50 Free Tech Tools for Teachers | 2023 Edition
TLDRThe video script introduces a comprehensive list of 50 free educational technology tools for teachers, covering a wide range of applications from game-based learning platforms like Look and Kahoot to lesson support tools like Edpuzzle and Nearpod. It also highlights tools for assignments, reading support, math and science, adaptive learning paths, communication, creation, productivity, and teacher resources. The tools are designed to enhance student engagement, support diverse learning needs, and facilitate effective classroom management, offering interactive and customizable features to integrate into various educational settings.
Takeaways
- 🎮 Game-based learning tools like Look and Kahoot enhance student engagement by rewarding correct answers with points or game advancements.
- 🚀 Classcraft uses gamification to motivate students with experience points and leveling up for positive behaviors and academic achievements.
- 🎲 With Game Kit, educators can create custom mini-games like crosswords and word searches tailored to their classroom material.
- 📹 Edpuzzle allows educators to embed questions into videos, making them interactive and engaging for students.
- 🔍 Nearpod and Pear Deck facilitate interactive lessons and presentations, providing real-time feedback and student participation.
- 🖼️ Classroom Screen offers a virtual display of various widgets for effective classroom management and student understanding.
- 📝 Insert Learning enables teachers to markup web pages with highlights, notes, and questions for students to interact with.
- 🎥 Flip (formerly Flip Grid) encourages video responses from students, making assignments more engaging and interactive.
- 🃏 Quizlet provides virtual flashcards and review games to aid in student learning and retention.
- 📱 Seesaw is a learning platform that helps younger learners create a visual portfolio of their work throughout the year.
- 📚 CommonLit supports literacy with interactive reading lessons and built-in differentiation tools for all learners.
Q & A
What is the main purpose of the game-based tool Look in the script?
-The main purpose of Look is to engage students by allowing them to answer questions related to the current curriculum while simultaneously playing a competitive strategy game. Correct answers earn points or rewards within the game, enhancing student participation and knowledge retention.
How does Kahoot differentiate from Look in terms of student engagement?
-Kahoot also involves answering multiple-choice questions, but it focuses on speed and accuracy. Students earn more points for quick correct answers, fostering a competitive environment with a leaderboard. Unlike Look, Kahoot's primary goal is to assess how quickly students know the answers and rewards the fastest responder.
What are the key features of Classcraft that make it a gamification tool?
-Classcraft allows students to earn experience points for positive behaviors and achievements in the classroom, which leads to leveling up. It encourages positive engagement and academic performance, and can be used as a game show, providing an interactive and motivational platform for learning.
How does Educandy support personalized learning in the classroom?
-Educandy enables teachers to create custom mini learning games, such as crosswords and word searches, tailored to their classroom material. These games are presented in an appealing manner suitable for younger learners, thus offering a personalized and engaging learning experience.
What type of content can be made engaging using Edpuzzle?
-Edpuzzle allows educators to make any video engaging by embedding questions within the video. This works with YouTube videos, Khan Academy videos, or original content. Students answer questions at certain points while watching, either individually or as a class, promoting active learning and comprehension.
How does Nearpod facilitate interactive lessons?
-Nearpod enables teachers to conduct interactive lessons by posing questions during a lesson or presentation. Students can answer in real-time, and teachers can receive progress and answer updates instantly, enhancing classroom interaction and learning assessment.
What is the primary function of Pear Deck in the classroom?
-Pear Deck is used to make Google Slides presentations interactive. It allows for live feedback during presentations and offers on-demand question pop-ups, providing a dynamic and responsive learning environment for students and teachers.
How does Classroom Screen assist with classroom management?
-Classroom Screen serves as a virtual display for various widgets, aiding in classroom management. It provides students with a clear visual of the lesson's progression, helping them understand what comes next and how the lesson will unfold, thus improving focus and organization.
What does Insert Learning allow teachers to do with web pages?
-Insert Learning lets teachers mark up any web page by adding highlights, notes, and question blanks for students. This turns a standard web page into an interactive learning tool, allowing teachers to insert educational content directly into the webpages they assign to students.
How does Flip (formerly Flip Grid) engage students in assignments?
-Flip, or Flip Grid, engages students through video answers. Teachers can ask questions via video, and students respond with their own video answers, which can include pictures, emojis, and text. This interactive and multimedia approach mirrors social media platforms, making the engagement process more exciting for students.
Outlines
🎮 Game-Based Learning Tools
This paragraph introduces game-based educational tools that engage students through interactive gameplay. The first tool allows students to answer questions related to the current curriculum while playing a strategy game, earning points or advancing in the game upon correct answers. The second tool, Kahoot, involves answering multiple-choice questions with a leaderboard for the fastest correct answers. The paragraph also mentions Classcraft, a gamification platform where students earn experience points for positive behaviors and achievements, and Game Kit for creating personalized mini-games.
📚 Lesson Support and Assignment Tools
The second paragraph discusses various tools for lesson support and assignments. Edpuzzle enables educators to embed questions within videos to enhance engagement, while Nearpod and Pear Deck focus on interactive lessons and presentations with real-time feedback. Classroom Screen is highlighted as a virtual display tool for classroom management and visual aids. The paragraph also covers Flip, a video response platform, and Quizlet for virtual flashcards. Teacher Made allows for interactive digital worksheets, and Formative is introduced as a tool for interactive quizzes and assessments.
