Korean Job Discussion Forums

ddeubel · Joined: 20 Jul 2005

I'm a big one for simplicity - also promoting simple sites with BIG possibility for language instruction and learning. Quizlet is another one on my list (along with Voicethread, Tarheel Reader, English Central.).

Please visit the flashcards I've made or view this screencast showing how to use them.

Teachers can print them and use them in class in hundreds of ways.
Instruct full class with them - students guessing/repeating
Students can visit at home and replay them with games using both typing, testing and voice.

Hundreds of sets. All yours to try out. I really believe in Quizlet's simple design and effect, you will too.

Cheers,

DD
http://eflclassroom.com

lifeinkorea · Joined: 24 Jan 2009 Location: somewhere in China

When you make flashcards, it is a good idea to put the words on the other side. Students will generally look at what they already know and ignore the parts they don't know.

It's like with words in Korean, if you saw the English you are more likely to not spend time trying to sound out the hangeul.

Another way to do this is make 2 or 3 columns on a piece of paper (as easy as folding the paper in half or in thirds). You put English down one column, the foreign language down the other, and a third if you need to put the romanization or Chinese characters.

This way you can cover columns and can test many words. Flashcards can get bulky offline. Computer flashcards can get to the eyes with a white background.

ddeubel · Joined: 20 Jul 2005

lifeinkorea,

Of course. If you watch the screencast, you simply have to uncheck "both sides" and the flash card will only show either the term or the picture/answer.
I think if a teacher wanted to make a bilingual set/sets - that would be entirely appropriate too, we all learn differently.

If you click the Diigo button on EFL Classroom, you'll get taken to the whole list - all leveled, so you get an indication of difficulty. I'll be making a free ecourse out of these where I can track student achievement, over the summer.

The "genius" of quizlet is not just in the flashcards and how attractive they are made nor that teachers can print the set in a flash to use in class. The genius is that after class, students can go there and study, repeat. Those that want to - can learn. I've watched this teenager build this site since day one and he's a hero to me. He's making a difference.

DD
http://eflclassroom.com

confucian · Joined: 13 May 2010

Thanks, Dave.

lifeinkorea · Joined: 24 Jan 2009 Location: somewhere in China

That page isn't loading here, is there another site they are on? I can only get quizlet to load.

ddeubel · Joined: 20 Jul 2005

confucian,

You're welcome. lifeinkorea - do you mean the Screenr screencast? they are also available on EFL Classroom 2.0 Here.

But play around with any flashcard set for awhile, scroll down and see the print button too. You'll figure it out, pretty intuitive compared to many sites that are too slick.

DD
http://eflclassroom.com

lifeinkorea · Joined: 24 Jan 2009 Location: somewhere in China

The black window loads, but no content. Hard to "play around" if it doesn't even load.

ddeubel · Joined: 20 Jul 2005

I meant play around on the Quizlet site. http://quizlet.com/user/eflclassroom

Select a flashcard set and then check out the options for the teacher or learner.

Seems to me that there is a problem either with browser compatibility or more likely your flash plug in. Again, the screencast is here. http://screenr.com/5sK

I guess try on a different computer when you can.

DD
http://eflclassroom.com

TheChingu · Joined: 08 May 2010

I find the flashcards a bit confusing and ambiguous, and I'm a native speaker!

Some of the color flashcards were nonsensical. Likewise with others I tried. Unless you are learning previously introduced vocabulary it seems almost worthless to me. One of the cards was the pedals of an automatic car and the answer was clutch?! and a picture of a car with a busted fender is the picture for "to signal a turn" ?

I understand you must be using a stock photo site or other limited base, but they are very confusing and can easily be interpreted to mean many things. Also spelling and puncuation and even letter spacing are factored in to a correct or incorrect answer.

Anyways my first time through I ended up with more wrong than right answers as there is no prompt for what you're talking about. I think this format has a lot of potential but needs extensive refining if it is to be generally understood.

Thanks for the resource I will make some flashcards myself soon!

ddeubel · Joined: 20 Jul 2005

Chingu,

You are right, the higher the level of cards, the more ambiguity and harder to use as a "quiz". However, all flashcards are really meant to reinforce prior learning. Meaning, teach them to the students "unblind" and then the will get the relationship. Do a run through several times if necessary. Then do a blind run and see how the students do.

Lower level cards (as mentioned, all of them are leveled on the EFL Classroom page for quick reference) are very suitable for guessing games right off the bat and don't have the "ambiguity" you mentioned.

But you are right, the main reason I am promoting this is to get teachers making their own sets to suit their own curriculum. Or like I do with my own students (admitted older) - getting them making and sharing the cards for study. Like my other pet projects, that's what I really love seeing - teachers not just using anothers resource but then remixing it and making it suitable for their own classes/situation.

My fav. set is the numbers and colors. That's a no brainer but has a lot of language learning....

DD
http://eflclassroom.com

lost at sea · Joined: 27 Nov 2009

Quizlet works well, but did you take a look at http://smart.fm/ ?

I think you can import your flashcards (as long as quizlet supports exporting), and smart.fm has some other features like an interactive game with your words, and a fairly decent user interface which seems to keep kids more tentative.

ddeubel · Joined: 20 Jul 2005

Yes, I've been to Smart.fm but right from its get go, I just didn't get it. (Quizlet was created by a teenager, maybe that's its advantage).

I do appreciate the audio and the "goal" aspect. However, Quizlet will soon have audio as well (I've been told) and I do think that its voice recognition (hit Voice race) is superb. Students speak the word and try to eliminate terms. Plus Quizlet has ready to print and pictographic cards, both big pluses for teachers - also you can enlarge for in class instruction.

But it has been 4-5 months since I visited smart, that's an eternity - so thanks, I'm do a revisit. Yes, quizlet lets you export your data so that'd work.

DD
http://eflclassroom.com

lost at sea · Joined: 27 Nov 2009

I think one of the good features is the ability to add sentences, pictures, sounds and words into flash cards and not only word/definition type setups.

I admit smartfm can be a little buggy, and maybe it doesn't work the greatest on all browsers. I think it works best on Firefox and IE, and I personally don't use either of those. Give it a shot and let me know what you think~

lifeinkorea · Joined: 24 Jan 2009 Location: somewhere in China

I like a flashcard program called memorylifter http://www.memorylifter.com/

ddeubel · Joined: 20 Jul 2005

That looks cool. I'll have to play around with it and it would work as a solution for an institution/school that wanted a private flashcard suite (though I prefer open/public - why hide everything).

If anyone is looking for ideas on how to use the flashcards that can be printed out on Quizlet, download or read my ebook with tons of ideas/games - all student centered. http://ddeubel.edublogs.org/2009/10/07/using-flashcards-to-teach-languages/

DD
http://eflclassroom.com