Expand Quizlet for Collaborative Work and Vocabulary Review Fun

One of the technology tools that we learned about for my Digital and Social Media in Education class was Quizlet. Quizlet is an excellent vocabulary review game that my students enjoy. They can access online note cards using their smart phones. We also play the online review games, like Scatter, on the day before the test.

Quizlet doesn't have to be a solitary study tool. In this post I share ways to expand Quizlet into a social activity.

First, students can enter vocabulary terms collaboratively into Quizlet. Quizlet offers an easy import option from spreadsheets. I create a spreadsheet using Google and type all of the vocabulary words into one column. I share the link with my students and they work together to fill in all of the words in the second column until the class finishes.

I don't like to spend class time on busy work, like doing vocabulary worksheets, but I still think vocabulary terms are a good way to introduce a topic and link to previous learning experiments. Doing the work collaboratively gives students more time to quiz and less time just copying from a textbook.

One of my favorite functions, other than the spreadsheet import, is the flashcard printing option. I keep decks of cards of my units to fill the odd time as students finish their labs at different times.

One game we play is actually from a bridal shower. We all had the names of Disney characters pinned to our back and had to have conversations with people to guess our character. For a vocabulary review, the students have either a word or definition pinned to them and they have to find their partner.

Another game we like is Old Maid. The students match their cards and the first student to lose all of their cards is the winner.

We also play Popcorn Race which I have blogged about before. I like that game because students are very competitive with it. It encourages them to learn their words so they can win during classtime.

Have you used Quizlet in your classroom before? I've really expanded on it in the last year and am happy with the results. My students have fun and do well on quizzes.

Use Just 1Password To Log In to All of Your Web 2.0 Tools

Our week at the University of Northern Iowa for my Digital and Social Media class in my graduate program is off to a great start. We are learning a lot from each other and filling our teacher toolbox with handy Web 2.0 apps. Some highlights include:

• Renee and Becky showed us tools to use for augmented reality. Becky gave us coloring pages that came to life with Chromeville. Renee showed us how to share information and add to printed materials with Aurasma. I joked that it was like Harry Potter newspapers with moving portraits. Wouldn't it be great if students could "take a picture" of a picture of food and be brought to a recipe or tutorial?
• Do you use QR codes in your classroom? QRStuff is a great resource for adding color and choosing the application type for your code. We saw dice that had a QR code on each face. That would make a great tool for students who understand a concept sooner than others. Roll the QR dice for a leading question for a new project.
• I shared a bit of how I organize my life with Evernote. Renee organized for a fantastic student, Ian Coon, to join us via Zoom. He shared how he stays organized (a little overwhelmingly so) with Evernote.

A great tool I am using to wrap my head around all of these apps is 1Password. 1Passwordis an program that creates a different, secure password for each time you log in to a new application. As I log in to the various apps I use, 1Password asks to store the information. Here is me logging in to Kidblog:

I have one very complicated, very long password that I use to log in to 1Password. The program stores the password. Next time I log in, I click the Chrome Extension, select the app I am logging in to, and 1Password will autofill the information for me. It is not necessary for me to program each username and password into 1Password, the program just stores them as I log in. I am enjoying this program so far, but it will become even more useful as I do online shopping and banking. I can also create secure notes within the program to store personal notes and information. Let's be honest now... Do you use the same passwords, or only a few, for every application? Is the password you are using actually secure, or does it contain personal information like phone numbers or birthdays? If you are in this habit, like I used to be, I highly suggest giving 1Password a try.