ThatQuiz

ThatQuiz is a really cool assessment resource for teachers to use as an online testing center. Teachers and students simply take nine seconds to register and they will instantly have access to very effective, albeit basic and not very flashy, study tool.

There are quite a few tests and quick little activities that anyone can complete when they visit the site, but to unlock the site's full capabilities, teachers can design their own tests for registered students to complete, which will instantly provide testing results and valuable data in a tidy format.

How does it work in the classroom?

Spend a day (preferably at the beginning of the year during all your procedural shenanigans) to get your kids registered and show them the ins and outs of ThatQuiz. It may take some time to get yourself acquainted with the features of the site and designing tests, but if you'll just hang in there and give it some time, you'll have a great online formative assessment tool at your disposal.

SmileBox

If you're looking for a fun alternative to MixBook or a simple, straightforward digital scrapbooking program that yields eye-popping results, you should definitely check out SmileBox, a free downloadable program for Mac or PC that will turn your photos and even videos into a sleek digital keepsake.

You start by downloading and installing the program, and don't worry because it's not a RAM hog and runs fairly quickly and smoothly even on an older machine. Right when you start up the program the first time, the interface feels very familiar and easy to operate. Just upload your photos and even your videos into the project and simply begin inserting and arranging all your stuff until you're ready to finalize it. When you're finished, you can export your SmileBox to DVD or email it as a video file (my personal favorite), or even send SmileBox a little money and get an actual professionally printed copy of your scrapbook sent to you.

How does it work in the classroom?

SmileBox provides students and teachers alike with a great way to chronicle everything that happened throughout the course of a project, a class, a school year, a sports season, or even something as simple as an assembly or any special event. Students will have no difficulty at all picking up the fine nuances of getting the most out of the program, and their creations will be sure to raise some eyebrows. And remember if a student's work is truly worthy of high praise and lasting admiration, you can even cough up a little cash to get it printed and mailed to you.

Click here for a sample of what you can do.

Hipstamatic

Hipstamatic is an iPhone/iPad app that is an alternative to Instagram or any other photo capturing/doctoring tools that you may use. You can, of course, take photos, store and organize them, and apply filters that are provided in the app. One of the coolest benefits of the app is that you can shoot layered images with ease from within the app. The cost is a mere $0.99, which is worth it for the tools you get, and plus, it's not Instagram, which is a good thing.

The app was optimized for compatibility with the iPhone 5, and has exclusive features that work with iOS 6, but there are several reports of bugs within the app when it runs on those platforms.

Quizlet

Quizlet is yet another extremely useful website and study tool with tons of great uses. There's even a free Quizlet app in the App Store if you're into having your students going the mobile route when studying their content. To get started, all you really need to do is register. It's free, but like everything else on the internet these days, there is a "premium" service that you can opt to purchase for $15 a year that basically includes access to a few features that probably aren't worth $15 a year. Then again, with what you can access at the start, why even bother.

The mobile version.

Quizlet allows users log in and create, track, and organize a complete online study guide of vocabulary words or relevant terms and phrases which can then be manipulated into flashcards, spelling tests, definition tests, etc. Students can revisit their "flashcard sets" to study, and they can create an unlimited amount of sets even with the free service. Downloading the app to an iPad or iPod allows  students to take their studying to any quiet place they can find. Teachers can even create classes to monitor student progress and share vocabulary sets.

How does it work in the classroom?

Honestly, whenever my students use Quizlet to learn a lot of key terms for a project or a unit, it always seems like they begin to pick up on the terminology noticeably quicker and more accurately than if they don't use it. Not only that, but spelling of the terms is also better just because of the nature of Quizlet and the way the "Space Race" game works. The bottom line is that using my ever-informal research techniques, I feel as though I can ascertain that using Quizlet will yield more positive results than not using it.

Try it. You have nothing to lose.

Sporcle

If you're looking to kill some time or maybe even learn a little something, check out Sporcle. And let this be your warning. This website is addictive. This is a site of "mentally stimulating diversions," and even though a few of these diversions have very little educational value, there are many quizzes with some legitimate classroom connection.

The site works extremely simply. First, you just choose a subject or search for a topic and click on one of the preset games in that subject regarding some category like Human Bones or Countries of Europe. Then you're put on the clock to answer/name/type/correctly spell as many of the items as possible in the allotted time. If you're interested in keeping track of how you've done throughout your exploits with Sporcle's numerous quizzes, feel free to register. It's free, of course. You can even just create your own quiz if you can't find a quiz to satisfy your needs. Also, there's even a Sporcle app to keep you iPhoners occupied on the go.

How it works in the classroom?

Some of the quizzes are just too good not to show students. When the time runs out or when you click "Give Up," Sporcle will even display a percentage of items you typed, which would provide you, the teacher, with instant feedback of how much of the material the student remembers or at least how much they can type and spell correctly within a time constraint.

Also understand that there are plenty of quizzes on Sporcle that are pretty uneducational (Looney Tunes Characters and Super Mario Bros Enemies are still fun though), and your students will absolutely find them, but even then, they still have to demonstrate some degree of typing and spelling skill to correctly input their responses. Nevertheless, I still think there is plenty of useful material on Sporcle to help your students learn and remember some very relevant, important stuff. Check it out.

Popplet

Popplet is a fantastic tool to help promote content literacy by creating a "digital word wall" on your screen that can show relationships between terms and ideas. Registration is free, and as far as I can tell, you can create as many popplets as you need without any limits whatsoever.

The interface is as clean and simple as it gets. Once you start your new popplet, simply double click anywhere on the popplet space to create a "popple," a rectangular text box that can be formatted for assorted colors, sizes, text sizes, etc. The popples can also hold uploaded or copied images or even your own hilariously bad free-hand mouse drawings. The popples can then be arranged wherever you desire on the popplet and connected using lines to show relationships between popples or flow or anything else. The popplets can then be shared via URL so that students or other teachers can see them. Really cool.

How does it work in the classroom?

Popplet has numerous practical uses in the classroom. It can serve as a great way to keep track of ideas in a class discussion or maybe even be used as an organized "parking lot" for questions that will be revisited later in a project. Personally, I like using Popplet as a storage space for terms that we have been using during a project and showing how those terms are related and grouped. After I've amassed and organized all the terms, I'll link the popplet to the class webpage, and the students have an instant and effective graphic organizer to use as a study tool.

I think Popplet would be a fantastic tool, particularly for math, since it allows you to organize formulas and terms under categorical umbrellas such as "Triangles" or "Solving Quadratics." For many of the same reasons, it would also provide an opportunity to organize terms throughout a unit on binomial nomenclature or make a quick timeline of events from the Civil War. I suppose you could even use it in a marching band class to organize cheers by offense or defense or highlight certain parts of musical pieces. The uses for Popplet are almost limitless.

Click here to see a popplet that I created as a review for my Business Technology Applications class.