Quizlet Review

Please follow the following link to see what I found out about Quizlet this week.

Quizlet Review  <--- Click there!

Written Review:
Quizlet.com

Critical Thinking/Problem Solving Tool

Quizlet is an online learning tool that has several “study modes” for students to learn and memorize information by creating sets of data that they can customize to fit their needs. The study modes a student can use are flash cards, Learn, Speller, Scatter, Microscatter, Space Race, Voice Space race, and gravity. People can create their own flashcards or use one of the millions in Quizlet created by other users which range significantly in subject matter. Since there are so many modes of study, this is an engaging tool that does not become monotonous. Students must create their own flashcards, so they must take responsibility for their learning which empowers them to be independent learners. Students can also upload their own visuals or use the Creative Commons licensed photography in quizlet’s database and there are tests and games that vary in learning styles. Quizlet is also very basic and has templates students can add their information to. Quizlet is a web-based tool (and there are also apps for apple and android products) that is free (although there are paid options) and you do not need to download or install any extra programs, but you do need to know how to type, have some content, and access to the Internet.

How to use:

1. Sign up with Facebook, Google, or other very easy ways. It is free to sign up and there are also premium features for minimal money.

2. Use your content in order to create a set to study (or search from millions of data sets you can use).

3. Add the content and choose pictures to aid in the learning (you can choose from many languages to type and hear the words).

4. Choose one of the several study modes (games, test, typing, flashcards).

5. Start studying!

6. You can also print and there is a class mode if you have class you want to quiz at the same time.

I can see many uses for this tool. Since I teach ESL, Bilingual education, and reading, my students could use this to make many different sets depending on what we are learning. I can imagine colors, numbers, farm animals and such for my Kindergarteners, high frequency words for my 1^st graders, social studies situations for my 2^nd graders, and of course academic language for all, particularly my 3^rd through 5^th graders. As I look at the many sets already created, I know that I could use this tool today! I highly recommend this tool and feel that the only drawbacks might be that since it is mainly a memorization tool (as flashcards usually are) deep critical thinking might be lacking. Also, since these are all user-created, some sets might not be accurate and there are a few which might be questionable or inappropriate. As with every tool, preview first!

PicMonkey Review

Name of Web 2.0 Tool: PicMonkey
URL: PicMonkey.com
Primary Category: Creativity Tool

PicMonkey is a “freemium” online photo editing service (meaning: there are ads and free services as well as a ‘premium’ features for a fee) that began in mid 2012. This tool is completely web based and there are no additional programs to download or install. PicMonkey has many great photo editing features that include basic editing, text, touch ups, effects, overlays, frames, textures, and themes. If you want ad-free editing as well as many additional fonts, effects, overlays, and textures you can pay $33/year or $4.99/month. It is very friendly and can make your projects look professional and very unique. It can be used as a very basic editing tool (adding a frame or some text to a picture) or as elaborate as you’d like. One of its greatest feature is their free ideas, tutorials, “How to”s, and inspirations. After you finish editing your pictures, you can upload to several social networks.

Before using this tool, you must know how to upload pictures to your computer in order to choose them for editing on PicMonkey. And all you need to use this tool is Adobe flash player and pictures.

How to use this creativity tool:

1. Go to picmonkey.com

2. Choose whether you will edit, touch up, design, or make a collage.

3.  If you will edit or design, choose a picture.

4. Once you choose your picture, start editing and creating!

5. Choose the tools you will use to make your project as basic or elaborate as you want.

6. You can save on your computer or sharing on several social networks.

7. If you want to change your project, continue editing it until you are satisfied.

I would use this map to show students where the 2014 World Cup is taking place. This can be used as a model for what you want your students to create or part of your lesson to show on a power point or any other media.

This tool can be used by teachers and students in order to make any photo project. Students and teachers can use the many design tools to create interesting and educational pictures, which can be used in presentations, part of blogs, give instructions, create interest, create games, etc. Since you can add overlays, you can use several pictures together. Although your project cannot be edited once it is saved, you can keep saving pictures and adding layers to them in order to use these edited pictures as part of a series – for example: water cycle, writing process, animal kingdom, and food chain. Since it is entirely web-based, students can use this anywhere. I will use this for all grade levels (I am an ESL support teacher for students in K-5) and have students use a preloaded picture that I will save on our common drive to introduce themselves at the beginning of the school year.

