Curriculum Committee Report Spring 2020

Curriculum Committee Report Spring 2020 Authors: Andrew Aguiar, Lowell Sanborn, Nicole Shiosaki, and Christa Engel

]\\ 2 Overview 3 3 Applications Used 6 Classroom 8 Drive 12 Google Docs, Slides, and Sheets 17 Pear Deck 19 Google Voice Typing 22 Flipgrid 27 Pixton 30 Kahoot! 32 Discovery Puzzlemaker 34 Kami 35 Adobe Scan Visme 1

]\\ Overview This report will cover useful resources used during the 2020 Spring semester by covering the following sections: · Basic information about the application (including cost) · How to get application · Useful functions · Specific activities or projects that showcase app functions · Application Shortcomings 2

]\\ Applications Used Classroom Basic Information Google Classroom is a useful Classroom app that allows you to establish a virtual classroom for students. Your virtual classroom allows you a stream akin to Facebook’s timeline, a classwork section where you can assign work, and a people section where you can manage teachers and students. How to Get Application and Pricing You can find this application free on the Apple Store or on Google Play. It is also available at the website classroom.google.com. Useful Functions The Stream is a useful place to post messages and share information. It acts as a central homepage for your class. You can meet here at the start of classes. Managing your classrooms virtually is easy as you can create and number them. Your classroom creates a calendar and drive folder shortcut that house your assignments. The classwork page is a useful resource where you can assign work and manage grading. The assignments are customizable. You can add an assignment with a link or file and label it with a heading like homework or test. This serves as a notification for your students on their work, displays their 3

]\\ score, and submission status. The latest upgrade gives you a fully customizable grading and feedback interface that allows you to remain transparent in your grading practices. You can add seemingly infinite details to your allocation of marks using this rubrics function. The people tab allows you to add students with an invite. You can add other teachers or administrators, though only the Classroom creator has the power to delete the class. Through the people tab you can remind your students of their current scores with a work summary that is emailed directly to them. The most useful function in the program is the ability to copy grades to sheets. Inexplicably located in any one single assignment in the classwork tab, this feature allows you to immediately transport all files into a stylized sheet. You can also copy all the information to a csv file or excel. The file will include all the necessary rows of students. Each column is filled with values from your classwork page for each student on each assignment given in chronological order. The smart file even creates an average and a total percentage for each student's work regardless of the total value of all the scores. This means you will not have to do any math in order to hand your students their scores. Application Shortcoming Google Classroom is always updating but some features are still rough or yet to be implemented. Google Classrooms connectivity with Google Forms is one such area of concern. Completed Google Forms assigned to students should automatically record grades in the Google Classroom but this often did not work and students who completed the Google Form did not register as completed in the Google Classroom. The grades spreadsheet can be complicated as every assignment, marked or not, gets put onto the sheet. This is especially frustrating with group projects as each group counts 4

]\\ as a separate assignment in the grades. Students leaving the classroom is another issue to be aware of. If a student leaves the Google Classroom, they take all of their grades and work with them. It is important to keep regular backup copies of grades in case this happens. Concluding Thoughts Utilize this to create a virtual classroom for your class to meet. It is likely better than your E-Learning Portal, and safer for your students to use. 5

]\\ Drive Basic Information Google Drive is an essential Cloud storage tool for professionals. Sharing, uploading, moving, and accessing files all but require this hub. How to Get Application and Pricing This app is free and if you don’t have it, go get it now. You are given 15GB of free space with your free gmail account. This grants you access to all the free apps you need to run a class successfully. It is possible to purchase additional space by purchasing a monthly or yearly subscription. Useful Functions This app allows you access to all of your free G Suite apps; Docs, Slides, Sheets, Forms, Sites, and Jamboard. Using this program lets you create files for classes. You can use this hub to store all of your files for all of your classes. There is also a direct link to the Drive Folder created in your Google Classroom if you choose to use that program. Application Shortcomings Drive’s only glaring weakness is its inability to hold more than 15GB. Though you can upgrade the storage capacity by completing some Google surveys (I currently have 17GB from doing 2 such surveys), it may not be well suited for 6

]\\ housing lots of video files. You have quite a few options with the relatively small Doc files (normally 10-50MB). Concluding Thoughts Go get it now. 7

