Flashcards With Flippity.net

Toward the end of February on Twitter Shannon Miller, teacher librarian, consultant, presenter and blogger at Van Meter Library Voice and Heather Moorefield, Education Librarian at Virginia Tech and chairperson for the American Association of School Librarians Best Websites for Teaching & Learning, both mentioned a neat website for creating flashcards.  Use of the site is free of charge but it is supported by ads.  Javascript must be enabled for it to work in Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari and Microsoft Internet Explorer.  

Flippity.net takes items entered into a Google Spreadsheet converting them into flashcards.  The first step in this process is to modify the template provided on the home page of the site.  You are asked to place the template in your Gmail or Google apps account.  When selecting the link you are taken to this screen next.

The template which appears in your Google account is that used by Flippity.net in their example on the first page at their site.  What you need to do is to remove their entries, adding as many as you like for your set of flashcards.  Make sure at the bottom on the left hand side you rename your created flashcards.

When filling in the spreadsheet be sure to put the query on the left and the correct reply on the right.  If you want to use an image or YouTube video in one of the columns, add the correct URL link.  When you are finished, in the upper left-hand corner, select File, Publish to the web and Start publishing.  You then need to copy the link under Get a link to the published data.

Take the copied link back to the Flippity.net home page pasting it into the box under number 3 in the instructions.  As the instructions indicate, choose Go.  Your brand new set will appear at the top of the page.

When using the new set you have plenty of options.  They are as follows:

1. a list of your cards showing side one and side two
2. the ability to generate a quiz from your cards
3. remove a card
4. shuffle cards
5. switch sides
6. reload cards
7. flip/next card
8. next card
9. flip card and
10. previous card.

As you can see in the image by selecting the Share button you are given a URL link to your set of flashcards created using Flippity.net.  Here is the link to my set of flash cards titled Parts of a Book/Fiction Call Numbers.  Your flashcards can be shared on Twitter, Google+, Facebook and Pinterest.  You can also generate a QR code for your flashcards.

All you need to use this website application is a Google or Gmail account.  There is no cost or registration.  If you have the components needed to plug into the spreadsheet outlined prior to accessing the site, you can have your flashcards created in a matter of minutes.  There is a FAQ page including contact information.  

We know that one of the best methods for learning something is to teach it.  This would be a great vehicle for students to design flashcards to provide information to their classmates.  I can see using this to teach new vocabulary or basic information about a variety of topics.  Flippity.net will definitely be placed in my virtual toolbox.