Building My EdTech Toolkit… My Go-to Edtech Tools for 2022!
Teachers and students can easily get overwhelmed with the plethora of edtech tools available. I suggest building your edtech toolkit and sticking to tools that work for you! For some teachers, that means sticking to Google Apps for Education or Microsoft Applications…and that is perfectly fine! For me, I like to think about functionality or the types of edtech needed to support a creative, student-centered classroom! Yes, these tools will work in the remote classroom as well!
For this blog, I have broken down my edtech toolkit into the following categories: presentations, audio/video, feedback, curation, classroom management, creativity/graphics, collaboration/organization, and gamification.
Myedtechbundle.com is a site that was built by Nick Johnson, Kyle Niemis, and Eric Guise (myself) for the purpose of getting mini-subscriptions of edtech tools into the hands of teachers for a nominal fee (in most cases bundle 3 tools for $5). We know that teachers are busy. It is hard for a teacher to truly try out a tool in the free-trial period. Myedtechbundle.com gives you additional time (typically 1-4 months) on top of the free trial period!!! These edtech tools have been vetted by us for quality. Many of the edtech tools are found in my edtech toolkit. I teach science and technology and not all tools fit the needs of my students, however there are a lot more amazing tools on the site that can fit the needs of teachers and students in all content areas.
- Classwork Zoom- Visualizing student engagement om Google Classroom
- Fluentkey-Making listening fun with interactive videos
- Extempore- Oral language assessment tools
- Spinndle- A co-learning space for student-led projects
- Think Tech- Teaching tools to create a shared learning experience
- The Juice News- A current events based learning system
- Classhook- Educational videos from TV and Movies
- Ott-o-matic Slip and Slide- Effortlessly insert slides into student presentations
- GrammarFlip- A comprehensive grammar and writing platform
- Iorad- A quick and easy tutorial creator
- Flocabulary- Library of music and videos for K-12 online learning
- Nearpod- Real-time insights into student understanding
- Pear Deck- Lets students interact with presentations
Presentations
Slidesmania
Slidesmania is a must-know resource for teachers! Slidemania is a repository for free creative PowerPoint templates and Google Slides themes. The collection of resources cover a vast amount of educational needs such as presentations, gamification, planners, e-portfolios, digital binders, icons, and much much more! The best part about this site… It is free!!!
Sutori
Sutori is a tool that gives you the ability to create a lot of great content. You are able to add formative assessments, videos, quizlets, and more in easily accessible formats.
Audio/Video
WeVideo
WeVideo is an amazing tool for students and teachers to become content creators. You have several multimedia tools all covered in one amazing tool! Whether you are podcasting, screencasting, video-making, or doing voice-overs… WeVideo has you covered! You can try WeVideo basic for free or choose to get an individual plan for $89 a year!
Prezi Video
With Prezi, you have the ability to create inspiring, engaging visuals in minutes, then appear alongside them as you present. With the newer Prezi tool called Prezi Video, you can present right alongside your content as you live stream or record for a seamless, personalized experience.
Feedback
Mote
Mote is an amazing feedback tool that lets you easily add voice comments and audio content to shared documents, assignments, emails and forms. Mote is integrated into Google Docs, Slides, Sheets, Forms, Classroom and Gmail - for easy recording and playback. I also enjoy using this Chrome Extension while using the Chrome browser. The team at Mote is always looking to integrate new features that make teaching easier for teachers!
Kami
Kami is an online document annotation and markup tool. You can highlight, underline, and strikethrough text in PDF and other document formats. You can also add text boxes, shapes, and images. Kami works with Google Drive and Google Classroom. With Kami, you can easily collaborate on documents in the classroom while avoiding the hassles of printing documents. Kami is a tool that shines in the remote learning setting!
Floop
Feedback is a driving force of student-centered learning. Feedback needs to be personalized and received relatively quickly in order to prevent stagnant learning. Floop is a tool that teaches students to receive and provide feedback collaboratively. Teachers can provide feedback quicker than ever using drag and drop canned comments.
Peergrade
Peergrade is an online platform that allows your students to review and provide feedback to the work of their peers. Students upload their work, which can be an essay, video, graphic, etc. to Peergrade and then give each other feedback based on the feedback rubric created by the teacher. The whole process takes place online within Peergrade, which makes this tool an anywhere, anyplace edtech tool!
