The top 10 educational tools for teachers

SATURDAY, JULY 25, 2020    

In the digital era, as we start to move seminars into webinars, time spent together virtually with screen shares. It is of no surprise that we will have to consider the possibilities of conducting classes in the virtual space. But that does not come without its challenges. In the virtual space, it is all the more crucial to be able to hold student’s attention through interactive activities and engagements.


Education is the process of facilitating learning, or the acquisition of knowledge, skills, values, beliefs, and habits


In this list, I’ve found some of these educational tools that allows us to engage and discuss with our peers more effectively promoting better collaboration. After which, I’ve included some other educational resources and videos as I was continuously researching on the edtech space.


What do you think are some of the pain points of educators? Do leave some of your thoughts and comments below ((:




1. Eduflow


Eduflow is a good tool for teachers to curate their materials and create lesson plans. As a digital classroom concept, you can also add in video urls for students to watch prior to the class. They have forums to encounter peer reviews of peer’s answers to questions posted. And best of all, which I thought was interesting, to have a component to allow zoom calls to engage with the students virtually. Check it out here.




2. Plickers


Plicker is an engagement tool. For teachers all over the world, Plickers is a revolutionary way to collect instant multiple-choice responses from students, without requiring them to have clickers, computers, or tablets.


Plickers doesn’t require students to have digital phones or computers. Students are given printed cards with unique designs which the teacher can scan student responses and response in real time. Check it out here.


plickers


3. Scratch, learn coding for all age group


Insightful with good tutorials and quick start play ground for one to try out the product. There are a ton of testimonials on the site as well to add onto the credibility of the product. Check it out here.


scratch


4. Learn cursive handwriting


A site for children to learn cursive handwriting. So interesting with so exercises, tutorial videos and a free ebook apparently. I personally writes cursive handwriting, never knew there is a site and tool just for this learning. Check it out here.

vertical


5. Edpuzzle


This tool allows you to have interactive videos to learn different topics. At different parts of the video, a question related to the video will be used. Check it out here.


edpuzzle


6. Duolingo


This website allows you to choose the different foreign languages you wish to learn, depending on whether you’re new to the language or have some familiarity with the language. Check it out here.

duolingo-1


I really love this idea and how the process of learning a new language is made so much easier. Best part? You can learn High Valyrian (game of thrones’ language as well)


duolingo-2


7. Outschool, learning made fun


outschool


They have many classes for parents to choose from and find out what topics they want their children to get exposure on. Check it out here.


8. Padlet - Collaborate & discuss


Allows teacher to create a padlet, which is a wall. So this allows you to create a space for discussion of a topic. As a teacher, you can share a question like what did you learn from class today? Publish that wall, and students can see the questions. It is a social tool that allows you post video URLs and links. Check it out here.


9. Socrative


It is used for assessment as a teacher. Once you created this quizzes, you can see real time updates of these questions being answered by the students. If students are answering them too quickly, you can consider assigning them harder questions as well. These are insights to allow teacher to assess student’s current competency in each topics as well. Check it out here.


socrative


10. Amaze, sexual education


One can imagine a site to teach math, english, and science. But to have a site that teaches sexual education really encapsulates the idea of bringing education to the digital space - anything and every thing that was once taught in school could potentially be taught online. And the subjects does not have to be constrained to the typical subjects. I love how this site really pushed myself out of an implicit limiting factor i have when i was thinking about the possible realms of digital education. Check it out here


amaze




TLDR;


Almost anything you can imagine can possibly be digitalized and curated on the internet. As we continue to embrace the digital space across the educational space, one must not forget the technology’s role. Technology is merely an enabler for us humans, teachers, and generally educators, to better engage our peers and students. It will never replace that touch and interaction that makes up the entire educational experience. Or perhaps technology will be able to create this experience in the near future.


Do let me know what are some of educational tools you find interesting in the comments below! (:


P.S. This post will be continuously updated as I find more interesting, and most importantly useful edtools to play with.




Other resources:


As I was researching and exploring the educational space, I happened to find a few other educational tools I thought could be meaningful. I did not try some of them personally but definitely worth a look if you’re looking into the educational tech space.



One of the key factors for podcasts is consistency. Are the podcasts updated consistently? Daily? weekly or the least bi-weekly? It shows a commitment to the topic that the podcaster is excited.


wow-in-the-world



  • Minecraft education:
    • sandbox games, its just games and you can do whatever you want with it
    • Critical thinking
    • real life problem use cases

  • Class Dojo

    • token academy (changing your seat for example)
    • Classroom timer
    • Random student selector
    • point system
    • Parents engagement

  • Classcraft

    • Strong gamification into the class
    • Create quize for students and create avatars

Came across this article that reviewed the top 50 edtech sites that teaches an array of topics and skills. Some are well done with many testimonials from customers themselves. It is definitely worth a look.



The realm for educational technology for children. In this time and age, it is important for one to continuously challenge the society norm to education. It does not have to be bounded to the physical classroom anymore. Yet how does it address the downsides, distractions, and inaccessibility of children to these digital resources in the virtual space? One have to ponder and curate the sets of brilliance from experienced veterans in the educational or even humanitarian space.




Video resources


Here are some edtools introduced by other youtubers as well:



  • This video introduces to you the top 10 apps for teachers to use:




Other educational related thoughts


Even as we seek to find out the different tools that are available for educators to utilize to better engage with their students. Above all else, the ultimate question we have to consider is: “What problem are we trying to solve?” “what are the pain points of our educators today?”


We will definitely revisit this space again!


What do you think are the use cases and pain points of teachers? Do leave your comments below!