Educational/ Colouring Tool – Quiver 3D augmented reality app

Another tool that I used in my class  was the Quiver 3D augmented reality app. this is rather a new app to me. I have came across  quiver  while  looking for apps to be used in the classroom in order to complete my PGDE assignment for Dr. Farhah.

Augmented Reality technology is increasingly known, especially after the Pokemon Go game became a hit all over the world not long ago. Before that, I had first seen my kids playing with AR of Boboiboy Galaxy Wars on the cards that they collected whenever they bought Choki-Choki. I somehow helped them download the app you see.  : )

Some studies have shown that AR technology is best used in education (Billinghurst, 2002). AR is applied in teaching English according to the study of Tsung-Yu Liu et al. (2007) using simple media to increase the level of English language proficiency and development of teaching materials. The results of a study (Logical Choice, 2011) shows

that AR applications can enhance student interest, increase curiosity and

student fun as they interact in real-time with virtual 3D objects. Students are even able to see and move 3D virtual objects in front of them from the perspective of their choices as if they were holding real objects.

What is Quiver and how to use it? Quiver is free, 3 dimensional colouring available on both App Store and Google Play.  First, download the app. Next, download the free colouring packs (some are not free) of pictures and print them. The next step is to colour the printed picture like you normally would. After you have finished colouring the picture, simply point your camera at it using the app and watch your picture come to life!

What makes it more fun is that you can tap the image to interact with the object or character, zoom into your drawing or view it from a different angle. The animation also come along with its unique sound effect. You can even take photos and videos of the pictures. Some of the pictures of the colouring pages also include a quiz on the object topic to test the child's knowledge.

Teachers and educators should use this app in the classroom. Not only are colouring and AR fun, but most importantly, they  are also educational!

What’s next? The one that I talked about is Quiver Educational. Apart from Quiver Educational, there are 2 other categories: Quiver Masks and Quiver Fashion. I haven’t tried both of these, but at my first glance, Quiver Fashion colouring pages  look like a bunch of fashion dolls that kids can color in and dress up, and Quiver Masks is as its name suggests, something to do with masks.

Download the Quiver app for android : http://goo.gl/GR9oO4

Download the Quiver app for Apple : http://goo.gl/Bb4739

Download the Quiver colouring packs : http://www.quivervision.com/coloring-packs/

The videos and photos were taken in my Year 1 classes. I have grouped the students into 4 or 5 per group to give them a closer look at Quiver. Let's look at them!

Assessment Tool – Socrative

Socrative is an interesting assessment tool. Although there are limited features in its free version, it is adequate and effective to be used as an additional assessment tool to assess the students' understanding of what have been taught in classes. As expected, more features are available in the paid version.

Easy access for students, no sign-up, thus no login name and password to memorise. It just needs a room name which will be given by the teacher.

There are 3 types of questions that can be built in Socrative:
1) Short answer question.
2) Multiple choice questions.
3) True or False question.

(Here,I compare it with other assessment tool that I have used e.g: Quizziz which only caters for multiple-choice questions)

Variety of activities: quizzes, exit tickets and space races. 

Questions can be - a mix of short answer, multiple-choice and True or False questions.
Single Sign-On - Teachers can sign in using their Google Email Address
Drive Integration - Teachers can have reports (in excel, pdf or text format) sent to their Google Drive.

Supported Browsers and Devices
Socrative works on every browser: including Firefox, Chrome, Safari and Internet Explorer. 
We can use any Web Enabled device: including Smartphones, Tablets, Laptops and Desktops Report Formats 
These reports can be e-mailed, downloaded or be sent to the Google drive.

Activities & Reporting
Multiple-choice, short answer and True/False questions, End of class Exit Tickets, Competition while playing games with Space Race. 
Class, Question and Student level reports (.xls for class reports, .pdf for individual and specific question reports).

The setting of this recorded video was in the IT room of Al Amin, Bukit Beruntung. Normally, because of our limited computers, students have to be grouped into 4 students per group. Each student in each group is assigned a number from 1 to 4. The student who has been assigned number 1 will answer question 1, those assigned number 2 will answer question 2, and so on. As everybody has tried out, the circle continues. The number 1 student will now answer question 5, followed by the number 2 student who will tackle question 6 and so on. This is to give equal hands-on experience to all. No worries…we will have more hands-on session in the near future. They can also try this at home later on. However, for this recording, I only recorded the same pupils answering all the questions to minimise the recording time.
We were doing the revision for Unit 4: Lunchtime. In this topic, we learned about food, drinks, fruit and vegetables. And this particular quiz is on Fruit. These students are again from Year 1 AF. Some students are familiar with the PCs, while some are not. Please ignore the background. I tried to make them converse in English as much as possible, but as you can see, they were more comfortable talking in their mother tongue language. 
Overall, I like Socrative and will definitely use it again and again to increase students' understanding of what have been taught in the class. As I am currently only teaching Year 1 students this year,  more sessions are needed. I must first make sure that they are familiar with the computers, understand basic terms used (such as "submit the answer") and many others. Everybody needs attention at the same time and thus it can turn havoc!
One other thing : the teacher must remember to launch the quiz or the space race or else the students will be waiting forever!

Below is the snapshot of the quiz. Once the students have submitted the answer,  they can receive just a correct or wrong response, or a short explanation on the answer.

Decision/Selection Tool– Decision Roulette

This was my session with Year 1 Al-Farabi (1 AF) of Al Amin, Bukit Beruntung. We were doing a revision on Unit 3: Pet Show of the CEFR Super Minds syllabus. In this class, I used the Decision Roulette app to improve engagement and participation in learning. In the video, students were asked to recap the animals they have learnt. The first student was selected by the teacher. after answering correctly, he will be given a chance to spin the wheel in order to pick another student using the app. The list of the students' names can be prepared beforehand.

I love this app because it can help me in making decisions without feeling guilty. Well... sometimes it is hard to choose from so many choices, so I just leave it to the app and it can settle disputes and arguments. :) :) :)

I don’t need to spend time and papers to write names. It can be used for picking up a winner and my students think it’s a ‘fair’ app. Normally, I was the one who spin the wheel, but this time I let the students do it as a reward for those who can answer my question correctly.

I use this app in my class since 2018. It is fun and easy to use, works reliably so far, customisable and of course free!

A rather small issue is that sometime the same choice is spun 2 or 3 times in a row. For improvements, I think maybe there should be a setting that we can specify to allow each option to only be spun once. Once the choice is landed on, it should be eliminated/ removed from the wheel. Another one is that maybe a hold-up button should be provided to keep the roulette spinning for a longer time as needed, for more excitement for the students.

Next, I plan to try to use the graphic elements in this roulette app to add excitement to my class.

Decision roulette can trigger the students to love education more!

Alternative Apps: Random Generator, Lucky Roulette, Decide Now!,  DecisionBuddy, Decidr, Tiny Decisions