]\\ Google Docs, Slides, and Sheets Basic Information Google Docs, Slides and Sheets are Google’s equivalent to Microsoft’s office suite. They are available for iOS, Windows, and Android devices. On computers, these applications function through the browser. On smartphones and tablets, they function through the application. How to Get Application and Pricing Google Docs and Google Slides are both free to use. However, accessing these applications requires a Google Account, which is also free. If using a smartphone or tablet, the applications are free to download from the app store. Useful Functions Google Docs, Slides, and Sheets’ functions make them ideal for online teaching. They are collaborative, they feature track changes and auto-save functions, and they have a built-in chat. Add-ons further enhance these Google applications. Furthermore, these applications can all link directly to Google Classrooms. Additionally, these programs convert between Microsoft programs and Google programs with little hassle. 8

]\\ Collaborative Google Docs, Slides and Sheets make synchronistic and asynchronistic online work easy—especially since they are free to use with a Google Account. Anyone who has permission to edit a document can contribute to it in real-time. Thus, if five people all have permission to edit a specific document, they can work together in a single document from different locations. Giving permissions to edit a document is simple. For teachers using Google Classroom, the teacher can make a document, give the students access to edit it, and assign it to specific students. Alternatively, students can share document editing permission with their classmates via email. Track Changes and Auto-Save Google Docs, Slides and Sheets have a track changes function and an auto-save function. Like track changes in other word processing software, these Google programs allow you to see what has changed throughout a document. Additionally, teachers can clearly see who contributed what to a document because the track changes also track each contributor with a different highlighter colour. Auto-saves keep work safe from crashes while also providing a time-stamp allowing authors to return to previous file versions. In teaching, these two functions are useful for students and teachers.. For students, losing a document because of negligence in pressing the save button becomes a non-issue. For teachers, track changes’ colour coding can be used to confirm student participation during online group assignments. Proving late assignments is clear as well since the teacher can enter the document and check the time-stamps to know the last time a document was edited. 9

]\\ Chat There is a built-in text-based chat function in Google Docs, Slides and Sheets. Collaborators can chat with each other in a side bar rather than in their working document without needing a secondary program or device. This is beneficial for users who have weaker computers or laptops that can not run video conferencing software and other applications at the same time because they only need to open the document they are working on. Add-ons Google Docs, Slides and Sheets have many different add-ons that can enhance the functions of the applications. The Google website advertises Lucidchart Diagrams for creating diagrams and charts in Google Docs. These add-ons can be explored and implemented according to the user’s needs. Specific Activities The useful functions provided by these Google applications make it possible to design collaborative tasks in online classrooms. A specific example is a vacation itinerary activity using Google Docs. In this activity, students in groups of four or five (depending on class numbers) work together in a Google Doc to plan a vacation. They need to use the chat functions of Google Docs to decide on a travel destination. Then they must brainstorm activities for one day of the vacation. Each student should make at least three activities for a day of travel. Then students must narrow down their brainstormed activities to ten (or a smaller number if appropriate). To do this, they must discuss using the chat sidebar and make a decision about what makes the final cut. 10

]\\ Another activity uses Google Slides to make Frayer Models. Frayer Models are a way of learning vocabulary words. They have the lexical item in the center of the page or card and each of the four corners are devoted to a topic. For example, in the EFL setting, those corners could be L1 definition, example sentence in L2, an L2 definition in the learner’s own words, and a picture. Google Slides provides an opportunity for a twist on the Frayer Model as multiple students can work through a list of words together. Weaker students can take the words that they find easier, while stronger students in the class tackle the more difficult items on the list. Application Shortcomings Google applications are weaker than their Microsoft equivalents. For example, Google Slides cannot embed M4A sound files—it can only embed MP3 and WAV files. M4A are a common audio file as they are what smart devices often create so this is a glaring weakness. Furthermore, audio files must first be uploaded to Google Drive before they can be embedded into Google Slides. It is also not possible to record audio directly in Google Slides. Microsoft applications do all these things easily. Perhaps the biggest shortcoming of Google applications is that some key features are only available in the browser version. For example, you cannot use the chat functions on a phone or tablet. This browser exclusivity must be considered while designing any activity that involves any of these applications. Concluding Thoughts If you are already using Google Classroom to conduct your online classes. Docs, Slides, and Sheets are ideal. They may be less powerful than 11

]\\ their Microsoft equivalents, but their integration with Classroom sets them apart. 12

