&nbsp; Tapikeo

tagged

Communication,

Flash Cards,

scrapbooking | in

Saturday

Nov192011

iVocAudio - Your Memory Chum! by Applicable2U

Saturday, November 19, 2011 at 9:30PM

iVocAudio
By Jean-Eudes Lepelletier

Do you want to learn a new language? Interested in creating a study guide to prepare for a test? If you answered yes to either of these two questions, then you will want to download iVocAudio for your iPhone or iPad device. As of today, iVocAudio is a free download, so be sure to take advantage of this amazing offer before it’s too late. It is an application that is customizable for your own learning needs. With built in Quick Start Guides, video tutorials and various viewing options, voice recording flash cards could not be more simple to create. Developers chose to design this application so that it would function in three languages: English, French and Turkish. Integration of iVocAudio is the 21st Century way of reviewing and reinforcing skills. The need to hand write your study notes for educational or personal reasons is now taken out of the equation and your voice becomes the main tool. Whether you are a teacher, student or parent, this application is applicable to you.

Through our exploration, Applicable2U can envision iVocAudio fitting nicely within an educational setting as early as late primary to college and beyond. Learning, reviewing or reinforcement occurs with the creation of folders and recordings of pairs. Amazingly, students both young and old can feel independent as they build and experience this mobile learning application. As you begin, a user will want to click the folder tab, simply tap the “+” button and you now have the option to generate a new folder name. Folders are the placeholders that store questions/answers or as iVocAudio likes to call them, pairs. As we tested this educational application, Applicable2U chose to build a folder called United States. Throughout the course of the year, fourth graders are required to know the regions of the United States, state names and their capitals being one component of their social studies curriculum. With this in mind, we chose our first set of pairs to be named: Question – State and Answer - Capital. This is a folder that could be continuously added too and revisited throughout the school year.

After creating a folder, recording can now begin. Pairs are added to individual folders in a very visual and intuitive manner. Within the recording tab, users will see a number of visuals. For example, a large “Q” and an “A” are center stage. At the bottom of this window, there appears to be a watch like icon that stores the number of pairs, the REC button and a pair name. When ready, simply click the REC button, the “Q” will be bold as the “A” is transparent. A bolded “Q” or “A” indicates what the user should record. Once recorded, simply click the STOP button. At the completion of recording, users can then begin to “test” themselves. If interested, users can even change how they attempt their test(s). Within the general settings tab, many options can be altered. For example, users can set answers to be announced after 1, 2, 3, 5 and 8 seconds or not automated at all. Also sorting can be manipulated as well has the direction of ones test from Q>A or A>Q. Once these options have been manipulated, users can then click the test button at the bottom of the screen. Testing begins as a user drags and drops the four way directional button to the flashing “Q” or “A”. A user is expected to answer the question on their own and then check their answer. After a comparison is done on your answer users are then expected to drag the directional button to either the green circle indicating a correct answer or the red circle at the bottom indicating an incorrect answer.

Concerned about mistakes that students might make while recording, not to worry, iVocAudio has an answer for that. Click the Pair button and users can listen and delete pairs as necessary. When viewing all pairs within a folder, we noticed that users can test themselves at most 5 times. Visually pairs explain whether they have been explored with a question mark or a colored in bubble. If at the end of five testing experiences a user finds that they need more review, they would simply go into the folder tab and hit the reset button. Whether the folder provided a positive or negative experience, the learning can continue until mastery is maintained. In addition, by clicking a pair, users and even parents/teachers can see the number of successes, failures and the maximum number of successes in a row. Academically, reporting in some fashion and being held accountable for ones learning is critical in any good educational application.

There are a number of components that iVocAudio has to offer that intrigue Applicable2U. The possibilities that this educational app has to offer is overwhelming. Besides being able to build, record and test yourself on the go, users can even test their own peers. After creating a folder and its coordinating pairs, that folder can be exported and shared with other users via the iVocAudio website, iTunes library or email. Currently, there are a number of other iVocAudio users who have posted their folder(s) for others to use. As more people become familiar with this mode of learning and reviewing this forum of sharing will continuously grow. It is a great way for teachers to support each other across the curriculum. Whether you are learning a new language, reinforcing a part of the social studies or science curriculum, or even spelling out and reading grade level sight words, iVocAudio would definitely come in handy in school and at home. If you would like to learn more about iVocAudio, please visit their website here. Looking to do a little review on the go, then you will want to begin downloading iVocAudio to your iTunes library here.

