English Language. Instead of having to plough through all the videos on YouTube, or look for resources, the teacher can use the videos found in this website. Although the videos uploaded are not exhaustive, but there are some useful materials that teachers can use in class.

Having said that, what I think would be a better use of this website is have students visit it on their own. This way, students have the autonomy to decide what they would like to learn or reinforce. The website has enough videos and content that students will be able to view and review at their own pace.

Pros

The presenters are conscious that their audience are learners of English, hence the speed at which they speak is slower than normal. There is even an accompanying transcript of what was said in the video. The content of the videos are also targeted at learners as detailed explanations are provided. This is possibly due to the presenters assuming that their learners are self-taught and do not have access to a teacher or someone whom they can ask for help. Hence, they try to make their materials as comprehensive as possible. The layout of the website is also clear and simple, which will help students navigate it with ease.

All these things aid students in becoming more autonomous (if they are not already), since information is easily accessible and readily available in one site.

Cons

The site is not meant to be interactive in the sense that students do not interact directly with the website like in LyricsTraining or TubeQuizzard, where learners can type their answers directly onto the site and get immediate feedback on their answers. The only sort of interaction available is during the pronunciation practice videos, where learners are left to be self-directed and have to be disciplined to practice pronunciation on their own when the presenters tell them to.

While the lack of interactivity is not a big disadvantage per se, but it can be off-putting for some students who like to have a more hands-on approach instead of being passive recipients of information.

In Singapore context

Depending on the students' competency level, teachers can either have them watch particular videos to reinforce learning or introduce it so they can be autonomous in learning new vocabulary or practising pronunciation, for example.

Teachers can also use the videos as trigger activities when introducing a particular vocabulary item or grammar component.

Conclusion

Regarding giving students the autonomy to learn, I would recommend that teachers also introduce the other two websites mentioned above so that students are not restricted to only SimpleEnglishVideos when it comes to learning, as some might like more interactivity. That is not to say that this website is less useful or that the content is not as good; rather these three websites serve different purpose. LyricsTraining and TubeQuizzard seemed to focus more on listening skills as students have to pay close attention to the audio to get the answer. There is no real teaching element involved, and seems to be more appropriate to reinforce learning in the classroom or to inject fun into learning. Thus, these three websites should be introduced together since SimpleEnglishVideos fills in that gap missing in the other two websites.

While it cannot and should not be used to replace the teacher in the classroom, SimpleEnglishVideos will be able to help its audience learn something new and gain autonomy.

Review of WebQuest

This post will be examining the pros and cons of WebQuests.

What is a WebQuest?

Dr. Bernie Dodge, the creator of WebQuest explains what it is in the video.



In summary, a WebQuest is a lesson that requires students to synthesise the information they found from the various websites provided by the teacher to produce a piece of work set out by the teacher. The important thing to note is that a WebQuest is not suppose to be a mere creation of various pieces of information found on the Internet. The task that the teacher designs needs to ensure that students process the information they have read and sieved through, and create something new using that information.

I find this site to be a good example of a well-designed English Language WebQuest. It hits all the right notes in terms of synthesising information and creating something out of it. Moreover, through doing this WebQuest, students horizons are broadened as they learn about other cultures and how to appreciate them. Teachers can extend the lesson further by using this as a stepping stone to discuss other related topics, like globalisation, or even culture and identity (depending on the level of students being taught).

Uses

Well-designed WebQuests are cognitively challenging as the task demands students reach the higher levels of critical thinking skills in Bloom's Taxonomy, i.e. analysing, evaluating and creating. In today's world, these critical thinking skills are extremely important, and very much in line with MOE (Singapore)'s 21st Century Competencies of producing students who are "Critical and Inventive Thinkers".

WebQuests can be used for Task-Based Learning as students have to complete a task using the resources they have sieved out from the websites given to them by the teacher. For example, students can be asked to design a travelogue, or create a presentation about a particular aspect of the topic. In this way, students are able to practise at least two skills at one go - reading and writing - on top of using English itself to communicate with their team members.
 