]\\ Pear Deck Basic Information Pear Deck (https://www.peardeck.com/googleslides) is an add-on to Google Slides which allows students to interactively join presentations and respond to questions or prompts in a variety of ways. During a class session, the teacher invites students to “join” the presentation. Students navigate to joinpd.com, enter the specific code for their class presentation and can then respond to the presentation from their devices (mobile or web browser on a computer). How to Get Application and Pricing To install Pear Deck, open a Google Slides document in Google Chrome. From the menu at the top of the page, select “Add-ons” and then click “Get add-ons”. From the window that pops up, search for “Pear Deck” and install it. Note that upon a future re-opening of Google Slides, Pear Deck will not open automatically. When you want to work with Pear Deck, click “Add-ons”, navigate to “Pear Deck for Google Slides Add on” and then click “Open Pear Deck Add on”. Pear Deck has a lengthy free-trial period of 60 days, during which users can access all features of Pear Deck. However, their premium version has a price tag of $149.99USD per year. After the trial period ends, Pear Deck can continue to be used in a basic form, but many features become restricted. 13

]\\ Useful Functions When on the free trial period or using the premium feature, users host classes and have access to all of the following features: slides types, student-paced mode, teacher dashboard, and takeaways. When using the free version, users can host classes and have access to some slide types. Slides types are the features that users can build into their Google Slides presentations. When Pear Deck is opened in the Google Slides document during the editing process, the Pear Deck menu appears on the right hand side. Users can choose to add specific functions to their slides: ● Text-based slides: allows students to type a response. ● Choice: the teacher prepares multiple options and the students choose one. ● Number: students respond with a numerical value that they type. ● Website: teachers can insert a hyperlink that students will be able to access. ● Draw (available during the trial and to the premium version): students can annotate or freehand on the slides. There is also an option to insert a textbox. ● Draggable (available during the trial and to the premium version): students are given a marker that they can place on the slide. There are two modes to hosting a presentation using Pear Deck: instructor led and student-paced (available during the trial and to the premium version). If using the instructor-led version, the teacher sets the pace of the class. On their devices, the students will see the slide the teacher is presenting. When the teacher moves on to the next slide, the student’s devices will also move to the next slide. In other words, the students can only respond to the prompts, and cannot move back and forth between slides. The 14

]\\ teacher can also host the presentation in student-paced mode, which allows the students to navigate through the presentation themselves. It is possible to switch from one mode to the other at any time. The teacher dashboard (available during the trial and to the premium version) is a private window the teacher can view separately during the lesson. It allows the teacher to see who has joined the presentation, and if they are online (actively viewing the presentation) or offline (have left the presentation). Teachers can see student’s specific answers and give feedback. When students are navigating through the presentation in student-paced mode, the teacher can see where the students are (which students are on each slide) to monitor the progress of the class. When the teacher closes and finishes the presentation session, there is an option to publish takeaways (available during the trial and to the premium version). This means a copy of the slides, and individual answers, will be published as a Google Document which is shared to that individual student and the teacher. In this way, answers and student work is saved, and can be viewed and edited by both the teacher and the students after class has finished. Specific Activities The Pear Deck Add-on in Google Slides also includes a template library which offers many ideas to create specific activities on slides. The template library offers suggestions tailored to the beginning, during, and end of the lesson. These templates show the variety of ways in which the text, choice, number, web, draw, and drag features can be applied. Below are some examples of how teachers might utilize the various slide types: 15

]\\ ● Text-based slides: writing activities, short answer questions, allowing students to write/ask questions, brainstorming, giving feedback ● Choice: multiple choice questions, quizzing students, quick class polls, true/false questions. ● Number: solving math problems, giving rankings. ● Website: directing students to a website for the class activity, linking students to additional readings or resources. ● Draw (available during the trial and to the premium version): asking students to correct or identify errors in writing, completing cloze activities, make annotations or draw on a picture. ● Draggable (available during the trial and to the premium version): students can use their markers to indicate a location on a spectrum or a map, complete matching activities, organize information. Note that this is not a conclusive list of specific activities. The Pear Deck slides types are highly adaptable and able to be used in endless ways. The user is easily able to create Pear Deck presentations that create student engagement appropriate to their own teaching style and context. Application Shortcomings For classrooms where every student has access to a computer or mobile device, Pear Deck can be easily used. However, in a virtual classroom over Zoom, mobile users might struggle—operating both Zoom and Pear Deck on a small phone screen could be a challenge. Students with unstable internet connections may lose access to the Pear Deck during class time and miss being able to respond to prompts. However, the student paced mode 16

