Teflnet Forums

Hi everyone,

I hope this is a good place to post this. Please have a look at the platform I have built. I won't say any more about it because I would like to get honest impressions. In subsequent posts I will be happy to say more about my thinking behind it and answer any questions.

https://studyboards.net

Ultimately, I would like to get 2, 3, maybe up to 5 teachers on board, or ideally a school, to test it, give feedback, report on any remaining issues before I officially launch it. I will gauge what interest there is here before I edit this post and add any criteria for getting early access.

I am considering hosting a Zoom call so that I can demonstrate how it works, why it's effective and answer any questions.

Thank you for your time!

Mike

Please, would greatly appreciate one sentence on why, upon reading the above, you are NOT interested in it. This would help me a lot to tune it (whether the home page design or platform functionality) so that teachers who visit the site see the value, and uniqueness (as far as I can tell) it presents. Thank you!

Site? What site? I don't see any platform to access.

Is there no link in the opening post? studyboards.net

Yes there is a link and it works

Personally I find the language obtuse. What does “dynamic data point” even mean?

:))

Looks great btw. Seriously

But it’s way over my head language-wise

No doubt that’s just me

When the first thing I’m hit with is a dynamic data point my eyes glaze over and I have to move on or suffer total humiliation

That's great, thank you Joe! I will definitely take a look at that. Iterated through many, many ways of trying to summarize the service. This may be programming talk bleeding through. On one hand thought it would imply its dynamic/reactive/flexible nature, but do see where you're coming from.

In short, the way the boards work allows for each word to be used in a number of different ways. Not just to turn into gaps but to attach other data/information to, i.e. notes, definitions, translations, links to sites and files on google drive, images and audio. It's all contained in one place, attached to the very words or phrase the teacher is referring to, without the need to open various sites, tools and files. It's about the 'ergonomics' of teaching, and the challenge of organisation, that gets in the way of the processes that actually allow a student to learn.

I’m SURE some programming speak is bleeding through :)

If I remember I will try to mention it tomorrow or soon in the newsletter

Good luck

Thank you very much and for your input. I do have some other questions for you but I don't want to go off topic in this thread. If that's ok, do you mind PMing me to say that it's ok (to PM you)? :)

You can PM me but my brain cells are depleted so don’t expect too much :)

Because of the dynamism of my data points?! I'm in no particular rush, hope the exertion I induced will subside and whatever message I come up with will be humane...

Not that at all. Just old age catching up lol

The original post was not visible on my screen. Now I have gone to the site. I am confused. I tried to type in answers, but I couldn't. Mousing over the initial letter did nothing; only by chance did I find out that the mouse-over has to be in the space after the initial letter. When I went to the complete tutorial, I saw a lot of blank space and no explanation. There WAS a ?, but what it showed didn't really tell me what was going on.

As a side note, if this is to be used in the U.S., don't use 'revise' or 'revision,' since these mean to change or improve rather than to review. (Does 'review' work in British English? If so, why not use it?)

That you for the detailed feedback kdammers! To clarify the points you made:

1. The system does not actually require users to type in answers. It's for students to see whether they have recalled the word or phrase correctly. Typing doesn't actually add anything, and only increases the time to go through material.

2. The first letter reacts differently to the rest of the gap? I have not encountered this in any of my or my student's testing. I would love get some clip or view of exactly what you're encountering.

3. I suppose you mean the full demo, which presents you the teacher's admin panel? It's more of a canvas to experiment with - I've not created multiple courses and students but hoped users would experiment by adding their own course, students and ultimately boards. The question mark symbolizes that a student has added a question to a board on that course.

But thanks to your feedback, it is apparent that I should do more with this demo to guide the user. I am thinking of putting a voiceover guiding and explaining the features and concept behind it.

4. I've changed the main text so no risk of confusion by using the word 'revision'.

An update. Audio has been added to the demo to talk visitors through the features. Hopefully it helps.

Beyond that, I would like to outline what makes StudyBoards unique, and not just in my opinion, but in the opinion of 30+ students I have used it with and developed it for, as well another teacher who has incorporated it into his teaching.

Reducing admin and lesson preparation time. A centralised platform that syncs the teachers' boards with students automatically. It could not be easer to create content that is far more conducive to learning than using other shared docs, such as google docs. E.g:

Double-clicking a word brings up 12 features that can be applied to the words directly. 2 types of gaps, bolding, key-word transformation, error correction, popup notes, definitions and translations, recording how the teacher says a word or phrase, links to sites including YouTube, links to Google Drive files (PDFs, images), and to add the word or phrase to the students' flashcards.

Motivating and helping with self-study. Boards and flashcards are tracked per individual student who get an email or notification reminding them what they should optimally revise that day. They are also loaded instantly when the student is logged in, no need to go through menus, open files, etc.

Highly effective for learning. The spaced repetition notifications, as well as the nature of the boards having interactive highlights, requires that the student actively pull language from memory, and not to passively read things that would be in their notes, or on a typical whiteboard pdf, as would be generated by Zoom, Jamboards etc.

It's free to use until a student is invited and cares to use it beyond the 30 day free period, at which point they are added to the teacher's/school's subscription. It's up the teacher or school how or if they pass on that cost.

Write your thoughts here or PM me if interested!

https://studyboards.net