Review by Amanda Bindel, Common Sense Education | Updated January 2019

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AnswerGarden

Name: AnswerGarden
Item: AnswerGarden
Rating: 3
Author: Amanda Bindel

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Fast-to-the-screen word cloud generator for brainstorming and feedback

Subjects & skills

Grades This grade range is based on learning appropriateness and doesn't take into account privacy. It's determined by Common Sense Education, not the product's publisher.

4–12

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Creating an AnswerGarden is quick and easy -- no login or registration needed.

Students see their answers populate a word cloud in real time.

Larger fonts indicate the most frequent responses.

Customize answer length and other options when creating.

Teachers can turn on a "spam filter" to block some objectionable words (but this isn't the default and isn't foolproof).

Pros: No account necessary for teachers or students.

Cons: Some kinks make accessing data iffy.

Bottom Line: Performs one function -- straightforward and uncomplicated.

How Can I Teach with This Tool?

Teachers can use AnswerGarden to pique interest before beginning a unit -- and access prior knowledge -- by having students respond to a question, or they can use it as an exit ticket response at the end of a lesson for general assessment. Teachers can also use AnswerGarden for quick relationship-building questions that don't relate to any specific content. It can be used, too, in professional development (PD) or other speaking engagements for audience participation.

What Is It?

AnswerGarden is a simple, quick tool to get feedback through word clouds. As submissions are received in real time, larger fonts indicate the most frequent responses. Everything a teacher needs to set up a session is on one page of the site. Teachers start by entering a question and then choosing from a few options (defaults are already selected, so customizing further is optional). The Brainstorming mode allows responders to enter as many answers as they'd like, including duplicates of the same answer, and the Classroom mode allows multiple responses per user but no duplicates. The Moderator mode allows teachers to review comments before they're published, but during this review, it didn't work (no notifications of answers to moderate were received).

Is It Good for Learning?

Students will think critically before sharing their responses, and they'll also learn from reading others' ideas. The fun design and social aspect will engage students. There are numerous ways teachers can implement the tool easily, but even though it's pretty basic, it will require some critical thinking from teachers as well. How will you get the link to students? There's no way to share, so it will need to be cut and pasted to be shared through another channel. How will you monitor student responses? Other tools, like Mentimeter and Poll Everywhere offer more options and monitoring, but take a little more work to create. An AnswerGarden session can be created in less than a minute, just without many bells and whistles.

Rating Details

Overall Rating

Engagement Is the product stimulating, entertaining, and engrossing? Will kids want to return?

Seeing their ideas instantly populated into a word cloud will delight and excite students. The simple design requires no login to create or answer, making for an easy-to-implement, highly engaging activity.

Pedagogy Is learning content seamlessly baked-in, and do kids build conceptual understanding? Is the product adaptable and empowering? Will skills transfer?

Even the quietest students are empowered to contribute their ideas with this nonthreatening (anonymous and fun) scribble space. It's up to teachers to make the data received meaningful.

Support Does the product take into account learners of varying abilities, skill levels, and learning styles? Does it address both struggling and advanced students?

The site has easy-to-follow instructions, though the design is simple enough to figure out. Moderation options are supposed to be available but didn't work during the review.

Common Sense Reviewer

Amanda Bindel Classroom teacher

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Featured review by
Melissa Z. , Classroom teacher

Classroom teacher

Liberty
Springfield, United States

Tweet A Word Cloud

I think this can be a great teaching tool. The site is fairly easily to use. You can create an account to go back and edit your links. If you do not create an account and you lose your link you will not be able to get it back. I really like this website as a quick tool to have instant feedback or brainstorming type responses. I recommend using this if you need a quick response out of students or a quick talking point with students comments.

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