]\\ allows students to revisit these questions, and can be completed without the instructor present. The free version is quite simple and very limited. Yet, the price tag for the premium version is steep and this may be a limiting factor for instructors who have to pay out of pocket. Concluding Thoughts Pear Deck allows for teachers to be able to actively check their student’s participation and comprehension of presentation topics and activities. Teachers can easily track class progress even in an online virtual classroom, and allow students to interact with class material. However, the price tag may not be realistic to allow for use of Pear Deck past the free trial period. 17

]\\ Google Voice Typing Basic Information Google Voice Typing is a tool for Google Docs that turns speech to text while using Google Chrome. How to Get Application and Pricing Voice Typing is free to use. You need to have access to a microphone in order to use it. You can find Voice Typing in the Tools section of any Google Doc. Useful Functions The main function for Google Voice Typing is to allow users to change speech into text. Once the speech to text button has been pressed, it will start transcribing the speaker’s voice. There are many commands that Voice Typing can carry out. Specific Activities This tool is useful for speaking and writing at the same time. For instance, a teacher can give vocal instructions while also writing the written instructions for a task at the same time. Thus, it gives two channels of language and enhances cognitive uptake. 18

]\\ Students may also use this add-on for some interesting takes on some tasks. For example, speech to text applications are useful for pronunciation practice. Students can read a passage of text aloud while Voice Typing is activated. If there are any major pronunciation errors, they will get instant feedback because the output will be incorrect. They can repeat the reading until they have improved their pronunciation. Application Shortcomings Using Google Voice Typing, like any other speech to text application, you must always check the output. There will inevitably be errors from speech misrecognition or missing punctuation—you must speak the punctuation for it to write it. Since the output is a text form of speech, its voice may also be unusual for any written documents. Basically, revisions are a must for these kinds of programs and it is true of this one as well. Concluding Thoughts Google Voice Typing is great for hands-off typing. It is not as essential as other items in this report, but has its uses. 19

]\\ Flipgrid Basic Information FlipGrid is a free website (flipgrid.com) that allows users to post videos. Teachers can create “grids” for their classrooms that the students can access using their emails and a specific code. They can use FlipGrid to make the videos directly, or upload videos that were filmed separately. How to Get Application and Pricing FlipGrid works best with Google Chrome on a laptop or PC. Using FlipGrid from a computer will also require a webcam in order to be able to film videos using FlipGrid itself, but separately filmed videos can be uploaded from the web browser. There is also an app which can be downloaded onto mobile devices and tablets. Videos can be filmed using the app, and separately videos can also be uploaded in the app. Both the website and the app are free to use. Useful Functions FlipGrid allows users to record themselves, record their screens, or upload videos that were created separately. This makes it very user-friendly. FlipGrid also allows teachers to post written instructions, make an instruction video or “prompt”, and provide links to other resources. Classroom “grids” have various features: 20

]\\ ● Privacy: Teachers can choose whether the videos that students post are public (can be viewed by everyone) or private (only the teacher can view the video). Teachers can choose to make certain videos public, or choose to make certain videos private. ● Flag videos: students who are viewing other students’ videos can flag them if they find them inappropriate. This sends an email notification to the teacher, who can review the video and moderate as necessary. ● Time limit: Teachers can choose the maximum length of video that a student can upload (up to 10 minutes). ● Status: If a topic within a classroom “grid” is active, then videos can be posted. It can be changed to “frozen” (videos can be viewed, but no new videos can be posted) or “hidden” (the topic cannot be viewed). ● versatile settings that can be enabled or disabled, such as: public video view counts, ability to edit video clips within FlipGrid, ability to attach links, allow student “likes” to videos, allow students to make and post reply videos. ● Veedback (video feedback): the teacher can view and make a response video giving individual feedback to a student. This feedback video is sent privately and directly to that student. Specific Activities FlipGrid is a tool that can be used in a number of different ways, tailored to the needs of the teacher. Presentations can be shared using the screen recording feature. “Vlog” (video log) style videos can be shared. A debate style activity that utilizes the ability for students to respond to other students videos is possible. FlipGrid is appropriate for any speaking activities and 21

