When I found Arcade, a game/quiz/flashcard generator, I was very excited. Arcade is educational, simple, and it brings you and your students a lot of fun. You might feel like you are playing video games, but it is definitely more than just playing—Arcade provides great exercises for language learning while brings different “flavors” to your classroom.
Here are a few things about Arcade that stand out for me:
1) Targeted vocabulary You can create your own vocabulary list to better target the expected learning outcomes.
2) Cost and simplicity The program is free and it is very easy to use. Because it is very simple, you may spend only a few minutes creating a vocabulary game/quiz/flashcard.
3) Variety of formats Giving one series of questions and answers, you have 5 different game formats to choose from—matching pairs, wordshoot, flashcards, manic miner, and cannonball fun.
Take vocabulary learning for example. When you have a list of words that you want to review with your students, simply put these words in the text box in Arcade. Separate each question from its answer with *, and start each question on a fresh line. And you may give this exercise a name; in this case, I simply put “French” as the name.
After you finish editing your list, click Play. You will see this page below. Note, the program requires you to have at least 10 questions.
Personally, I think Matching Pairs, Wordshoot and Flashcards might be good for in-class uses because they are less time consuming, and students may explore Manic Miner and CannonBall Fun on their own after class. Have fun!