Disadvantages

Having said that, designing a good WebQuest is not exactly the simplest task. The teacher has to put in many hours designing a task that requires students to produce something original (and not a mere copying of information off various websites), looking for good websites that the students can use to gather the knowledge to complete the task, and also create a set of rubrics that is detailed enough so that students are aware of the criteria they need to fulfil. The fact that so much is demanded of the teacher might be off-putting for some, since having an abundance of time is a luxury for teachers.

Advantages

In spite of that, a well-designed WebQuest is like any course material; it can be recycled and reused many times over with little or no modification required (barring any major hiccups or changes to the curriculum). In my opinion, even if there is a change to the curriculum, an English Language WebQuest would likely still be valid - assuming the original task is to produce something that is along the lines of one of the four skills - since changes to the curriculum is unlikely to exclude any of the skills. Moreover, as English Language teachers, WebQuests are very much in line with language learning outcomes, since students are required to utilise language to create a meaningful and coherent product, thereby improving on their language ability in accordance to Swain's Output Hypothesis.

Conclusion

All in all, it would do well for the students to be exposed to a WebQuest at least once for the reasons mentioned above. Teachers can go to QuestGarden to either create one or look for existing WebQuests, though discretion has to be exercised when searching for a pre-existing WebQuest to use as not all WebQuests were created equally.

Review of Tricider

Today's sharing is on an online collaboration tool - Tricider (link embedded in name).

What is Tricider?

Tricider is a free online tool that allows for collation of ideas from participants which they can then vote on.

As a tool for brainstorming of ideas, this is a fast and easy method. A private space can be created so that only invited participants can be part of the group.

When adding ideas, participants can add a description and image to the idea, which helps participants have a better visual understanding. This is particularly useful when trying to decide on a logo or a particular image to use for something. Pros or cons can also be given for the idea. Moreover, other people can add their own pros and cons to someone else's idea.

Uses & Tutorial

As English Language teachers, this tool can be used to conduct argumentative or discursive essay writing practice. The picture below shows how this can be done.

The essay question can be typed in the main heading in orange and students can then be invited by the teacher to collaborate in this room through clicking the "Share and Invite" button on the right. Students can then state their stand under the "Ideas" column and give their reasons in under the "Pros and Cons" column.

Students can indicate if their reason is a pro or con by clicking on the '+' or '-' sign. Students can vote for the argument they like best, and also give feedback by clicking on the 'thumbs up' button to show that they agree with what their friends have said.

As there does not seem to be a word limit in either of the columns, students will not be hampered by it should they have a lot to write for a particular reason.

Disadvantages

A possible downside - apart from students not having access to a computer or the Internet - is the fact that since everything is so open, students are liable to copy or simply paraphrase what another student has written. As such, it might be not practical to have the whole class working on only one "tricision" (as each page is called). Rather, the teacher can break the class up into smaller groups and each group has one tricision since each tricision has its own unique url. This can minimise the problem of copying.

The teacher should also encourage the students within the group to provide constructive comments and vote on their friends' work. This way, the collaboration between members can help students to refine and polish their own arguments.

Advantages

While it is possible to achieve the aforementioned using the traditional method of pen and paper, the wonderful thing about this tool is that, since it is online, students can do this as homework. The teacher can then give comments and even prompt further discussion in class based on what students wrote, maximising classroom time. Since everything in Tricider is stamped with a name, it is easy for the teacher to monitor who has or has not contributed.

All this presupposes that students can be self-directed and will complete their homework. Even if that is not the case, this tool can still be used in class during lesson time, in the computer lab or using borrowed laptops.

In Singapore's context

As long as teachers have access to the computer lab or mobile carts, having students do this task in class is possible. However, knowing the time constraints that Singapore teachers face, it might not be feasible to do it in class. Since most Singapore households have at least a computer at home, or students have access to a computer in the school library, setting the expository writing task via Tricider as homework is the better option.

Conclusion

It will definitely provide a change of pace for the students, and will provide more opportunities for students to collaborate and work together to produce a better piece of work.