Reviewers website: www.applicable2u.wordpress.com

Andrea Gardner |

tagged

Flash Cards,

audio,

cross curricular | in

Thursday

Apr212011

Review of Flashcard+ by Kathy Burdick

Thursday, April 21, 2011 at 9:00AM

Name of App: Flashcard+

Fee or Free: Free!

Rating: 4/5

Seller: Connor Zwick

Why I like it: There are many flashcard apps. Some are paid and some are free. Others offer a free version, but add restrictions to the number of decks and/or cards per deck. If you like a free app without restrictions and are in search for a flashcard app, download Flashcard+. This app allows the user to create personal flashcard decks (with as many cards as you’d like!), but also has preprogrammed decks from Quizlet ranging from state capitals to parts of speech to basic math facts. Quizlet allows users to create an account and create flashcard decks to share. Since flashcards are a great way for students to review recently learned lessons, Flashcard+ makes it easy for teachers and/or students to create a deck of flashcards for the whole class! The only downfall to Flashcard+ is that it takes some practice to get the hang of flipping over the card and moving to the next card using the touch screen. Bravo to Flashcard+ for offering a great free app without restrictions!

tagged

Organization | in

Thursday

Aug122010

Flashcards for iPad App Review by SMeech

Thursday, August 12, 2010 at 9:48AM

App Title: Flashcards for iPad

http://www.inkids.com.au/ ... Video developed by inkids.com.au themselves.

Grade Level: Toddler to 1st Grade

Purpose: A-
My toddler has enjoyed practicing with this flash card app a lot. She has used this for quite awhile without losing interest and that says a lot about the app. While there are many apps that have similar functions as this app, this one is very well done. There are many stacks of cards including animals, transportation, body parts, things, alphabet, shapes, colours (spelling is in British English), numbers, word matching, spelling, and a shuffle feature for them all. The visuals used are high quality cartoon artwork and this makes the app visually appealing. Please be aware that their doesn't appear to be an American English version available at this time.

Program Functionality: B+
The main negative is that the app can be slow to open the different stacks of flash cards. My daughter has shown frustration over the slowness at times which causes her to hit several icons to see if the app is working properly. This ends up causing the app to be even slower because it doesn't know what she wants.

One of the nicest features is the ability for kids to touch each individual letter to hear what it is. Additionally, each item has a sound along with the voice telling you what each item is. The voices and sounds are very clear.

Overall Educational Value: B+
Based solely upon the flash card app category, this is a very good one. I should probably go further by saying it is the best that I have come across for this age group. There can certainly be a lot of debate over the value of flash cards for kids learning and I don't want to be accused of overstaing the value of these types of activities. I do know that my daughter likes to go to this app on her own when she turns on the iPad and that says a lot to me. She continually amazes me by knowing her letters, colors, and shapes and I do think this app has made an impact upon her memory. Please be aware that their doesn't appear to be an American English version available at this time.

Cost: $3.99 for the iPad version and $0.99 for the iPod Touch / iPhone version.

Recommendation: I would recommend this app at this time but I am still not sure this is cost effective for schools at this time. There is more functionality for students to work independently with this app than they would get with simply using a stack of paper flash cards. Interest level is greater when using this app as well but does it make a long term impact that justifies the cost of the equipment, energy and app? I am not so sure. Once again, if there was a way for teachers to manipulate the app in some fashion to add stacks and to use it for assessment than that would greatly increase the app.

Classroom Use Examples / Ideas: The obvious use is for drill and practice. This could be a center activity or it could work well in a one to one environment. When I began to think about the classroom application though, my thoughts turned to the teacher more. At first glance, I didn't give it enough benefit because the customization features are not obvious. There are some interesting additions under additional information that include additional languages in French and Spanish (have to pay for them though), customize the sounds with your own voice, and the ability to turn off the auto say words (important for assessment use). I can definitely see a teacher using this app for individual assessments as they work with their students one on one. The teacher doesn't have the ability to collect data within the app though if that was the functionality that this app was used for. There could be some interesting possiblities if the teacher could though.

Developer Website: http://www.inkids.com.au/

iTunes Link: Click Here

Reviewer Name: Scott Meech

Reviewer Blog: SMeech.net

Hey, check out our Ning (Online Community) devoted to helping teachers utilize these devices to the their fullest. Please leave a comment if you agree, disagree, or have other creative uses for this app in the classroom, etc.

