Memories of mine

Hi guys! Welcome back..
Today I want to introduce another technology we can use for teaching and learning, it's called "Adobe Spark". As what the name says, it's own by Adobe. Some of you might have heard about this, but for the others who don't I would gladly explain it to you..

So, Adobe Spark, from my experience it's like a best place to create digital storytelling videos. Where you can give photos and record your own voice. Not only videos, but you can also create a post or maybe pages, but I will focus on the videos.

Adobe Spark provides us with free account, the template and the story line are there already. So, you can use the available story line or you can actually create it yourself. You can choose your own theme and layout as well.

It's good for us to use this, especially if we are not too confident with our direct performances, it also let us train our fluency in speaking and our listening when we listen to other's story. Another benefits are we can share our opinion and story freely by using this application, also we can directly download the videos, free.

Every good things have flaws. So, here are some from my own opinion about Adobe Spark: The first one, since it's online you cannot use it as free as offline ones, you have to have internet connection and it should be a good one. Second, if you don't have the good connection or only so-so, the process of making the storytelling will be so slow and it sometimes lagging because it also auto saving (it happened to me :'( poor connection). Next, it limits the photo display for each layout or template you use, I don't really know but mine is like only 4 display choices for maximum 2 photos. There are also time limit for recording your voice and the slides are also limited. The last, The cropped image for the slides are too big, so we have to minimize it ourselves. It's okay tho for people who have great internet connection, but for me.. well I had to wait like 2 minutes for each time I click the minimize button and it's so desperating. But you know, I still in love with this website. Haha.

Here is the link of the website, feel free to make yours ^^
Adobe Spark

Here are the example of my storytelling by Adobe Spark, enjoy!

Me as a Child - Adobe Spark

HOT Potatoes

Online quizzes did not go well??
Well that's okay since "Hot Potatoes" are here (yayy!!)
What? You did not know about "Hot Potatoes"? Oh well, I will explain a bit about it..

"Hot Potatoes" and the other online quizzes such as Socrative, Quizizz and Kahoot are seemingly alike. But there are some simple things that make them completely different, as the name said the online quizzes are online while "Hot Potatoes" here are offline quizzes which is created to make teaching and learning easier when we do not have the internet connection. There are also some features that make hot potatoes different from the other quizzes.

The features inside "Hot Potatoes" are:

JQuiz    : This is the multiple choices-based quiz, as this quiz is in a form of multiple choices.

JCloze  : This quiz is a fill-in-the-blanks quiz, so the way of doing the test is by filling the gaps in each sentences.

JMatch : Like what the name says, this quiz is a matching quiz so we are given 2 or more column to be matched one another.

JCross  : This quiz is looked something like a crossword game, so the task is done by filling in the boxes according to the questions given.

JMix     : JMix is a jumbled words or scrambled words quiz, so the task is to reorder the words into sentences.

According to Half-Baked Software

The Masher : The Masher here is a tool for automatically compiling batches of Hot Potatoes exercises into units. Imagine that you have five Hot Potatoes exercises that form a single unit of materials. You want to build HTML files from all the exercises, with the same colors and appearance settings; you also want to link the exercises together using the navigation buttons, and create an index file for the unit. The Masher will do that for you.

Here are the steps on how you make the quiz

1. If you already have the app you can directly launch the app, if not you can freely download it here.

2. After that you can go ahead and install it and then launch it.

3. If you have already launch it, it will looked like something just like this

4. Next, it is up to you now, which type of quiz you wanted to make.

JCloze
1. When you click on JCloze, it will show this kind of table.
2. In JCloze, you have to create a story or sentences and the function of the gap on the bottom is to give blanks in your sentences.
3. Firstly, you write the full sentences and then block the words you want to be blanked and click gap button.
4. Then, you can fill in the clue and the alternative correct answers are optional.
5. You can also use the Auto-Gap button to give you a direct gaps in your sentences.

JQuiz
1. This quiz is basically like a multiple choice quizzes. So, first create the question and then fill in the options.
2. You can add the feedback and also the percentage of correct answer on the right side.

JCross
1. In JCross you can directly insert the answers on the boxes provided.
2. After that you can insert the clues.

JMatch
1. In JMatch, you can present vocab with its meaning or any other words in pairs.
2. The left side of the table are the ordered items, while the right table will be jumbled automatically by the computer.
3. You can add more jumbled items to make it not too easy for the students.

JMix

1. You can fill in the main sentence and the alternate sentences directly on the boxes provided, it will looked something like this.

