Anyone who works in education is aware by now of the rise of technology in today’s society, and what many people are terming the ‘digital classroom.’ There is technology available that can help with every aspect of teaching, from planning lessons to marking students’ work. Here are 7 educational tools that are out there now, that every teacher should be using in the classroom.
Sparklebox is a website designed for primary school teachers. On this site, you’ll find thousands of useful resources that you can download and print off for use in lessons. You find exercises for the students for every subject, from Maths to Science. The website also has posters that you can print off and display on the classroom wall.
One of the most popular digital classroom tools, Class Dojo is a way of monitoring and improving students’ behaviour at school – it can be used to inform parents about how the children are doing. Each student gets an avatar, which can be awarded or deducted points depending on their performance. The website can be displayed on an interactive whiteboard for students to see – reports generated through Class Dojo can then be sent out to parents.
Use Engrade to grade assignments. With this application, teachers can keep track of their different classes. You can use it to record grades and student performance, as well as attendance, and it can all be exported to Microsoft Excel if needed. That’s not the only function of Engrade, though – use it to create interactive lesson plans and online quizzes for your class.
Prezi is a new online presentation tool, and can be used by both teachers and students. An alternative to applications like PowerPoint, it helps with visual learning. Thanks to the cloud-based software, presentations can be accessed on any device, and shared around the world. Prezi presentations are fully interactive, and can use videos, text, and graphics.
Any teacher knows how difficult it can be to grab the interest of your students. Nearpod is a tool to help with classroom engagement. It’s already used by thousands of school and teachers, and has interactive, ready-to-use lessons for every subject and school level. These lessons have been designed by experts, but you can edit them to include your own material, or create your own. These lessons can be made even more interactive with the use of Nearpod 3D and Nearpod VR, which can be used with VR headsets to take students on field trips without leaving the classroom.
A tool to help with classroom engagement, Socrative allows teachers to see how well their students understand subjects. Using the app, teachers can connect with students and assess their knowledge with a simple question. Students then answer on the app, and Socrative compiles the results in an easy-to-understand format.
Quizizz is a new website featuring thousands of quizzes, and can help get students more excited to be in the classroom. All the quizzes on the website are made by other teachers, and you’re free to design your own. The quizzes can be done in class as an exercise, or set as homework, and features like leaderboards make it easy to see which students need more attention.
