Lesson 9. Develop of digital contents: HOT POTATOES

26. 03. 21

Hot Potatoes, a software designed by the University of Victoria in Canada to help teachers create a variety of exercises for their students. These exercises can be accessed through a webpage. Hot Potatoes is an open source software, that means that it is free for everyone to download. We have six kinds of hot potatoes, which are:

JCLOZE:

This potato lets you create a text with gaps for your students to fill. You can add clues, alternative words and much more. This type of exercise is very useful for your students to memorize key elements in a text because they use the words in context. In my case I decided to do it about Parts of the Newspaper, as our group topic is about Newspapers:

Figure 1. JCloze from Hot Potatoes

Figure 2. JCloze from the web page created

JMATCH:

This potato creates a match type exercise for your students. They will have to select the correct word for each element. Also we can add pictures.

Figure 3. JMatch from Hot Potatoes

Figure 4. JMatch from the web page created

JMIX:

This potato allows the teachers to create exercise where students have to order the words in a sentence. The program allows more than one correct sentence in case there is more than one correct option. Like the others two potatoes, you can link exercises together as long as they are located in the same folder.

Figure 5. JMix from Hot Potatoes

 

Figure 6. JMix from the web page created

JQUIZ:

This type of exercise allows us to design questions, and we can choose between multiple choice, short questions or a mixture between both of them. In case we do a multiple choice test, we can also decide which one is correct and if there are any others that are partially correct.

Figure 7. JQuiz from Hot Potatoes

Figure 8. JQuiz from the web page created

JCROSS:

This potato allows the teachers to create a traditional crosswords. You can use the "automatic grid" tool so the program orders the words for you, You can also add clues for your students and you can link it to other exercises you have made. The exercise that I did is a crossword about newspapers related to countries.

Figure 9. JCross from Hot Potatoes

Figure 10. JCross from the web page created

JMASHER:

Finally we can use the tool JMASHER to link all exercises together instead of linking them manually. The following pictures explain the process.

 

Figure 11. The Masher from Hot Potatoes

Figure 12. The Masher from the web page created