Triptico

What is Triptico?

I’m going to introduce a useful tool that I really enjoyed during our MA course and it’s called Triptico!

How it works?

There are so many applications that you can use but I won't go through all of them. Here’s a short tutorial for creating a word mix activity.

The activity helps students to practice their spelling. You may add audio clues or picture clues.

Benefits

1. Increase motivation and engage students, with sound effects and graphics.

2. Very diverse activities that focus on different skills and can be used in different subjects/ topics.

3. They are not just games as some explanation will be provided when students get the wrong answer.

4. Potentials to help students develop higher order thinking skills. Take 'Word Mix' for example, it appears to be a simple spelling practice, but there is a function for you to limit the number of moves. Students can only move the letters within the times set by you. Then they not only need to know how to spell the word, but need to calculate and think about the order of moving the letters. This helps them develop logical thinking, one of the higher oder thinking skills. Of course, these kinds of activity will be more difficult to design as we need to think of a reasonable number of moves! 

5. Quick and easy to create. I can see how 'Find the Answer' can help me avoid all the preparation of printing out picture cards and word cards and carry out a Pelmanism activity easily. More importantly, I don't have to worry about forgetting to bring the material to class!

6. I like that the tripticos created can be shared. It is always nice to share our resources not just to save time, but also get some new ideas and learn from each other.

Limitations

1. It works better with an interactive white board. You can still use it by clicking the answers for the students or inviting them to come out and click it by themselves, but then it won’t be as attractive as touching the white board directly. In Hong Kong, not all schools have IWB and even if they do, they usually only have one or two in the activity room. 

2. The trial only lasts for 7 days. Then you need to pay for a small amount for the upgrade. I think it is still worth it, especially when you have an interactive white board in your classroom as they work very well together.

3. In some applications it is hard for teachers to think of enough distractors or options, but it’s fine, this happens even when we’re using pen and paper

4. In some applications that are in competition mode, such as What's the Question, when students get the wrong answer, the rest of the class will automatically get the points. What if the rest of the class also do not know the answer? They simply get points because their classmates make mistakes. I think it will be better if it allows the other groups to answer and get the marks rather than getting them automatically.

Some ideas to use Triptico

1. Lucky Draw
I usually use lolly sticks to do the lucky draw and nominate students to answer when i need to. This is perfectly fine!
However, when you are only doing a one-off workshop or special lesson, when you have some new comers or some teachers (usually because they are here to observe your lesson) and you want them to participate in the activities, Triptico will come in handy!

To find out more:
My friend Joe likes Triptico very much! Visit his blog and find out what he says! He also designed an activity using Ten words'. Have fun!