📖 Reading and Math/Science Support Tools
This paragraph covers tools for reading support, such as CommonLit, which offers literacy programs and interactive reading lessons, and Rewordify, a tool for differentiating text according to students' reading levels. Epic and Books are mentioned as libraries of interactive books and stories. For math and science, the Math Learning Center provides interactive models, Wolfram Alpha offers a computational search engine, and PhET provides interactive simulations for various sciences. Scratch introduces coding through stories, games, and animations, while Toy Theater focuses on digital manipulatives for teaching and learning.
🎓 Adaptive Learning and Educational Resources
The fourth paragraph discusses adaptive learning platforms like Khan Academy, which offers in-depth classes and allows teachers to assign specific tasks to students based on their needs. Khan Academy Kids is designed for younger learners with an adaptive learning path. Bottle is a new tool for 2023 that assigns math tasks and uses games for practice. Prodigy offers a magical math adventure with adaptive learning support. Zern provides digital math video lessons with real-time data for students. The paragraph also mentions communication tools like Moat, Loom, and Remind for teacher-student interaction, as well as a teacher-student conversational builder for social and emotional engagement.
🛠️ Creation and Productivity Tools for Teachers
The final paragraph highlights creation tools like Canva for designing graphics and Clips for video creation with live captioning. Satori and Creative Cloud Timeline are recommended for creating interactive timelines. Giphy is mentioned for creating and sending GIFs. Productivity tools include Trello for project organization, Wakelet for web link organization, and Padlet for interactive bulletin boards. Symbaloo is introduced as a bookmarking tool for younger learners, Tiny URL for creating short custom links, and Flippity for creating various teacher tools using spreadsheets. GoQR is a QR code generator, and resources like FishTank Learning, Smithsonian Learning Lab, and Common Sense Media are mentioned for curriculum guides, museum artifacts, and edtech tool reviews.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡gamification
💡educational technology (edtech)
💡student engagement
💡lesson support tools
💡assignment tools
💡adaptive learning
💡reading support tools
💡math and science support tools
💡communication tools
💡productivity tools
💡teacher resources
Highlights
Game-based learning tools like Look and Kahoot enhance student engagement by rewarding correct answers with points or game advancements.
Classcraft uses gamification to encourage positive behavior and academic achievement by allowing students to earn experience points and level up.
With Educandy, educators can create custom mini learning games, such as crosswords and word searches, tailored to their classroom material.
Edpuzzle allows educators to embed questions within videos, turning passive viewing into an interactive learning experience.
Nearpod and Pear Deck facilitate interactive lessons and activities, providing real-time feedback and engagement during presentations.
Classroom Screen offers a virtual display of various widgets to aid in classroom management and lesson navigation visualization.
Insert Learning enables teachers to markup web pages with highlights, notes, and question blanks for student interaction.
Flip (formerly Flip Grid) allows for video answer assignments, integrating multimedia elements like pictures, emojis, and text.
Quizlet offers virtual flashcards and review games, catering to different learning styles and promoting knowledge retention.
Teacher Made digitizes paper worksheets into interactive digital worksheets, allowing students to engage with content in a new way.
Formative provides interactive quizzes and formative assessment tools, with varied question types and the ability for students to markup PDFs.
Seesaw is a learning platform that helps students create a visual portfolio of their work throughout the year, ideal for younger learners.
CommonLit offers a literacy program with interactive reading lessons and built-in differentiation tools for diverse learners.
Rewordify simplifies text to match students' reading levels, offering interactive activities like flashcards and puzzles based on the text.
Epic and Books combines a library of interactive books with audiobooks and learning videos, accessible for free for teachers.
Wonderopolis is an educational website that provides answers to students' questions, fostering curiosity and learning.
The Math Learning Center provides interactive visual models for math concepts, useful for both teaching and student exploration.
Wolfram Alpha serves as a computational search engine, offering factual information and comparisons for educational purposes.
PhET Simulations offers interactive simulations in physics, chemistry, math, earth science, and biology, enhancing understanding through hands-on learning.
Scratch teaches coding through an easy-to-learn platform, enabling students to create stories, games, and animations.
Adaptive learning paths like Khan Academy and Khan Academy Kids adjust to students' learning needs, providing tailored educational content.
Bottle uses game-based learning for math assignments, integrating teaching videos and personalized paths for students.
Prodigy and Zern offer adaptive math adventures and video lessons with real-time data, supporting students based on their performance.
Moat and Loom are communication tools that allow teachers to provide voice feedback and screen recording explanations, enhancing online interaction.
Remind facilitates text and email communication with students and parents without sharing personal phone numbers, offering additional features for classroom engagement.
ClassDojo focuses on behavior management for younger learners, rewarding positive actions and achievements with a digital currency system.
Canva is a drag-and-drop graphic design tool, offering numerous templates for educators and students to create visually appealing projects.
Clips allows video creation with live captioning, making content creation accessible and interactive for various communication needs.
Satori and Creative Cloud Timeline Maker provide tools for creating interactive and simple timelines, respectively, catering to different educational needs.
Giphy enables the creation and sharing of GIFs, offering a fun and creative way for students to express themselves and engage with content.
Trello, Wakelet, and Padlet are productivity tools for project organization, web link collection, and collaborative learning on a single topic.
Symbaloo is ideal for younger learners, offering a visual bookmark page that simplifies web navigation with icons.
Tiny URL shortens long links for easier sharing and access, useful for recurring links in educational settings.
Flippity provides spreadsheet-based teacher tools that can be customized without the need for an account, offering versatility for classroom activities.
Go QR is a simple tool for creating QR codes for various purposes, promoting easy access to digital resources.
Fishtank Learning, Smithsonian Learning Lab, and Common Sense Media are databases offering curriculum guides, museum artifacts, and edtech tool reviews.
