Bingel

I would like to tell you about a web based platform created by Sanoma utbildning, based on their teaching materials. Basically it is an interactive island made up by different subdivisions linked to different textbooks from Sanoma. You can use it as a complement to the books and your students can practice tasks you have experienced earlier together, but in a new way.

To get access to Bingel your school needs to be a registered costumer with Sanoma but you don´t need to have or use all of their books. To try a demo version of Bingel you can get a temporary login here. I haven´t tried this myself since my school has an account, so I don´t know how much you are able to do with it. The program is quite extensive and it takes some figuring out, but once you´ve gotten to know it, it is fairly easy to use. One tricky bit is that your school needs an administrator who controls who has access to what, both students and teachers, but once everything is in place this isn´t an issue.

I have used Bingel mainly in school year 5, in mathematics, as a complement to the book MatteBorgen, but you can also use it with their other mathematics books or with Zick Zack (Swedish), Champ (English) and What´s up (English). Bingel is assembled in the same way as the books, with exercises following the books´ chapters.

There are three things I like especially with Bingel. First; the possibility for me to create tasks for specific students and/or the entire class with an easy overview of who has completed the task and how they did.

Second; the fact that I can use the material based on a textbook designed for school year 4 or 6 (or any other for that matter) with my year 5. This gives me better opportunity to challenge each student individually within the platform.

Third; there is a built-in reward system which awards the students points for each task they complete, more if they get it right. These points can then be used to buy outfits and accessories for their avatar, which I have found is a great motivator for the students!

Another plus is that you can easily access your students’ results, give them new tasks and reward them for a good job well done with stickers, medals or- most appreciated; additional points. The design and layout is very nice looking, which I think is rather important.

Bingel is still under construction and not all parts of it are in place yet, so be ready for that if you give it a go. In using Bingel my students have discovered some faults and mishaps in the program, but I talked with them about it before we started using Bingel and they think it´s fun to discover these mistakes and even more fun to notify Sanoma that they have found them.

I hope some of you will try out Bingel because I think it´s a great resource!