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.

Some of the Most Unique Classroom Timers You’ve Ever Seen

Online-stopwatch.com offers fun timers for classrooms, faculty meetings, or wherever you may need them. You’ll find an egg timer, a rocket timer, a candle timer, racing timers, clocks, bombs, and more. The timers are quite easy to use, and the children will love them. The rocket, for example goes off when the time is up, flies around the screen, and ends with fireworks.

Classroom Timer Apps

If you are looking for a classroom timer that will work with the iPhone, iPad, or iPad Touch, the Classroom Timer Pro ($1.99), by Walsall Academy, is easy-to-use and good for timing classroom activities. There is a free version of this product, but the Pro version had better reviews. Glen Storey offers Silent Light—Classroom Timer and Decibel Meter ($3.99) for the iPhone and iPad. It uses the microphones on iPhones and iPads to monitor noise; you can share its screen through projectors and Apple TV.   Designed to help students with management and productivity, ClassTimer by Ventura Educational Systems ($.99) requires iOS4.2 and is compatible with iPads.

Math Bingo

Fun with math for Kindergarten through Grade Three, Math Bingo ($.99) by ABCya.com, motivates children to learn addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division with five Bingo games. The games range in content level from easy to difficult. Bingo Bugs are given as rewards; a scoreboard displays student scores.  Three bonus games come with the app. According to a review in Education World, Math Bingo “is a great app to supplement regular math lessons.”

Shake the Proteins

Simply shake and tilt an iPad to learn about proteins that break down sugar in cells. Sugar Shake includes a free version with eleven levels and an interactive menu. The app helps older students understand how chemical reactions work at the molecular level. All they have to do to get points is to set off a chemical reaction. Fun.   

Jane McGonigal & Game-Based Learning

Jane McGonigal, a keynote speaker at the 2013 ISTE convention in San Antonio, believes that “games do a better job of provoking our most powerful positive emotions, like curiosity, optimism, pride, and a desire to join forces with others.” The more games we play, according to McGonigal, the better off our world will be.  Why? Check out the TED video of one of McGonigal’s talks.

At ISTE, McGonigal opened the conference by telling attendees that “games are a space of maximum engagement.” That’s important because according to research only 44% of high school students say they are engaged in learning at school.  The speaker encouraged the educators in the audience to think about the ten emotions (joy, relief, love, surprise, pride, curiosity, excitement, awe and wonder, contentment, and creativity) that gamers say they have while playing and to try to create classrooms that evoke these emotions.  According to Katie Ash of Education Week, McGonigal didn’t explain how teachers could put her ideas to work in the classroom. Bottom line: we know that games work in learning, but finding appropriate games to use and integrating them into the curriculum isn’t all that easy.

Gaming for a Better World

We know that students like educational games, but most teachers don’t think of themselves as game designers. Perhaps, we will take that on in the future, or at least take on the editing of some games—just like we do with other educational resources. Keeping in mind that students and many adults find some games addictive, we need to consider why this addiction happens and how we might use this knowledge to improve educational games and perhaps solve other problems as well. If we can create games that motivate students into problem solving modes, just like the most popular online games do, this will not only mean learning across the curriculum but also learning that may benefit education and our world.

Game designer Jane McGonigal's goal is to show everyone that game play can help solve the world’s problems. Just consider: playing games online helps students “learn as they go” and to collaborate and cooperate with others. Games match ability to game levels, offer collaborators to help, feature inspiring stories, give rewards, and leave users with a feeling of satisfaction. Many students spend as much time gaming as they do in school. Also, gamers may get better feedback in virtual worlds than they do in our schools. Because of her belief that gamers can offer solutions to many of our world’s problems, McGonigal has developed three games to test her theory. These include: World Without Oil (what happens when oil supplies run out), SuperStruct (gamers have 23 years left on Planet Earth), and Evoke (motivating social innovation skills especially for those in developing nations). Evoke is available online for you and your students to try. Users of these games have, according to McGonigal, come up with some “amazing solutions.”

Give Me More Math Homework!

Once in a while, we teachers encounter a math-whiz who can’t get enough math, but most of our students don’t exactly fit into that category. So, when students beg for more math homework, we wonder what might be causing this sudden fondness for the subject. According to Susan Bowling, the Enrichment Program Director at Fremont Intermediate School in Mundelein, Illinois, the answer is to put students to work with Wowsers. The product is an online learning platform for Grades 3-8, which provides games and activities to help students master core mathematics concepts. Bowling’s students want more Wowser math fun after school, on weekends and when they are out sick. At Fremont, all students, including those in Special Education and Gifted programs, receive time with Wowsers, and they can also access it at home, during their free time, and on their mobile devices. Currently only school editions, which can be used at home, are available, but the folks at Wowsers are working on the ability to offer a single use edition for families whose children’s schools don’t have Wowsers.

Gamify with Zeos

Game-based learning has been proven to work, probably because students like the challenge and excitement of games. Combine standards mastery with games in an engaging practice environment and you have Pearson’s Zeos: The Future of Standards Mastery.  Like magic, because of the algorithms used to analyze responses, Zeos can tell the difference between good guesses and real learning. Both entertaining and cost effective, Zeos involves students in Grades 3-10 in standards mastery practice by using “accessible-from-anywhere” delivery, customizable avatars, and rewards. Teachers receive immediate information on student performance with the help of Zeos as they prepare students for high stakes testing. Watch the Zeos’ video to learn more about this standards mastery programs.

Wows for Wowzers® Game-Based Math for Grade 3-5

What is Wowzers? It’s math that’s fun, engaging, and fast-paced, and it captured the CODiE Award for Best K-12 Solution and Best Classroom Management System.  That’s because the product provides a cloud-based platform for learning where students take on “story-driven games and activities” while learning at their own pace. The program can replace textbooks, assessments, manipulatives, and gradebooks. While students are engaged in “digital experiences with their personal avatar”, with one-click teachers can get a “real-time snapshot” of what all students are doing.  Wowzers offers 33 weeks on content and is priced at approximate $25 a student or $7000 per school.  You can click on the Wowzer demo, watch a Wowzer video, or sign up for a free trial.