Revision tools – Which online resources are actually helpful?
The range of online revision tools and resources available for students is only getting bigger – so how can teachers help them separate the helpful wheat from the counterproductive chaff?
- by Rebecca Leek
- Executive director of the Suffolk Primary Headteachers’ Association Visit website
The online landscape continues to offer a heady mix of content, AI revision tools and apps to help with efficiency and wellbeing – not to mention countless online communities made up of peers who are reliably ready to provide help and assistance across multiple social media platforms.
But just because these rich pickings are available, it doesn’t necessarily follow that your students will know about them, or how best to use them.
It would be like expecting a Y7 pupil to magically know how to ‘do’ homework. Best not to leave it to chance.
Besides which, as teachers, it would be foolish to pretend this virtual world simply doesn’t exist. When we make our online classrooms and subject guides, or put together talks for parents, we need to cover what the digital world has to offer in terms of revision tools.
Online revision tools
Entry-level AI chatbots
Think of a subject, an exam board and a topic. Then ask an AI chatbot, such as ChatGPT, to generate some questions. For example: ‘Give me five questions to help me revise cell structures for AQA Biology GCSE.’
It’s as simple as that. Try it out with your own subject, and then demonstrate how students might be able to use this approach at home.
Alongside that, model how to sit with a pen and paper and attempt to actually answer the questions – because reading questions alone and thinking about them hopefully (‘Oh yes, I know that!’) isn’t revision.
It’s also worth showing students how this approach can easily go wrong if you forget to specify the exam board or muddle questions up – e.g. ‘How does Priestley show he is sociable?’
Quizzing and recall
There are a number of applications available that can generate virtual flashcards, or provide ready access to existing flashcards on set topics.
Your school may have invested in a platform like Carousel Learning, based around the concept of spaced retrieval practice – a process whereby you test and retest yourself at certain intervals, to ensure that knowledge sticks in your long-term memory.
Gizmo is one such service that I’m increasingly hearing about in conversation with young people. Users receive access to decks of flashcards that are ready to go. There’s the option to make decks of your own, too. For example, you can import and combine slides to generate a whole new set.
On its own, though, the process is quite rough and ready. A one-off flashcard check might well produce an instant feeling of success, but that doesn’t mean it will translate into better exam performance in the long term.
Interval spacing is really important here, so help your students plan out how frequently they intend to test themselves over a week. And then get them to stick to that schedule.
Organisation and efficiency
There are online platforms that replicate having someone sat beside you consistently prompting you to keep at it, reminding you to learn the key components, and giving you a big, virtual thumbs-up when you get the work done.
Study Buddy is one such platform among many. If students purchase the GCSE bundle, for example, they’ll not only get subject summaries for up to ten subjects with accompanying real-world flashcards, but they’ll also get access to an online tracker.
Not everyone will stump up the required £100, and it’s not going to work without some elbow grease. However, Study Buddy does combine some tried and tested methods while helpfully cutting out a lot of organisational hassle.
When it comes to improving efficiency, and warding off the many distractions presented by phones and tablets, there are apps for that too. Of course there are.
I rather like Flora, which blocks distracting apps while keeping you squarely focused on the task at hand with the aid of ‘virtual plants’.
If you neglect what you should be doing, and go down the rabbit-hole of blacklisted apps (TikTok, Instagram, etc.) then your virtual plants die.
Ultimately though, just keeping a timer on your phone can work wonders. Teach your students about the Pomodoro Method, model it, use it in class and do it together.
You’ll have soon managed to turn them into both lifelong learners and productivity gurus in a very short space of time. So maybe you don’t actually need an app for that, after all…
Communities of support
Finally, cultivate communities of support. These could include the existing online classrooms you use with Google Classroom and other remote learning tools.
However, it’s likely that students will naturally deviate away from institutional setups. You can still encourage their preferred ways of supporting each other – but just be curious about who is helping whom, and how.
If someone is socially isolated, have a chat with them about the ways in which they can connect to others online in safe spaces, using platforms like Study Together.
In some ways, I was lucky to attend boarding school. I was among my own peers at all times and we helped each other along.
Phones and social media platforms now enable this to happen virtually, so it’s wise to take an interest in how your students might be engaging with other learners, be it in their own school or with others across the world.
Modelling safe revision tools
As we all know, technology offers as many benefits as it does risks. Communication and conversation is key, so get involved.
Model how your students can make the best use of the learning technologies and revision tools available to them, and pay attention to how they get on.
The metaverse, subsequent generations of AI and other technologies we can scarcely imagine yet will be with us soon enough.
It’s probably best to keep a keen eye on such developments and embrace them where appropriate, alongside our younger generations who will often already be a number of steps ahead of us.
Rebecca Leek has been a primary and secondary teacher, SENCo, headteacher and MAT CEO. She is currently the executive director of the Suffolk Primary Headteachers’ Association.