Review of Triptico Plus

Today, I will be sharing more about the ICT tool, Triptico Plus (link embedded in the name).

What is Triptico Plus?

Triptico Plus is a very comprehensive ICT tool with lots of different functions that can help a teacher not just conduct the lesson in a fun and engaging manner, but also help with classroom management. While I will not be going into every aspect of Triptico Plus as there are too many features to cover, I will be highlighting one component which I think is pedagogically useful.

But first, Triptico Plus in general.

As you can see, Triptico has many different tools - "Quizzes", "Selectors", "Timers" and "Tools". Quizzes contains 10 different templates which allow teachers to create quizzes in a fun and creative way.

Selectors help teachers to make selection of students more interesting while ensuring that it is fair as it is done randomly. While there are other websites that do this function, I find it very convenient to have this tool in the same website as other tools since it is almost like a one-stop shop where I can find almost everything I need.

Timers are not anything new, but, again, it is very convenient to have this tool that I can put up on the screen and have students aware of the amount of time they have left to complete the given task.

Tools contains an assortment of things that the teacher can use for various tasks that can help with classroom management, like sorting students into random groups and even conducting a poll or creating a seating plan.

Focus: What's the Question?

I will be focusing on the quiz template "What's the Question?". This particular game requires students to formulate questions that will match the answer on the screen and is set up to be played in teams.

Uses

The most straightforward way to use this tool is to help students recall concepts, since students have to be able to recognise the concepts that are shown in order to formulate the correct type of questions. Therefore, as English Language teachers, the simplest way is to design a game around asking for concepts like definitions of grammatical components. 

However, that does not only have to be the only to use this tool to teach the English Language. Another way could be to design a game that requires students to use a particular grammatical structure to form the question in order to obtain the answer shown. Or if the teacher wants to tests the students' knowledge of idioms and/or proverbs, the teacher could have the students ask the question using the meaning of the idiom and/or proverb.

The other useful part of this tool is the scorekeeping it does automatically. This little competition it creates helps to spice things up a bit in the classroom.

Pedagogically, it reduces the monotony of teaching while also putting a spin on the lower order thinking skill of recall in Bloom's Taxonomy (Revised). The other interesting part of this game is that, since it is difficult to provide the exact same phrasing of the question which the teacher provides as the "answer", the students can discuss and debate if the phrasing of the question given by the team is appropriate or suitable before the teacher awards the points. This way, the students are given the opportunity to produce language and while also practicing their analytical and reasoning skills. 

In Singapore's context

It will be fairly easy for Singapore teachers to use this in class as the typical class size ranges from 30 to 40 students. Hence, it is possible to use this tool and in particular, the game features on it. That would definitely break the monotony of practising the four skills. 

However, I would suggest using certain of the game functions in smaller groups, possibly after school remediation lessons, where only the weaker students attend. This way, they will get to practise using English in a manner that is more engaging and interactive. Hopefully, this will increase their motivation to continue learning English. Moreover, when students are in a smaller group, there are more chances for everyone to have a say. They might also feel less self-conscious since they are among peers who are of the same level as them.

Conclusion

This particular tool requires a bit of creativity on the teacher's part when designing the game should he/she want to use it for something other than basic recall. However, that should not be a deterrence as the more creative the game, the more fun the students will have.

I hope you enjoy exploring and using Triptico Plus!

Comments on an ELT blog

Why I like the blog

I looked at http://www.freetech4teachers.com/  and I think it is a really wonderful site. However, it feels more like a proper website than a blog to me. I think this is probably due to the layout of the site, which includes use of banners to link to other sites, and the buttons at the end of each article that allow readers to like it on Facebook or to tweet about it. Having said that, there do still seem to be features of a blog, including the use of the archive gadget, which is typical of blogs and not websites.

This blog is very user-friendly and contains a wealth of information on the topic that is also the name of the site. It is also eye-catching and looks like it is created by someone who knows his way around technology and how to use it effectively.