Discovering Boardmaker & Half-Past Time

So, Boardmaker, it's an app. I have to be honest, I wasn't sure what to expect. But, hey, it's technology for teaching, so I'll check it out. I quickly discovered it's pretty pricey, and without purchasing it there's not too much you can do. It seems that when you do purchase it, you can create online games, activities, and have a variety of assessments/games/activities already created and ready to go. It also seems most geared towards the younger (think elementary, early childhood) ages. Since I did not purchase it, I became creative with what I could use. I did discover that I could create games, using their template. I suppose this was a step-up from Microsoft Word, in that I didn't have to create a table, and when I searched for times, they had easy-to-read pictures that I could quickly put in the game board. It was pretty easy to create, and I didn't have to draw on the board (as I have in the past when using Word.) However, I wish they had taken it a step further, and had an option to randomize the boards, so that I could have more than one board to pass out. Again, similar to Word, I had to copy and paste varying squares. So, I think if they had taken it a step further, I could've seen more of a benefit.

However, I still tried it out and I'll share what I learned!

In order to begin making the game I went to the "My Boardmaker" section and selected "Create Activity."

At that point, I had numerous options to choose from for game formats or activity types. So, I personally selected a Bingo board.

At this point, I was able to design my game board. I knew I wanted a game reviewing half-past and o'clock time. So, I searched digital times (6:00) and an analog clock came up. Our mathematics curriculum uses the phrases "half-past" and "o'clock." So, I edited the text below the clocks to align with this similar language. Again, this isn't too different from Microsoft Word, but it was nice to have the captions and clear clock pictures (rather than searching through Google images.)

Finally, Boardmaker didn't make it sure easy to print this, with the same formatting. But, with your login to Boardmaker, you can see it again later, and easily share it with other people.

So, honestly, I'm not inclined to use it again, but it was a good experience to learn about it.