Triptico

Well, don't be deceived, this handy teaching and classroom management tool has nothing to do with tripping and falling over.  Unless, of course, we are talking about the little rascals tripping over themselves to get to your classes!!! On the contrary, it's about standing out as the 'coolest' teacher in your school. Believe me, it's fab!

About Triptico

Basically, Triptico in a highly interactive and visual online tool that gives educators instant access to a rich bank of ready made resources with great appeal to all sorts of learners. With experience, you can create and save your very own resources in at most 20 minutes. Magic? It does sound like the Midas touch, I know the feeling. Except it's real! Visit  www.tripticoplus.com download and start 'edutaining,'-teaching through entertainment.

Why triptico?

Triptico is conspicuous for its buffet of academic dishes: selectors, tools, timers, and the good old quizzes. My acronym for these is STTQs. These infuse uniqueness and creativity into classes availing a diversity of learning, reviewing and practising skills. The handling simplicity is counterbalanced by rich content and numerous colourful, coded apps under each of the four categories. Let's briefly explore these.

STTQs

Tools

These comprise a range of applications the most popular of which are word magnets and order sorters. Word magnets are great for teaching word order, syntax and collocations. You can cut and paste phrases, sentences and paragraphs into the app. It shreds them into colourful word symbols which rotate and move like magnets allowing learners to sort them into the original sequence. Here is a demo that I found very informative:

As you can appreciate, it's quite easy to make, but very effective. 

The order sorter app is perfect for exercises in which learners sequence scenarios and events. You can do lots with it in narrative writing and plot based text analysis. It's also suitable for historical texts involving dates and times. For a text like Jhumpa Lahiri's 'The Namesake,' which has dated chapters, it is easy to help learners grasp the plot using the order sorter app. It's also wonderful for character tracking in stories and process writing in compositions. For more creative uses of Tools check out justaword.

Timers

There are a variety of timers which are simultaneously quiet and interactive; great in count-up and count-down activities. They are simple but effective due to limited buttons and distractions. The availability of a range of these for your immediate access, significantly reduces lag time between activities. This is how one timer looks. Can you imagine the kind of exercise it would be suitable for? You can definitely think of many of your own. They can be competitive, so you might want to keep an eye on learner reactions as you use them.

Selectors

These are effective learner management tools which are great for breaking up cliques and fostering inclusivity. Through them, you compose groups, keep activity scores and choose types of questions and challenges to solve with learners. They dilute the push-back effect of your biased group picking by introducing the freshness of pleasant surprises because Triptico sorts them out differently most of the time. No more whining and sulking! Even more, they help you track individual performance in class-wide activities and foster healthy competition. 

Quizzes

There are multiple free quiz apps in Triptico. The favourites are the whats-the -question jeopardy style ones where you supply learners with answers and challenge them to construct the questions on their own. The skill of thinking backwards is a great way of testing learners' understanding, which leads to higher retention.  Quizzes can be quite colourful and attractive too.

The sunny side

The appeal of Triptico lies in the vast array of apps that it hosts which enable challenging, fun and interactive activities through which learners develop an intrinsic sense of material. The more learners are engaged, the more they learn. Additionally, Triptico is easy to use, runs on personal gadgets and is compatible with whiteboards.  It has a reliable, speedy customer service, where even the CEO is available to train you and respond to any questions you might have. Well, one would expect to pay an arm and a leg for this tool. Guess what? Shhhh. The premium version costs a couple of burgers and the basic one is absolutely FREE!!!!! Talk of Xmas 24/7/365!

A little grey...

The silver cloud does have a grey lining: Triptico runs only online and is vulnerable to web mood swings. To enjoy it's full benefits, you need a stable connection. Like all technological things, Murphy's law is always hovering around like an evil spirit! Always, always have a Plan B and a Plan C, if necessary.

As I always recommend, you want to take your context into account before planning lessons with Triptico, or any web-based tool for that matter. If learners have smartphones, laptops and PCs that's great. If not, you may want to book access to your school computer lab prior to a lesson. In my school this is the easiest way around issues of gadgets and internet access. Personal gadgets with mobile internet connectivity are another reliable option readily available in most parts of Zimbabwe.

I highly recommend Triptico for engaging and interactive classes with just the right touch of healthy competition. Have a go and report back.  Remember it's OK to be a little lazy, your buddy, Triptico, has your back perfectly covered. Have a jolly good week!