I Education Apps Review |

tagged

Flash Cards | in

Early Elementary,

Toddler

Wednesday

Dec022009

gFlash+ - Review from Jeremy Brueck at Raised Digital on brueckei.org

Wednesday, December 2, 2009 at 12:00PM

Grade Level: P-16

Program Functionality: A

Purpose: C

Overall Educational Value: B

The application is most suited to provide a skill and drill approach to memorizing vocabulary, math facts and other learning content. It also provides learners with the opportunity to:

learn “bite sized” pieces of relevant information at a time
receive immediate feedback on results
test knowledge in any subject using custom card set integration with Google Docs

Cost: Free

Recommendation: I recommend this app for personal use and school use at this time. I feel this app would be most appropriate for use at home for parents who want to provide an extra supplement to school curriculum that requires a skill and drill approach, like addition and subtraction facts. It will require teacher or adult modeling of use for most early elementary students to operate successfully.

Since I began creating custom cardsets with gFlash+ I find that the app is a great way for my 9 year old sons to review their vocabulary and facts during those times when I can’t directly assist them. For instance, we’ve been using the app in the car during our drive to and from school. On days when there is a test, our kids are even using gFlash+ to review material while they are eating breakfast before school. Used in this way, to reinforce key concepts, I’ve found gFLash+ to be a great contribution to the learning process.

Creators Website: http://www.gwhizmobile.com/

Podcast Script

Introduction:

Welcome to the I Education App Review podcast. This is Jeremy Brueck from Raised Digital on brueckei.org with another IEAR app review. Today I'm going to review gFlash+ from gWhiz, which is available for both the iPhone and the iPod Touch. The application is currently free and available on iTunes or www.gwhizmobile.com/.

Description:

gFlash+ is a flashcard and trivia application with study, quiz, and multiple-choice modes for iPhone and iPod Touch. The app includes the ability for users to download gWhiz Catalog flashcards. Additionally, users can load cardsets from gWhiz content partners; StudyStack and the Flashcard Exchange. gFlash+ users can choose between two modes to operate the app, as they can either study a cardset or take a quiz to test their knowledge. gFlash+ will randomize cardsets, randomly generate multiple choice answers and also focuses on missed cards in subsequent passes. The app supports creating and download Flashcards with images.

One of the nicest features of gFlash+ allows users to create their own custom cardsets using Google Docs. When using the Google Docs integration feature, any two-column Google Spreadsheet can become a set of flashcards or a reference guide. gWhiz has created two templates that are available on their website that makes creating content easy. The gFlash+ Two Column Flashcard Template is a standard question & answer format. Using this template, Column B can also be used as a source of three alternative answers when viewed in multiple-choice mode. The gFlash+ Multiple Choice Test Template allows users to create One Question with up to five unique Answers.

Report Card:

It's report card time. I find that gFlash+ is appropriate for learners of all ages. This application could easily be integrated in the P-16 environment.

For Program functionality I give gFlash+ an A. The program seems to have fairly intuitive interface for core functionality. By default, MY FLASHCARD LIBRARY loads and learners can select the appropriate card set. Custom integration with Google Docs is a great feature of this app and the gWhiz website include excellent tutorials and templates to assist parents and teachers in creating custom flashcard sets. This app will require teacher or adult modeling of use for most early elementary students to operate successfully.

In a February 2009 post on his blog, “Moving at the Speed of Creativity,” Wesley Fryer says, “While I’m a vocal proponent of learning opportunities which focus on higher order thinking, I also readily acknowledge that in some contexts rote memorization is still important and needed.” This statement pretty accurately sums up my reasoning for a C grade in the purpose category. While I feel that applications like gFlash+ are beneficial to learners, I certainly don’t feel skill and drill strategies by themselves are an effective instructional practice.

Overall, I give gFlash+ a B for educational value. The application does provide a multi-modal approach that allows learners of all ages create relevant and custom flashcard sets. While the instructional approach is somewhat limiting in the app, I see that there is potential for parents and teachers to provide digital study aids for learners of all ages. At this time, I would recommend it for educational use and for parents to use at home with their child.

brueckei.org Integration Suggestions:

One question I hear from parents often is, “How can we help our children succeed?” As a parent, you are your child's first and most important teacher. When parents are involved in their children's education, the children do better and have better feelings about going to school.

Let’s take look at how I have been using gFlash+ with my twin sons, who are in 3^rd grade. My wife and I had been noticing that both our sons were bringing home assignments that focused on content area vocabulary. We would diligently go over vocabulary words with each boy on a daily basis, but I also felt that this type of study presented a great opportunity to integrate gFlash+ into the mix.

