17/11: PD - Quizlet

PD: Quizlet

Friday 17th November

As the year is coming to an end, we start to prepare for 2018. School has brought in the initiative of optional PD courses that are run over numerous periods in weeks 5-7. The courses are mainly e-learning themed and focus on a variety of different apps. These include; Quizlet, iBooks, Turnitin & Notes. Each staff member needs to attend a minimum of two courses, but as per usual I find more than two fascinating and have the time so I have signed up for five. 

This morning I went to my first session on Quizlet. I was interested to find out more about Quizlet as I am a lover of Kahoot and have heard they are similar. In short Quizlet is used to learn terms and definitions and has just brought out a new function of being able to label diagrams. As a teacher you can find, adapt or create 'sets' of flashcards. These are just sets of terms and definitions that can then be played in multiple ways for students to learn. These can include the following:

• Live - work collaboratively with your team to gain points, the trick is that the term that matches the answer might be on a team mates iPad
• Gravity – more game like, need to write the definition or term to try and blast the meteors as they fall towards earth (individual)
• Write – type the answer, term or definition (individual)
• Test – written, multi choice, matching etc
• Flashcards – creates flashcard sets
• Match – mix n match (individual for time)

Steph who was running the session, suggested that live may be the best form to introduce Quizlet to the students. It brings a collaborative and competitive approach to learning simple terms. The main differences between Quizlet and Kahoot is that Quizlet's live form is collaborative and unlike Kahoot if you get a question wrong all of your team's points are lost. This brings less of an influence on time and more towards getting the right answer. Sometimes with Kahoot students focus more on answering the questions quickly, rather than getting the question right. 

All of these functions could be used as a great form of introducing new terms to students, revising and also collating informal feedback on the learning area. As the free version of Quizlet does not allow you to collect data, this could be used for informal feedback or copies of the tests could be printed and collected for evidence.

So what are my thoughts on Quizlet? Overall I like that the more formal feel of Quizlet. It still has the fun competitive side like Kahoot but can be more collaborative and information can be reused in different forms. It can also be accessible for students when revising for exams. This app could prove really useful with the IG PE course next year and I am planning to use this throughout my course next year.