Curation
Wakelet
Wakelet is a digital curation platform that lets teachers and students organize a mix of content for easy access. Think of Wakelet as a Pinterest of educational content. A Wakelet collection can consist of several different file types including picture, video, PDF, URLs, and much more. An added bonus is that the collection can be collaborative and can be shared privately or publicly. This tool is 100% Free!
Classroom Management
ClassroomQ
ClassroomQ is a web-based virtual hand-raising tool that lets kids ask questions and wait in a queue for their teacher's response. Teachers share a simple class code, and then students can join a session and tap a button to request assistance when they need it. I have personally used this tool to keep track of group progress during remote instruction. ClassroomQ is a tool that bridges communication between the teacher and student while working with content and works with in-person and remote instruction.
Creativity/Graphics
Canva for Education
Canva for Education is an amazing tool for teachers and students. Canva is a free graphic design platform that allows you to edit photos without extensive photo editing knowledge or experience. The ability for students to create professional-looking infographics is phenomenally beneficial for the student-centered classroom. With numerous templates and design options, students will easily be able to communicate their message! Educators can sign up for a Canva for Education account and get some licenses for their students for FREE!
Piktochart
Piktochart is a web-based graphic design tool and infographic maker. Users don’t need intensive experience as graphic designers to easily create visuals, including infographics, reports, presentations, posters, flyers, and social media graphics, using customizable templates.
Storyboard That
Storyboard That provides simple and clever visual tools to help teachers create a learning experience that allows students to work with the Four Cs (Critical Thinking, Creativity, Communication, and Collaboration). This is a fantastic tool that engages students within the PBL framework of learning!
Visme
Visme is an edtech tool that allows students to make professional graphics using templates. Students can make graphics for presentations, branded documents, social posts, flyers, banners, etc. Visme also allows for students to create short videos and animations!
Book Creator
Book Creator is a tool that allows students to maximize their creative potential. Students can use this edtech tool to create their own multimedia resources while working with assigned content.
Collaboration/Organization
Trello
Trello is the ultimate organization and collaboration tool that allows members of a team to work on a project simultaneously. Trello tells you what's being worked on, who's working on what, and the progress of the task being worked on. Imagine a white board, filled with lists of sticky notes, with each note as a task for you and your team. Now imagine that each of those sticky notes has a photo, video, URL, or PDF attached to it with a place to comment and collaborate with other teachers, classes, and students.
Explain Everything
Explain Everything is an all in one collaborative whiteboard platform where you can present and record videos from the device you are using. Invite anyone to collaborate by adding drawings, images, videos, PDFs and documents. You can annotate and record everything. Share your ideas as an interactive Explain Everything project or as a video.
Parlay
In my opinion, one of the hardest stills for a teacher is the ability to keep quality discussions going in the classroom. Let me introduce Parlay, the instructional technology platform that makes it easy for teachers to facilitate, measure, and assess student-driven decisions. This edtech tool thrives in the in-person and remote classroom!
Gamification
Classcraft
Classcraft is an online and app-based fantasy-themed behavior and learning-management platform with a role-playing game theme. One of my favorite aspects about Classcraft is its capability to be sensitive to the SEL needs of students while promoting positive behaviors. Another aspect is the engagement of the tool. I have had students go from turning in small amounts of work to turning in every assignment. The gamification elements of this tool increases engagement while providing students with a safe learning environment!
Blooket
Blooket (Blue Kit) is a web-based quiz game platform that allows for individual study or group competitions. With Blooket, the teacher has the power to choose from many different game modes and elements within the game. Students love the group competitions and the different types of rewards they receive when getting a question right and the teachers love the ability to search and modify questions from existing question sets. This is a win-win gamification tool!
Baamboozle
Baamboozle is a quick and easy-to-use tool for creating fun and engaging games. Teachers can create their own games or use an existing game that is on the platform. This platform is easily used both in-person or in the remote learning environment. One of my favorite uses of this tool is as a warm-up activity or a wrap-up activity because of the accessibility of student data.
About the author, Eric
Eric Guise is a media specialist and technology coach with more than a decade of experience as a teacher.
Eric was named the 2016 Biology Teacher of Year by the New Jersey Biology Teachers Association and is currently pursuing an EdD in Leadership in Digital Transformation in Educational Technology.