Best Learning Games of 2013

Larry Ferazzo, of Edublogs, lists what he considers the best learning games of 2013. They include World Geography Games, Inca Investigation, The China Games, Plan It Green Live, Broken Picture Telephone, Jay Is Games, Earth Picker, Lifesaver, Room Escape Maker, GR8CTZ—Great Cities of the World, and LocateStreet. This is the second of the 2013 lists. The first list features Wonderground, Pursued, GeoGuessr, Depression Quest, The Republica Times, Breakaway, Quandary, and Review Game Zone. The Edublog includes links to the recommended games. You’ll also find links to the best games of previous years.

Why Educators Should Blog

Edubabbling for the Masses! features K-12 Teaching Resources for teachers, students, and parents. In the blog, created by an educator from Canada, you’ll find ideas to motivate yourself and your students, current events, opinions, and resources. Some of the latest blog entries include reasons why you should get involved in blogging, ELL instructional strategies, information on whether bullying prevention programs are working, and four of the top trends in Education for 2013-2014. 

So, what does Edubabbling consider the emerging trends? Answer: virtual learning, personalized learning, early childhood education, and environmental/outdoor education. How about you? What do you think are the top trends for this school year?

Duolingo for Learning Languages—Free

Duolingo is a free language-learning app for Apple and Android devices. It teaches the basics of Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, and Italian and can also be used for English language learning for those who are native speakers of these languages. According to the Duolingo site, making this product free is possible because people or companies upload Webpages they want translated into other languages. Those using the program translate the page during their language learning practice. “When the document is fully translated, Duolingo returns it to the original content owner who . . . pays for the translation.” In fact, Duolingo, using its “language incubator”, plans to add more languages by having volunteers develop courses.

The program received PC Magazine Editors’ Choice award for Language Learning and the Wall Street Journal called it the best free language learning app. Lessons are short and are designed to fit each different language. The program gets high marks from those who use it.

textHelp: Lots of Great Resources for Reading, Writing, & Speech

Dedicated to the development of innovative software for those with reading, writing, speech, and language difficulties, textHelp provides excellent products that students can use with Macs, PCs, and mobile devices. The software is especially designed for students with literacy problems and those learning English as a second language. New to the textHelp library of resources is Read&Write for Google and the iPad app, Reading Champion. Read&Write for Google works with Google Drive in the Chrome browser making Google Docs, PDF files, and ePubs all available on PCs, Macs, and Chromebooks. The Reading Champion app gives students the impetus to practice and enjoy their reading. (You can try the $6.99 app free for 30 days.)  Other products offered by textHelp include Read&Write, Fluency Tutor, BrowseAloud, English Hero, Lexiflow, Read&Write app, and SpeechStream.

Achieve 3000

Achieve 3000 is all about believing in students and reaching them at their own levels. It’s about making sure students believe in themselves and know that they can go on to the next level of learning. Achieve 3000’s products provide differentiated instruction in both literacy and science. In reading, individual student levels are determined and are continually assessed as students move through the program. Science instruction through eScience3000, a core science program, and The World of Biology, a supplemental curriculum for middle and high school students, are designed to help teachers “produce the forward-thinking scientific minds that will meet the demands of the 21^st century.” Case studies and implementation models are available on the Achieve3000 site.

Word Raider: Vocabulary Builder for Grades 2-5

Ballard & Tighe has announced its new educational Game, Word Raider: Escape. The game is designed to engage students in Grades 2-5 in rigorous vocabulary instruction. Students are introduced to words through animations that convey the meaning of the words and then practice using the words to solve puzzles. Throughout the word games, students listen, speak, read, and write in order to gain long-term memory of the words covered. Word Raider: Escape ($24 per student per year) helps students meet Common Core State Standards and is said to be excellent for students with learning difficulties, ESL, and ELL students. If you are interested in trying Word Raider: Escape, you can sign up for a trial game to pilot it with up to 20 students.

Read&Write GOLD Assistive Software Use Training for Teachers

textHelp, which provides excellent software for students with special needs, has teamed with Atomic Learning to provide free training videos for teachers. Using 2-3 minute videos for each of the features of the software, those who work with students who need special help are better able to meet the needs of their students.  Atomic Learning’s learning sessions takes users on a “walk” through the menu options for reading, writing, and self-editing. Both Mac and PC training versions are available for you to browse.

Self-Confidence for Students with Learning Problems

Designed for all ages, textHelp’s Read&Write GOLD provides students with literacy support for applications they’ll use at school, at home, and in the Cloud. Documents in applications such as Microsoft Word and Apple’s Pages can be changed from text to speech. The program allows students to hear what is on a PDF or text that may be inaccessible. Options include a picture dictionary, pronunciation tutor, and a translator that can translate single words and paragraphs from English to Spanish, French, German, or Italian. Some of the writing, editing, and study skills options are: Spell Check, Word Prediction, Sounds Like, Confusable Words, Verb Checker, Fact Finder, Fact Mapper, and Vocabulary List Builder. textHelp’s  Web apps are compatible with Mac, PC, iPad, and iPhone. If you are interested in Read&Write GOLD, download a trial version.

A Reading Coach for Your Students

Mindplay’s Virtual Reading Coach, due out in July 2012, emphasizes reading, phonics, punctuation, pronunciation, grammar, and comprehension. This product puts the Orton-Gillingham method to work to help all students learn to read. The practices are both auditory and visual and provide for differentiated instruction. There are onscreen speech pathologists and coaches who patiently help students with the lessons and show them how to pronounce words correctly. Although My Reading Coach can be used by any student, it is also excellent for those students who are learning English, students who need remedial help and those who need enrichment in reading. The program, based on the Mindplay’s popular My Reading Coach, is not Web-based, but can be used on PC and Mac computers and Android tablets.

Cassette Tapes? Do You Have Some You’d Still Like to Use?

Do you have some cassette tapes you’d like to keep using in your classroom? Maybe they include some of your favorite songs for young students or perhaps you use them in your foreign language teaching? Some of your aging tapes might contain perfect stories to introduce a literature unit or fun learning for children with special needs or English language learners. When CDs and DVDs took over, you might have had difficulty finding resources like these. The good news is that Califone has come out with a quality product that’s perfect for learning languages as well as for playing those cassette tapes you couldn’t bear to throw away. Called Deluxe Cassette Player/Recorder, it has excellent sound for classrooms and seven built-in headphone jacks for small group learning. If you want to learn more about it, go to the Califone site and watch the video.