Gabriel's Seeds

Once, before apps came to dominate our use of software, teachers turned to the web for resources to enhance their lessons.  Gabriel's Seeds returns to this platform to make available its collection of teaching resources and resource creation tools.

Browser-based services such as this are a little different to apps.   As they are not tied to a single platform, they may feel a little different to a native app.  On the other hand, they are compatible with all devices that have a browser.  Whether you use iPads, Android tablets, Macs or Windows devices in the classroom, you can access Gabriel's Seeds.  You can switch devices, log-in and pick up where you left off too.

Gabriel's Seeds comes complete with many app templates. These are varied in both how they challenge the player and in how the player interacts with them.  The games cover aspects of maths, literacy, art science and language learning.  The methods by which they are played include typing answers, dragging elements into position, making selections and more.  You'll, no doubt, have seen many of the styles before, but Gabriel's Seeds offers a high level of customisation for them and this is where it hopes to offer an experience tailored to your class.

Teachers can combine and alter how these templates look to match their children's interests and motivations.  The graphics and sounds used by the game can be selected from the provided graphics or your own ones can be uploaded. On-screen rewards can be selected from videos, animations, and sounds.  Many parameters can be altered to define how success is achieved and what happens when it is.

The included images, videos, and sounds are vast in number.  This is a plus point from the point of view of variety and broadness of choice but does result in an incohesive look and sound.  How much this matters will be a personal opinion but for some, it will make the resulting games look a little mismatching.

It is well worth looking at the Gabriel's Seeds help section and videos before using the service.  These make clear what the service provides and how best to use it.  There are a few places where it is clear that the English has been translated from another language but its meaning is usually clear.

Seeing the process spelled out in the help section is very useful as one of the weaknesses of the user interface is that it does not always feedback whether an action has been successful or not.   A dialogue box that says that a save has either worked or not would meet users' expectations and give them the confidence to move on to another task in the service.

Considering what is available in the app, both the resource templates and the media, it can only be described as superb value that all of this can be accessed for free by signing up to the service.  There are options to purchase further content within the service but for both appraisal and for day-to-day teaching, you can get a huge amount of use from what comes after signing up.  As it is compatible with whatever device on which you are reading this review, you may as well go straight over to Gabriel's Seeds and try it out for yourself.