]\\ listening activities if the reply option is utilized. Note that there is no reading or writing built into the use of FlipGrid itself. Application Shortcomings Privacy may be of concern to the students. Students must be reminded not to share any personal information such as their address in their videos, such as during a vlog activity. Students also need to be aware of the repercussions of sharing other student’s videos outside of the class “grid”. Although the class grid can only be joined by students who have the code, due to the ability to record screens, students need to be made aware that they are not to record or share their peers’ work. The ability to make reply videos introduces an additional aspect of interactivity, however the layout of these reply videos is awkward. The teacher cannot search for a specific students’ video, so if checking a student’s work, a teacher may have to click through many videos in order to find that students’ work. It would be recommended to pair FlipGrid with another resource, such as Google Classroom, in order for students to report these details (such as which classmate they made a reply video to, so that the teacher can find it easily). Concluding Thoughts The interactive nature of FlipGrid, makes FlipGrid an invaluable resource for speaking and listening activities. Personal and direct feedback is a powerful teaching tool that helps drive learning. Overall, FlipGrid is intuitive to use and there are no barriers such as cost to accessing it. 22

]\\ Pixton Basic Information Pixton comics is an online, free-to-start comic maker. Users can make comics with speech bubbles and expressions from templates. Users can create custom characters or use pre-generated ones. These characters can be posed and dressed to suit the situation. Teachers also have access to some printables for classroom use. There is an educational version of Pixton comics and a classic version. This article will discuss only the educational version. How to Get Application and Pricing The educational version of Pixton comics is found online at this link (https://edu.pixton.com/educators). This program is entirely web-based. This website is free-to-start—a basic free educator account only comes with 13 backgrounds, 7 outfits per character base, 20 premade characters, 14 expressions and 20 poses. Monthly subscription prices range from $9.99USD to $99USD. Alternatively, teachers can buy individual content packs for between $5.99USD and $14.99USD. 23

]\\ Useful Functions This website is relatively safe for students. To use Pixton, students must join via a classroom code/website link. As long as this code is delivered securely, Pixton is a safe harbour for young learners. Students require a Google, Facebook or Microsoft account to join the Pixton classroom. Moreover, if you are teaching children, this website is compliant with Canadian and US privacy laws which suggests that students’ data is not collected. An additional factor to consider, as both a pro and a con, is the website does not allow for student interaction. This can be beneficial as it disallows aggressive behaviours, but it restricts options for interactive assignments. Pixton is intuitive and simple to use. It is simple to join, make comics, and to print, download or send the finished comics. Students only need to press “new comic” to get started. Moreover, as this website was designed for young learners, the layout for building a comic is mostly visual. The website can handle non-English characters and accented characters are available at a click. Another benefit of this website is the classroom photo. Each student makes their own avatar which is put into a group photo with their classmates. The group photo and personalized avatar provide students with a sense of ownership of the Pixton classroom and a connection to their classmates. In an online environment where students may not see their classmates or where students may feel disconnected, this could help students feel like part of a real class. 24

]\\ Specific Activities Pixton Comics lends itself to many possible activities. Students can make summaries or role play comics using the material covered. This could be done individually or in groups. Individually, each student can make their own comic. For group work, the instructor will need to assign roles to the students. Some roles could be, the comic maker who interacts with Pixton, the writer who comes up with the story, and the researcher who checks the books for information. After the comics are made, students can present their comics or submit them for homework. Application Shortcomings As with all tools, Pixton has its shortcomings. Students cannot comment, see, or otherwise interact with other students’ comics, so discussions and other activities will need to be carried out through another resource. This applies to teachers too. Teachers are able to see all student comics, and can watch them being made but the comics do not update in real time. Teachers who wish to ensure their students are doing the activity will need to refresh the page continuously. Additionally, Google, Facebook or Microsoft accounts are required for all parties involved and teachers of young learners will need to consider privacy precautions when making accounts for children. There are also limited text options—Pixton does not allow text to be bolded, italicized, or underlined. Another shortcoming of this website is the free-to-start nature of the website. Free accounts have a limited amount of options for students to use. Using these options, students can make adequate comics, however locked content is visible to the students. This means students could become 25

