BITSBOARD is unique app which allows its user to play 18 mini-games. At the low cost of FREE, it’s a gem! Bitsboard has a large catalog of content which was created by fellow SLPs, teachers, and/or parents. It is easy to create and customize boards, as well as share with anyone via the Bitsboard catalog. This week we will review games one through 9. (Stay tuned for 10-18 in the following weeks.)
The Home Screen allows its user to select a board and begin a Bitsboard game. Within the home screen users can view self-generated boards, or view/edit collections. It is easy to organize all these boards and collections by student, class, subject, etc., and the search button allows you to find the targeted board quickly. Tracking progress is also available.
Kids love this app because everything feels like a game. SLPs love it because the possibilities are endless.
Bitsboard Games are as follow:
- Flashcards- this is a great way to introduce new vocabulary, as it is a single visual witch shows both the word and picture. The record feature allows the user to say what they hear/see. There are setting options within Flashcards which allow you to decide how the cards progress (e.g. swipe, tap, or automatically), display options (i.e. picture only, word only, both, or one followed by the other), capitalization of text, and sequence (i.e. alphabetically, randomly, or as were entered.
- Explore- allow you to view all items in a board.
- Photo Touch- the user hears the audio, and is required to identify its corresponding “bit.” The game automatically adjusts itself based on the user’s skills and will add and/or remove visuals as needed. Settings within this option allow you to specify the minimum and maximum number of images to display, turn this into a reading game by activating text only, and control the length of sessions. As with the Flashcards, sequence and progression can also be controlled by the developer.
- True or False- requires the user to identify whether the image, label, and audio presented go together. (“Yes”= true; “No”= false.) Again, this can be turned into a reading game by turning off the audio hints. The developer has control as to if the audio always matches what is being displayed, or to always follow the label. Length of session (i.e. “rounds”), sequence, and progression are all able to be controlled.
- Genius- this game shuffles through all boards available, and the user never knows what type of question is coming. Setting options for this mode allows you to turn on/off: Flashcards, Photo Touch, True or False, Match Up, Pop Quiz, Reader, Word Builder, and Spelling Bee. (Please note: this mode only uses simple question games, therefore Memory, Bingo, and Photo Hunt are not included.) Within this mode, length of session and sequence can be controlled.
- Memory Cards- allows for matching images, or images to text, or images to audio or label. This game can be played with up to 4 players with varying abilities as it can be played “face up.”
- Pop Quiz- even a quiz can be made fun with Bitsboard. Pop Quiz has various displays (from 2-6 possible answers) depending on the sills of the user, and like Photo Touch the difficulty is automatically increased/decreased based on the user’s response. Setting options include minimum/maximum number of answer choices to display, hints, session length, sequence, and progression.
- Match Up- is four mini- matching games in one. The default game requires images to be matched up with their corresponding word, however the other versions allow for different matching options such as matching to audio, or identical matching. Again, this is automatically adjusted based on the user’s skill, and has the same setting options as previously mentioned.
I hope you explore this app and the aforementioned games over the next two weeks, and stay tuned for the Part 2 when we explore games 9-18.
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