Some digital tools for the classroom

Hello again! Here I will introduce some digital tools I have used in class as a student and as a practicum teacher. I hope you can find them useful for your own classes!

NOTE: you can go and explore each tool mentioned by clicking on the name of the weebpage/app!

KAHOOT

Kahoot is a webpage (and mobile app as well) that is great for creating quizzes and have fun as a whole group. It allows its users to create quiz-like activities for others to engage in as a competition. The competitors have to answer questions right before others so as to win the game.

Users can choose whether to use already created content or make their own. In order to create a game, users have to sign up and create an account (and choose whether they´re signing up as teachers, students or recreational). Once they are in, they just have to click on the banner that read “create a new kahoot” on the right and let their imagination flow! You can even add images and links.

In order to access to the game and play, users new a code. They can either use their computers or mobile phones to access but they need internet connection.

Activity: this tool is excellent to engage all students in a class and provide a relevant and fun way to experience language. One activity that can be carried out is to use a Kahoot game as a revision of a topic. The teacher can create a game going over vocabulary the students have been learning or even grammar topics (here´s a prefabricated example of grammar revision).

MENTIMETER

Mentimeter is a webpage in which you can create collective content the users can interact with by voting. Mentimeter allows you to create collective presentations related with statistics, such as rankings, multiple choice, scales, word clouds, etc. Many users can contribute and the results can be immediately seen. In order to use it, one user has just to provide the presentation (they have to sign up in order to do so) and a code for other users to access.

Activity: teachers can use this tool for an ice-breaker activity or to introduce a topic. The teacher can create a word cloud with a main word (like “farm animals” for example) and the students can contribute to the cloud by adding words or short phrases that they think are related to the central topic.

WHATSFUN

Whatsfun is an app in which you can create fake Whatsapp conversations; the user just has to download the app and start creating chats, such as individual and even group ones (other features like the contact names, the time it was sent, replicate audios, send pictures, etc. can also be edited and personalized).

Activity: the teacher can use fake chats in order to present a grammar item in a contextualized and
thematized way (instead of introducing a topic by reading the texts the course book provides; the teacher can show a dialogue between celebrities the students like). Another activity could be that students can create their own chats pretending to be celebrities being interviewed in order to practice a grammar point or to pretend to be characters from a story they have read in class so as to discuss it.  

BONUS:

FOCUSPLANT

This app encourages you to concentrate when you study or do homework by giving you coins and planting a tree the more time you spend off your phone. You can set a timer inside the app depending on how much you want to be off your phone, and if you achieve that goal, the app will give you coins (or “raindrops”) for you to plant your own virtual garden. Teachers can use this app if they have students who have a hard time concentrating or leaving their cellphones aside during the class (a problem that has become more and more frequent during the pandemic and virtual classes). The students who has more plants, can win a price.