]\\ frustrated with locked content. While students are not exposed to advertisements or asked to buy packs, the teacher is. Finally, there are concerns regarding the cultural norms that Pixton enforces. Whenever a teacher chooses to use an application with their students, they must be aware of the ideologies the application enforces. Pixton has several aspects to be cautious of. First, the website is heavily American-centric. Content packs contain several American holidays such as the Fourth of July, President’s Day, and Christian versions of Christmas and Easter. There are no content packs celebrating non-American holidays or events. Additionally, while there are many skin tones available, the representation of many cultures is often stereotyped. For example, a content pack called the Old West represents First Nations people as wearing caveman-esque furs with a single feather sticking up from a headband. Pixton is also highly gendered and has limited body types. There are boy and girl children, boy and girl preteens, young men and women and old men and women. However, the only body type for all of these options is thin. Additionally, the characters are unnecessarily gendered as the male characters are always taller, and have larger hands and feet. There is one exception. Male and female children are the same height, but the male children still have larger hands and feet. Also, the clothing is limited to specific genders. Boys, for example, cannot wear skirts or dresses—unless they are robes. Moreover, the characters are often gendered when applying certain themes to the class photo. The fairy tale theme makes the girls princesses and boys princes, and in the superheroes theme, the boys have pants, and the girls get shorts. These cultural norms enforce traditional views of gender, race and body type. There are no non-binary options, nor options for different body shapes. 26

]\\ Additionally, cultural representation is over-simplified. The presentation of these norms can negatively affect students’ perception of themselves, or at least enforce hegemonic beliefs about gender, body-image and race. If you are using this website, it might be valuable to address these ideologies with your students. Concluding Thoughts If you want some way of making comics or illustrations easier for your students, this will give you a solid way to do it but be aware of the limitations of this comic maker. 27

]\\ Kahoot! Kahoot! Basic Information Kahoot! is a quiz app for iOS, android and web-browsers. Teachers can make, launch and check results from the Kahoot! website or application. How to Get Application and Pricing The website for teachers to make accounts, create and launch Kahoot! quizzes is https://kahoot.com. To play a Kahoot! game, students will need to use a different link (https://kahoot.it/) and enter a password. Kahoot! has a free version and several levels of paid subscriptions. The prices range from $5USD to $20USD per month. The free version is adequate for teaching most classes. It allows groups of 50 to participate in quizzes, allows teachers to create quizzes, and gives reports on student performance. The paid subscriptions increase the number of students who can participate at once, add more question types, give access to an image library, and other features. Useful Functions Kahoot! has many benefits. One of the most important is its large selection of quizzes for many subjects. It is also easy for teachers to create their own quizzes. Teachers can choose from a variety of question types (multiple choice, true or false, puzzle, type answers, word cloud, and polls). Additionally, teachers can add images and videos to their quiz. 28

]\\ There are two ways to play Kahoot! with students—teach and assign. Teach is a synchronous way to play Kahoot! Students input a code on the Kahoot! website or app and select their answers using their device. This method requires the questions to be shown to all students via a projector or screen share. Assign is an asynchronous way to play. Students have a set amount of time to complete the quiz on their own. Both ways of playing report which questions students struggled with, which students performed poorly and which students started but did not complete the quiz. Specific Activities Kahoot! is good for warm-up activities and review games. It is a quick and easy way to pre-test students’ knowledge. Alternatively, they could be used to assess students’ ability after completing a unit. For students with high affective filters, Kahoot! is a low-stress method to gauge student competency. For competitive students, Kahoot! brings a challenge to the classroom. Application Shortcomings Kahoot! has some negative aspects. First, the webpage is complicated and it is hard to navigate from the homepage to the educator’s page. Moreover, there are many quizzes so it is difficult to find specific quizzes. Other problems include students being asked to sign up for a Kahoot! account, students being dropped from Kahoot! quizzes in progress and other server or internet issues. Concluding Thoughts 29

]\\ Kahoot! provides a wide-range of quiz games to give students a fun and competitive way to engage with content. 30

