Grammatica
Grammatica is geared more toward individual consumers than classrooms and students. For some of your students, however, the app could be a lifeline, if writing without many errors is a big challenge or frustration. Between the predictive keyboard (embedded across apps on iOS or Android) and the editing suggestions, your students could feel more confident as writers -- wherever they might be writing. To make it a more useful learning tool, developing protocols around its use would be helpful. For example, you could ask students to write a first draft without paying attention to the app's suggestions, and then to sit with a partner to review Grammatica's edits. By organizing the review process and going slow, students can become more critical thinkers when accepting or rejecting the changes. This way they will be more likely to identify ways they can improve their own writing rather than letting the app do it for them.
One important consideration for teachers in using Grammatica is privacy. When installed, the app makes very clear that all text entered using the app is sent to the developer. For many schools and parents, this would be a serious concern or deal-breaker.
Continue readingGrammatica is an app for iOS, Android, and Chrome that functions as a live proofreader. While writing, the app identifies problems in all areas of writing: spelling, punctuation, word choice, and phrasing. Users can quickly see identified errors and areas for improvement. Accepting or rejecting the suggested edits takes a single tap. The app identifies a wide range of writing issues fairly accurately (even when you are actively trying to trick it). Whether you're writing a casual message or a more formal document, it's easy to send or copy your writing into the app you need.
During installation, Grammatica adds another keyboard to your device. You can switch to this keyboard within any app (just like switching language keyboards) to add Grammatica's editing features to that app. This includes things like mail, messaging, and social media.
For students who struggle with writing conventions, word choice, or phrasing, Grammatica can help them produce better quality, or just more grammatically accurate, texts. It'll catch mistakes, suggest better phrasing, and encourage clearer word choice. Whether Grammatica is good for learning, however, is a whole other question. The temptation in using the app is to simply accept suggested changes, and there isn't anything built into the system that encourages students to pause and consider suggestions. There's also nothing offered to help students learn why something is incorrect. While this is fine for spelling, it leaves a lot to be desired for other fixes that students should be learning to do themselves. Without more active review and active choices about the edits suggested by the app, very little learning will occur. In this case, an error-free text would not necessarily indicate growth as a writer.
Also, while the suggestions are generally accurate, we did come across instances where the suggestions were less "smart" than those in readily available and free software, like that baked into Google products.
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