The Masher
1. In The Masher, you can combine all the quizzes you have to be one quiz.
2. First, you click on the +Add files button and choose the quizzes afterward.

Here are some examples of my quizzes, please have a look :)

Verbs in the Kitchen - JMatch
Google drive

Kitchen Verbs - JCross
Google drive

Sugar Gliders - JCloze
Google drive

KAHOOT!

Have you guys heard about an online quiz called KAHOOT!
I would like to tell a bit about it, but first let me show you how to get in the Kahoot!
- If you are a teacher and you want to make the questions, you should go to website www.kahoot.com
- After that, go ahead and sign up in the red box somewhere at the top right page.

You will see a page just like this

- Choose the orange box if you are a teacher or the questions maker.
- Next, you can register with your email or google mail /gmail.
- If you have already have the account, you can directly go to sign in and insert your email and your password as well.
- When you are already signed in, go on and click the purple button on the top left to start on making the questions.

- There are several choices, you can choose it yourself. You can also access the result of previous test if you have already made one.
- If you wan to play the quiz you can go to the homepage and click on the button "My Kahoots"

 and click the button play at whatever quiz you want to play.

- After that the game code will appear, that code will be the access code to enter the games.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

- If you are a student, you can directly go to the website http://kahoot.it
- There will be a column which should be filled with the code of the game from the teacher
it should be looked something just like this

- After you fill in the game pin/ code, you can choose your username but make it easier by using your own name so that the teacher can recognize you easily.
- Then, the teacher should be the one who start the game by pressing on "start now" button.
- The questions will be presented on the teachers' computer, so it must be connected to the projector so that the students can read easily.
- On the students' phone or computers will appear boxes with colors and shapes, what the students should do is to click on the colored box according to the correct answers from which the questions are displayed on the front / board.
it will be looked as something just like this

- As a result of correct answers, you will be rewarded some points. The points will be regarded according to how fast you answer the questions and how accurate your answers are.

Now I would like to give small introduction about Kahoot!

According to Kahoot.it 

Kahoot! is a free game-based learning platform that makes it fun to learn – any subject, in any language, on any device, for all ages!

According to Wikipedia

Kahoot! is a game-based learning platform, used as educational technology in classrooms and other learning environments. Its learning games ("kahoots") are multiple-choice quizzes that can be created by anyone and are not restricted as to age level or subject matter. Kahoot! can be played using any mobile device, desktop or laptop with an internet connection and web browser. 

While in my opinion, kahoot is the most useful media where teachers and learners can teach and learn in a fun way, in addition it's free!! Here are some benefits you will get when using kahoot:

Firstly, Kahoot provides us with a colorful background. It is actually not so important, but personally I think it is one point of attractiveness and also it makes teaching and learning  more enjoyable as it is not as boring as paper-based quizzes.
Secondly, Kahoot also gives us chances to add some pictures on each question which can make the question clearer and also less-boring.
Next, Kahoot lets us know the progress of each of our student in a form of a graph and it directly shows us the result of questions answered wrong or correct.
We can also limit the time for the students to answer each question so that all students start and finish the test at the same time which is also safe us more time. In case of saving time, kahoot did it greatly as we don't have to waste time on making the hard copy of the text that also save paper and trees, not to mention we don't have to experience a missing project as all the result will be recorded in the application.
Last but not least, kahoot lets us to know the result directly after the quizzes has been done and print the result as well. In the other hand, the learners can see their correct and incorrect answer directly from the result and also the score which again save the time as the scores are calculated automatically.

I believe every things have flaws, even perfect person does not exist. As we know, the online quizzes just like the names are online based quiz. So if the computers or the gadgets of the students and the teacher don't provide internet connection, the game would not be able to be displayed or even played at all. Also, if the computers or gadget suddenly went down because of virus, low battery, hank or lagging the students and teachers could not continue the lesson. For some reason, it is also bad for children because they keep their eyes on the screen of their gadgets and it can ruin student's eyesight.
Lastly, in the quiz there are certain time that is limited, and if the students did not pay attention they cannot answer the question properly or just use guessing method as we cannot replay the previous section.

In my language classroom I think I will only use the quiz as secondary need and prepare another alternative in chase there are something wrong with the program. I will actually use the online quizzes as a fun way of learning while also enrich the students' knowledge as well as measuring it. I might as well using offline quizzes instead if I experience the difficulties in generating the online ones.

Based on the story of "The Three Dogs" in storynory, I will show you the example of a quiz I have made, do not hesitate to try :)
The link of my quiz: Kahoot!
The link of the story: The Three Dogs
Or you can directly try it here.. Enjoy <3