]\\ Discovery Puzzlemaker Basic Information Discovery Puzzlemaker is a free website which allows users to create a variety of puzzles such as word searches, crossword puzzles, unscramble puzzles, mazes and more. The website is run by Discovery Education and they have granted permission for unlimited use and printing of their puzzles for classroom use. How to Get Application and Pricing Discovery Puzzlemaker (puzzlemaker.discoveryeducation.com/) is web-based and entirely free. Useful Functions This website allows users to generate puzzles. There are ten different puzzles which are, as they are named in Discovery Puzzlemaker, word search, criss-cross, double puzzles, fallen phrases, math squares, mazes, letter tiles, cryptograms, number blocks and hidden messages. Each puzzle type has options that can help control the difficulty of the puzzles. For example in the word search, you can choose how large the puzzle will be from 1 letter by 1 letter to 40 letters by 40 letters. Users can input any number of target words and how often the words will share letters with other target words. Additionally, puzzles can be generated with html formatting, plain text formatting, or using lower case letters. Another example, mazes, has 31

]\\ several different shapes, as well as sizes and path patterns that allow the maze to be customized. Specific Activities Puzzles from this website can provide students with a fun, challenging way to engage with target vocabulary. Word searches are a classic activity. Letter tiles can provide an unfamiliar puzzle to help with vocabulary acquisition. Letter tiles work by breaking a word or phrase into two, three or four letter tiles which must then be unscrambled to make the target language. The scrambled letter tiles can be paired with a definition or other hint to make it easier for students. Application Shortcomings Rarely, the algorithm that generates the puzzles is unable to fit all of the words into a puzzle. The website will notify you if this happens. Other times, the process might be slightly time consuming for example letter tiles have to be done phrase by phrase or the algorithm combines them all into one large paragraph. Finally, the resulting puzzles are not particularly beautiful. Concluding Thoughts Discovery Puzzlemaker is a useful site to generate free puzzles for students. 32

]\\ Kami Basic Information Kami is a pdf annotation program that allows you to share files with your class. Using this tool you can take a pdf file and share it with your class and immediately start working. How to Get Application and Pricing This free tool gives you limited free options like text, drawing tools, and erasing. It can be added free as a chrome extension. Useful Functions In the extension you can create an annotated pdf file. Drawing tools, text, erasers, and shapes are all included in the free version. Unlocking some of the more useful functions will cost a bit extra though. Specific Activities This app is best used for projects in groups. You can assign them to your students in individual files and quickly get to work as a team. The biggest issue with this program is that you can not delete others' writing even when you are sharing the same file. So if someone mistakenly writes in the file you are working on, they need to delete their errant writing. Concluding Thoughts 33

]\\ Kami is useful, though it may be easier to ask your students to open the file in Microsoft Edge and it will be able to markup automatically. Kami often causes issues when students try to hastily answer questions and end up writing over each other. The app quickly causes issues if turns are not determined. Turning the file into multiple scans and sending as separate files is a bit time consuming, but can get the intended effect. 34

]\\ Adobe Scan Basic Information Adobe Scan is a scanning app with an OCR reader for documents. It is able to quickly scan physical documents and share as a pdf file. Once shared it is able to be transported anywhere you want. How to Get Application and Pricing This app is free to download from the Apple Store or Google Play. Useful Functions A great use for this app is simply sharing pages of a textbook online with blanks for writing. It is able to scan and read the text and then it converts the scanned text into editable text in your new file. Specific Activities The best way to utilize this feature is to share your newly scanned image as pdf to Google Drive and open with Docs. Application Shortcomings The app is not perfect with lots of stylistic formatting. Borders and font sizes and styles are particularly difficult for this app to read. If you have a straightforward page of your book with questions and answers, or a worksheet you made yourself, it is most useful. Concluding Thoughts On the right page of a book with minimal formatting or a simple line of text this app quickly makes printed text into a workable digital file. Not to be used on handwriting unless it is written with incredibly legible handwriting. 35

]\\ Visme Basic Information Visme is a free online program that offers high quality stock photos and a simple infographic designer. How to Get Application and Pricing This app is incredibly easy to use and it offers 5 free projects complete with storage on their website. Useful Functions This site is best used to make infographics, posters, stylized resumes, social media banners, and professional quality icons. It is useful in creating beautiful reports and creative project posters. It immediately makes your project look more credible and interesting. Application Shortcomings It only allows 5 free projects. You can download your projects as a jpg file, but you can not use any of the animated features that seem so enticing. After downloading, you can delete the file and create another one, but you will never quite realize the program’s potential unless you pay the 30$ per month that their services charge. Concluding Thoughts Visme is a great tool for adding some flare to an otherwise underwhelming report, poster, or file. Use it for a resume template, social media post, or even a web graphic. 36