Sometimes great moments of learning happen in unexpected ways. In my classroom, this often happens when my students are using a favorite or new EdTech resource to explore and create as part of the learning process.
I’ve been seeing quite a few #EdTech Top Ten Lists on Twitter recently and I realized it’s been a while since I thought about the resources we use most often now that we are back together. Today I wanted to share some of our favorite tools that help my students and me grow as learners.
Here are 10 of my current favorites listed in alphabetical order for your convenience:
@AdobeCCExpress – Adobe Creative Cloud Express (aka Adobe Spark) supports creative visual and audio learning experiences through graphics, web stories, videos, and more.
@BookCreatorApp – Book Creator is an incredible site/app that supports the creation of interactive books by students and educators.
@MicrosoftFlip (Formerly@Flipgrid) – Flip is a free video discussion platform that engages students in creative student voice activities.
@gimkit – Gimkit is a classroom game-show platform where students compete by answering questions to earn virtual money instead of points to advance in different challenges. There are multiple game modes.
@GoogleForEdu – Google Workspace for Education includes Google Docs, Google Sheets, Google Drawings, Google Slides, Google Sites, and a host of Google Apps, Addons, and Extensions.
In addition to the Google Drive suite of tools, we do quite a bit of learning and exploring with Google Arts and Culture, Google Earth, Google Applied Digital Skills, and Autodraw by Google. (Please explore this blog if you are curious about these awesome tools.) We also do quite a bit with Unsplash Images for Google Slides and Slide template sites like Slides Mania.
@PearDeck – Pear Deck makes lessons interactive and encourages active participation during learning experiences. Flashcard Factory is a great tool to get students collaboratively exploring vocabulary.
@PlayBlooket – Blooket brings some fun to our vocabulary exploration as a game-based formative assessment tool. Students earn power-ups in a variety of games by answering questions.
@quizizz – Quizizz is another game show-style formative assessment resource where students can compete together or complete the assessments on their own. One of the things I love the most about Quizizz is that I can set it up so students can retake the quiz immediately if we struggle.
@YouTube – I know YouTube is a part of the Google Suite, but I use it so much to engage students that I thought it deserved its own spot on the list. YouTube videos are often part of our learning experiences and we still love our Happy Friday Videos that we use to explore empathy, kindness, and joy.
@Wakelet – Save, organize and share content from across the web with Wakelet. Save articles, videos, images, Tweets, and more, organize them into stunning collections. I want my students to share their learning and creations with more than just me, so we use Wakelet all the time for students to share with each other.
I know there are also many great tools that we did using regularly this year. Sometimes this is because we don’t have s subscription and sometimes we’ve just not had the chance to explore. Here are some honorable mentions that I love but just didn’t use as much:
@Buncee – Buncee is a great creative tool, it’s just not one that I’ve invested time in as much as I should. It is on my to-do list for future creative learning.
@canva – Canva is a great resource for creative visuals. I like the creative potential of Canva for Education, but I am a creature of habit, and Adobe Creative Cloud is still our go-to.
@edpuzzle – We are watching more videos together in class, so we’ve not been using Edpuzzle quite as much as we did last year.
@nearpod – If I wasn’t using Pear Deck, Nearpod would be near the top of my list.
@Newsela – If I extended my list, I would have added Newsela for sure. It is a great resource to engage students in exploring text and it is something we use throughout the year.
@padlet – Padlet is another tool that would be next on an expanded list. We still use Padlet quite a bit for some of the creative features but most of our recent sharing has been with Wakelet.
@TED_ED – We still watch quite a few TED-ED videos together, but we’ve not used the interactive platform as much this year.
@WeVideo – WeVideo is a great platform for video creation and more. I like WeVideo quite a bit, but we just don’t create a lot of videos this year.
I also recently attended ISTELive and I was incredibly impressed with some tools that were new to me that I will be exploring in the future include: @ClickView, @gather_town, @happyfeed, and @SkillStruck
I could go on, but I think this is probably enough for now.
Which of these would make your top ten list? What I am missing? What resources do you love to engage your students in the learning process? #BetterTogether #HappyLearning
If you are looking for even more ideas, feel free to explore our 4 Cs Resources for Teaching and Learning Site.
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