The End is Near!

Okay, here goes a quick analysis of five of the tools from this week. First off, we have Custom Dice Printing. This, in a word, is awesome. You feed in the data for the six sides (whatever you want: photos, text, numbers) and it creates a doc with everything facing the correct way, so that you can just cut it out, fold it up, and tape it together. This is a super tool for fun group work. For example, after reading a literature piece, give out a die to each group, each person rolls, and there are different questions/activities on each side. The questions can be different on each die, allowing for differentiation. Or, just print them with numbers and have a chart at the front of the class with questions/activities corresponding to the numbers. Or, have photos on the dice, using them as a springboard for a writing/speaking task. Or...you get the idea. Easy, free, and no login needed!

Next comes Test-Giving Software. This is good, but only if you have a fully connected class. Meaning, everyone needs to have a smartphone/wireless connection. So, this may not be useful for everyone. Also, it is similar to what we did with the quizzes with the Google Doc. The interface here, however, looks a to be a little more practical for classroom use. This could be used for spontaneous quizzes, too, as it is very easy for the teacher to create a quiz quickly.

Thirdly, we have Museum Box. This is very nice. Pick a topic, and the student creates a space with digital content on the subject. For example, a project could be a biography of someone, the student can upload pictures, videos, text, links or whatever. It is attractively organized, and fairly intuitive (at least on the viewing side; I did not try to create anything). Down side: there is a per school registration fee, I think about $100 per year. Maybe there are ways to share the cost, and there is some way to get a price reduction, but I did not go through all the nitty-gritty.

Here Kid "TV Reporters" we have something cute. It is basically a site that has videos of kids going around and guiding virtual school trips, like: "Meet a Meteorolgist!" or "A Kid's History of the Yo-Yo". There are a lot of videos to choose from. It is not made for EFL, but since there are kids talking, the language is not overly difficult. They also have instructions on how to go about making a video.

This idea LitTrips blew my mind. The basic idea is that it gives you, through GoogleMaps, a visual journey through a book. Problem is, after filling out forms and the such to try to view one of the "LitTrips", it was in some sort of weird file format that my computer didn't recognize. I did not have the time to try to solve the tech issues. If anyone out there figures it out, please comment, as the concept is very intriguing.