Here’s a look at a common vocabulary worksheet that we were seeing on a regular basis. You can see that it basically requires children to use the words from a Word Bank to complete the fill-in-the blank questions. Now let’s take a look at how I transferred this worksheet into a gFlash+ cardset.

10.Now you’re ready to run the cardset on your handheld.

Parents have a number of options to choose from when using gFlash+ with their children. Study mode presents children their gFlash+ cardsets in a way similar to traditional paper flash cards. One side of the card is shown, and clicking on bottom card will reveal the answer. Multiple-choice mode randomizes up to 5 answer choices.

Test is a mode that keeps track of your child’s scores and retests incorrect answers to encourage mastery learning. In the test mode, children select the correct answer from the choices by tapping on the word. If they choose the correct answer a green checkmark will appear. An incorrect response is noted with a red X. Once your child completes the test, their score will show on the screen.

Since I began creating custom cardsets with gFlash+ I find that the app is a great way for my sons to review their vocabulary and facts during those times when I can’t directly assist them. For instance, we’ve been using the app in the car during our drive to and from school. On days when there is a test, our kids are even using gFlash+ to review material while they are eating breakfast before school. Used in this way, to reinforce key concepts, I’ve found gFLash+ to be a great contribution to our son’s learning experience.

This has been another I Education Apps Review. I’m Jeremy Brueck from brueckei.org where we are dedicated to helping educators meet the changing demands of 21st Century teaching and learning.

I Education Apps Review |

tagged

Vocabulary | in

Saturday

Jul042009

Alpha Puzzle - Written Review

Saturday, July 4, 2009 at 2:12PM

AlphaPuzzle is a very simplistic iPhone/iPod Touch application geared toward pre-school and kindergarten-aged children. It consists of three parts. The first part is a “tracing” activity, in which you can trace upper- and lower case letters. You trace the letter on the screen with your finger, and can press “Clear” to trace it again. The first thing I noticed was that the lowercase “a” is not the way it is taught in most manuscript methods – it is the way it types on a keyboard – and it is even a different font than the other letters. (It uses a serif font, like Times New Roman, as opposed to a sans serif font, like Arial). The letters are in alphabetical order, so you have to press “Next” several times if you want to practice tracing specific letters. Also, if you are in “lowercase” mode and press “Next,” it gives you the next letter in uppercase, so you have to press “lowercase” again. When I got to the letter “W,” the app closed immediately. If I pressed “Next” quickly enough, I was able to get to “X,” but the same thing happened with every letter after “W” – BIG glitch in the program.

The second part is a “flashcard” activity. First, you see the lower- and uppercase letters. When you press “Flip,” the card “spins” to show a picture that begins with that letter. When you tap the picture, the word appears and is spoken aloud. The flashcards must be done in alphabetical order; again, there is no way to skip to specific letters or to randomize the order of the cards. The arrow in the bottom right-hand corner of the picture-side of the flashcard is so small, that when trying to press it to move to the next card, it often repeated saying the word. (Perhaps a 5-year old with smaller fingers would have better luck.) I got as far as the letter “O” – once I was able to find the tiny “magic” spot to touch to advance to the letter “P,” the app closed immediately. Needless to say, I had no desire to try to go through the entire alphabet again to see if it would go past that point.

The third part of the app is a jigsaw puzzle activity. There are three simple pictures to choose from. You touch the one you want to solve, and the puzzle pieces appear, all jumbled. To move them, you “drag” with your finger. However, I found the process quite tedious, as I often moved a different piece than I intended to, because of the way they are layered, and the pieces tended to “jump” around quite a bit. There is a “Help” button that puts a transparent “overlay” of the finished picture over the puzzle pieces, so you can see what the final picture should look like, but I thought it made it much more difficult to see what part of the picture was on the actual pieces. Pressing “Help” again made the overlay even less transparent. (You could press “Clear” to remove the overlay one layer at a time.) Like the other 2 activities, I found the program “glitchy;” it would exit the app when I pressed “Clear” on occasion. Two of the puzzles had only 4 pieces, which might be appropriate for preschoolers, but the third puzzle had 12 pieces, and I thought that preschoolers would be overwhelmed by the difficulty of the interface. One of the most annoying problems that I found is that once you found pieces that “interlocked,” there was no way for the pieces to stay “interlocked” and often “came apart” as you worked.

Overall, I was not impressed by this app. It is only 99 cents, but I would not recommend it to anyone, as there are too many bugs in the program and the interface is not user-friendly, especially for very young users.

--- J Cordis

I Education Apps Review |