Gamify your classroom using Triptico
About
If you are an enthusiastic teacher who loves using games in classrooms to energise your students and improve their learning, well,without any second thought, sign up for Triptico Plus ! In case you haven't heard of Triptico - it is an online interactive teaching tool consisting of a variety of resources that can instantly make you creative in designing short quizzes or games for your students.
I am sharing a short YouTube video which will give you an idea on how Triptico can be used to create interesting games for classes:
Triptico allows you to create and save games for future classroom use. The resources available in this tool are divided into four categories namely, timers, tools, selectors and quizzes. Some of the popular games under these categories include, bingo, text spinner, find ten, student group etc. Click onto any game you find suitable and go to 'open resources' option to customize the template. Each resource has a short demo video after which teachers may prefer watching before customizing their own activity. The options are very much straight-forward therefore, any teacher can design an activity within five minutes even in class and surprise his/her students!
Recent studies indicate that in game-based learning multiple aspects of interactivity, creativity and problem solving processes function together and enhance learning. Students need to discover and deconstruct knowledge in an atmosphere of competitiveness to solve problems or reach a level in a game. What more, games like triptico has the potential to enhance motivation, cognitive thinking and pro-social skills in students. Since such tools are compelling for the students, teachers can make these work towards a specific goal easily.
Sample Activity
I have designed a practice speaking activity named Say where it is? through Image Spinner for my students of Introduction to Four Skills of English, a course I teach to freshers of my university. The purpose of designing this game is to make learners speak a word or two in English about the landmark they see on screen. Practising speaking with games can create a non-threatening environment which is crucial for language users to speak their target language. Also, images can provide them with visual clues and help them improvise their speech. Students can participate individually or in pairs, depends on how the teacher plans it to be.No doubt, this could be a very useful ice-breaking activity for beginner level foreign or English language learners. You can use word magnets to teach vocabulary. Besides, many other creative games can be designed using Triptico to teach grammar, literature, foreign language culture etc.
 |
| Screenshot of Say where it is? |
Using Triptico in Bangladeshi Context
Affordances
- Teachers can edit an activity to make it suitable for different groups of learners.
- Games such as student group or seating plan can be useful for randomly sorting students into groups or pairs if teacher wants to bring a variety while conducting collaborative activities.
- Teachers can easily build rapport with students using Triptico activities.
Drawbacks
- Triptico requires strong internet connection and a multimedia classroom. Therefore, it can be challenging for teachers who work in low-resource contexts.
- Subscribers are required to pay a monthly fee and yearly fee to use Triptico. As a result, not all Bangladeshi teachers can afford to use it in their classes. However, a few basic games are free. Teachers may think of utilising those in many innovative ways.
- Triptico is best for small size classes in terms of greater control and discipline. But, many institutions of Bangladesh still have large size classes, thereby teachers may wish to consider its feasibility before using Triptico for bigger groups.
Courtesy: Video has been extracted from YouTube and logo from Triptico website.
Younie, S., & Leask, M. (2013). Emerging Practice with Game-based Learning. Teaching with Technologies. 56-82. Open University Press.
Younie, S., & Leask, M. (2013). Emerging Practice with Game-based Learning. Teaching with Technologies. 56-82. Open University Press.
Can't wait to have a look at you guys' blog. I really enjoy blogs with pictures and videos. We don't want blog to be a serious classroom, right? It's a place for cheerful communication.
ReplyDeleteYou are right, Jackie! that's absolutely true - learning should be fun
DeleteA very informative post with a clear overview of the tool. Great connections to language learning. I will be trying this one. But 'strong internet connection' can be a real pain in my context.
ReplyDeleteThank you. Yes, I agree with you - strong internet connection is a big issue in many contexts.
DeleteI really like the creative use of the Image Spinner tool! I will definitely try that out. I also agree that Triptico seems more suitable for smaller class sizes, especially the games, unless the teacher can divide the students into groups. But even then, the teacher has to have really good control of the class. I wonder if there'll be a way to use Triptico effectively in larger classes.
ReplyDeleteYes, Alexandra. Ensuring classroom discipline should be a major concern of teachers if they want to use Triptico in their classes.
DeleteHey Nusrat! I agree with you on the point that even though one learning tool can be costly, a creative teacher should be able to modify the basic games to do many activities and students won't feel that they have missed something!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Yousef! You are right, a teacher must have creative skills to modify or adapt learning materials to suit students' needs and no wonder, triptico provides numerous options for them to do that.
Delete