Software programs to aid teaching appear with such regularity these days that it is a problem just keeping pace with their advances. In this part of my blog I will review a few of those covered in my ICT course and give my opinion as to whether they would be of use to me in my subject area.
The first review is on Kahoot! This is a game based system which
utilises a game-based learning approach to facilitate creation and research in students. The system is free to anyone and to use you simply create an account. Once logged into the system the students are expected to research, create and present their own quizzes. Kahoot saves the results of every quiz and when their student colleagues start asking questions they need to enter a nickname so that their scores can be saved to their personal profile. The system appears to have been designed for the younger audience, and not for Higher Education, so I do not think I will be using this one for my adult learners.
Next on the list is wordle ......arghhhh I cannot get it to work on my computer as I have windows 10. I have a Firefox browser and it totally refuses to allow me to activate Java....which is another bone of contention...every time I do manage to download Java it affects my PC's operation and completely slows it down or causes it to crash. Unfortunately this gets a big fat zero for user friendliness. I then tried to use the Microsoft Edge browser to download Java, again it does not work as the Edge browser does not support Java, it even tells me to use Firefox !. Over to my i Mac, same problem it needs Java. I am seriously getting fed up of this. Java downloaded on my i Mac and ..... well I managed to create a wordle but it wont let me save it. Unfortunately I was ill during most of ICT week so I was not able to test this application during class. However, I should be able to use this piece of software on ANY computer ANYWHERE. This appears not to be the case, disappointing to say the least. As when it worked on my i Mac it was quite simple to produce a wordle, but there again I could not save it. Not a piece of user friendly software in my opinion, and again, not something I would use for my adult learners due to the nature of my subject which is Public Services and Policing Skills and Knowledge. 
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