Advantages: Free! Clean, friendly, multiple easy-to-use editing tools.

Disadvantages: Can be slow, must have Adobe flash, cannot come back to work on any project – must finish in one sitting (or not close the website or lose internet connection).


I would freely recommend this to everybody - in education or not. This is a fun, easy to use free tool that will make any project better. Students and teachers can use this easily for any subject.

Edmodo Tool Review

Name of the Web 2.0 Tool: Edmodo

URL of the Tool: https://www.edmodo.com

Primary category: Communication Tool

Description: Edmodo is an online educational community that has been compared to Facebook. With Edmodo, teachers can post assignments, videos, notes, polls, tests, etc. to students, students can also post to their groups, educators can connect, and there are many communities (groups) everyone can be part of. This tool also allows people to chat (not privately, but as a group) and have their own ‘wall’ very much like Facebook – only with the added safety of being an educational social tool.

How to access Edomodo: You do not need to download anything in order to use Edmodo and one cool thing about it is that there is an app you can install for use on your smart device.

What skills do you need to have to use Edomodo? You need to know how to navigate a website like Facebook and you must have a valid email address. There are no extra devices or software needed to use this tool.

How to use Edmodo:

1. Sign up as a teacher using a valid email address.

2. Create a group (and/or join groups) & share your group code (or join URL) with your class (i.e. s4tr5a or https://edmo.do/j/73uvui). Only those with the code can join and you can close the group once all the students have joined you can lock the group – if you need to add more, you reset the group code and give it to the people you need to add. Once you have joined a group, you won’t need the code anymore.

3. Once you have your group, you can explore and see what content you want to add – notifications, quizzes, polls, create small groups, etc. There is a planner, and a snapshot tool which allows you to create quizzes that align with common core standards – this can be done very quickly because the tool has thousands of questions already created.

 

4.     There is an app store where you can buy or get free apps to use. It is growing daily and you can browse apps by subject.

5. There’s a library with unlimited space where you can connect to your google drive account and also store, manage, and organize documents, pictures, videos, etc. Students have a similar feature called backpack.

6. There is a discover section where you can join different communities (groups)

7. As a teacher, you can collect badges and make badges to reward students.

I used Edmodo to add a poll for the UH Coogs group I created. It was so simple to make because Edmodo is so user-friendly. People from the group will be able to answer the poll question.

Usage: I used Edmodo with my 5^th and 6^th grade classes for the past two years. I have not used all the many tools or apps Edmodo provides. It was successful and I plan to use it again. Edmodo made it very easy to navigate through all the screens and the students really liked getting badges and using their backpack. I used Edmodo for quick polls, quizzes, and homework assignments as well as to communicate with parents and post deadlines. As a teacher, my school and district use Edmodo for communication mainly. Although we still use email first, Edmodo is used for our weekly newsletter in our school and to share pictures and other announcements. The district uses Edmodo to connect teachers – I am signed up for a technology conference and am part of the technology community where I receive notifications about upcoming deadlines, workshop opportunities, and where I can connect with other teachers who share similar interests.

Advantages and disadvantages: For me, an advantage was that my students could post their homework, answer questions, watch videos I posted for them, chat with me or each other (actually have educational discussions and not privately), and everything could be done in one place - one safe place. Other advantages include the ease of use, being able to track students’ assignments and usage, free apps for many different subjects, community (group) involvement, sharing information and ideas with other educators, free and affordable apps, library (storage), educational social networking, and so much more! Parents can also track students' progress and check out their children's assignments. Like Facebook, it even suggests teachers I might know! 

The disadvantage I found was that they really loved to be on Edmodo since their parents approved, so I would get a bunch of notifications about their activity since I was the administrator.

Recommendation: I recommend this tool for districts, teachers, and students who want to connect socially in an educational setting and have a lot of freedom to socialize safely as well as have an easy to use tool that is web- and app- based that has a lot of great features for educational purposes. Students really like it and it is very friendly. The app is not as friendly and does not have a lot of the features in the online tool, but it does work well.