Are you ready to get wired?

Whether you're a new teacher or just new at heart, education is increasingly becoming a digital experience. Here's your place to find fun, functional, and (most importantly) FREE sources to enhance your classroom via the world wide web - and ways to fund it all. Okay maybe not ALL, but at least a great, big, giant portion of it. Are you ready to get wired?

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

APP Time: Brain Pop

I wasn't planning on doing a post in the middle of the week, but right now I'm too tired to do anything else so I might as well. For those of you that don't know, Brain Pop is an animated approach to online learning. The website chronicles the educational adventures of Tim and Moby (a robot with a kickin' personality) as they answer letters about a wide range of topics - from photosynthesis to the Civil War, and everything in between and beyond. At the end of each short, punchy movie, there is a quiz to test student comprehension of the topic, along with printable organizers and vocabulary. Although using all the full features of Brain Pop requires a subscription, there are several free movies for viewing as well...
...Which brings me to today's app! In addition to the website, there is a FREE Brain Pop app! If you have a subscription to Brain Pop, then you are able to log in and watch any and all movies from your iPad/iPod/iPhone. Even if you don't have a subscription, you can watch the movie of the day and numerous free movies as you can online.
What I like most about the Brain Pop app is that all of the movies are captioned (on the online version they are not)!!! At the bottom of the screen, students can read what Tim and Moby are explaining (or in Moby's case beeping) as they watch and listen. I think this is great for students who may have trouble staying focused on the dialogue of the movie or that aren't auditory learners. There is a quiz at the end of each movie, and scores are added to the "Hall of Fame" list so you could go back and see how well the student answered the questions.
What do you have to lose? At the very least, your students will enjoy "watching cartoons" while learning something along the way. Best of all, it's free!

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