You have your online tools and teaching lab ready, but are little confused about the meaning of online teaching tools. You don’t need to be. A plethora of online teaching tools is available at your disposal, from useful software to web services, blogs and forums. These online teaching tools are a great way for teachers and students to collaborate on projects and keep up with each other’s work. Learning together improves quality of the student’s education.
This article is about the meaning of Online Teaching Tools. Here you will find some examples of computer and Internet-based education tools that are used for teaching, designing, and delivering instructions. You will also see what learning tools are available on the Internet, how they are connected with each other and how they can help your students learn.
Meaning of Online Teaching Tools. Online teaching tools comes in variety of types and offer different functionalities, only if you know your teaching needs thoroughly then only you can identify which learning tool is best for your ongoing teaching requirements.
Online learning tools virtually connect teachers and students and aim to technologically assist in education. Examine how online learning tools are defined, and review examples of the different types of tools available and their purposes.
Why Use Online Tools?
With the rapid increase of technology over the last 20+ years, the way students learn and teachers teach have changed, too. Luckily, today a wealth of online tools can supplement your ability to bring new information to students, while providing students with many different options for learning input and output. You may be able to teach more effectively and your students may enjoy learning more using a variety of tools like these.
What Are Online Learning Tools?
It’s difficult to provide a single definition of online learning tools, because of the variety of tools. Think about online learning tools in this way: online learning tools refer to any program, app, or technology that can be accessed via an internet connection and enhance a teacher’s ability to present information and a student’s ability to access that information.
The following are three major types of online learning tools: online classrooms, assistive technology, and apps.
Online Classrooms
Today’s students are comfortable and familiar with using the internet to gain information about unknown topics. In the past a person would have gone to the library and referred to an encyclopedia for information. Today we pull smartphones out of our pockets and ask Google to tell us all about any topic. It is for that reason many students wish to facilitate some of their own learning rather than coming to school and waiting to learn at a teacher-led pace. There are three main types of online classrooms that teachers need to be aware of to meet their students’ learning needs.
1. Blended Classrooms
Blended classrooms use a combination of face-to-face instruction with a teacher at school mixed with some online student-facilitated learning, using the online tools and resources that a teacher gathers and organizes for student usage.
2. Flipped Classrooms
A flipped classroom also involves students using online student-facilitated learning, but what is different about a flipped classroom is that students are solely responsible for learning prior to coming into a physical classroom. Projects and activities are done in the classroom led by the teacher with the assumption students have already learned the online assigned content.
3. Distance Education Classrooms
Distance education classes, sometimes called virtual schools, consist of 100 percent of instruction via the internet and teacher-provided online tools. In this type of classroom a teacher and student would never interact in the same physical space.
Online teaching tools help in enhancing the online learning and teaching experience. It overcomes the boundaries of online teaching; these tools are designed for students as well as teachers.
The change in educational services has demanded the digitalization of traditional methods. Regular development of technologies in education supports the increased use of live teaching apps, virtual classrooms, and digital resources.
The online teaching tools create a better teaching experience. These tools reduce the dependence of the students on teachers. The basic concepts of videos, feedback, doubt solving, good graphics, audio-visuals, and many other features have popularised live classes.
Many digital education and online tools provide a better learning experience for the students. It strengthens the academic teaching processes and instructional methodologies. There are various types of teaching tools provided by different teaching applications. Look for the functionality and resources that you feel are more personalized and helpful to students.
These teaching tools and resources allow teachers to build assignments or instructional tasks on their mobile apps that students can solve. It helps in creating a better learning environment in virtual classrooms.
The use of online teaching resources provides a learning approach that, by entertaining and interesting content, creates students’ interest. Student portfolios can also be generated with specific applications. The measured results and observations are then shared with parents and guardians.
Here, we present an introduction to this world of educational tools and programs, which will serve as a compass and a map that can help you to sail towards this new and fascinating horizon.
For each category, you will find a short description, a couple of programs, and their functions.
Let’s start!
A) School management programs
DESCRIPTION:
These are big programs that are also called platforms. They are used at school level, meaning that everybody in the school (directors, teachers, students, and family) uses the same platform that the school has decided to use. Normally, every person must have private access to the platform (for this reason, if the students are too young, the family is involved).
It must be said that more and more schools use platforms that are suggested by their country or region. For example, in Poland, almost every school uses national programs like Vulcan or Librus. In Italy, Argo is well known. School management programs cannot be used if a school has already its own.
FUNCTION:
They have three (3) main functions:
– Communication: a platform is the main instrument for formal communication, among all the parts that form the school system.
– E-register: the platform can also be used as a register for the students, storing grades, notes, and attendance.
– Content Sharing: as the communication part is addressed to talk or chat. Normally, in a school management program, one can find many collaboration spaces where content can be shared.
PROGRAMS:
– Office 365: the platform from Microsoft is probably the most complete platform for education, with a lot of apps for communication, content sharing, quizzes, and many other features. It is completely free for schools.
– Google Classroom: also Google, “shadowing” from Microsoft, has launched its own educational platform, with Drive (content sharing), an email system, and, of course, Google Classroom, which can also be used as a classroom management program.
Are you interested in digging deeper into Google’s educational tools and applications? Check out our teacher training course on Google for Education or our online course “7 Microsoft Programs for Online Education“
B) classroom management programs classdojo, Edmodo
DESCRIPTION:
These programs can be compared to the previous platforms. The only difference is the actors and the flow of communication: with these teachers, students and family can communicate (in case students are too young) between themselves; meanwhile, school directors can be part of the platform, and content sharing can take place among teachers.
FUNCTION:
They are the same as for the platforms. Just the e-register might be absent here, depending on the specific policy of the school/region/or country.
PROGRAMS:
– Classdojo: this is without a doubt the most successful online tool for kindergarten and primary school. It’s fun to manage a class, and each student can choose their own monster profile picture. Teachers can collect notes and use effective tools for in-class activities. It also provides very easy access to connect with the student’s family and engage them in school activities.
– Edmodo: this can be defined as social media for education. Communication and connection are the strength of this program. Teachers can create a virtual classroom easily and interact with the students in a very effective way.
C) content collectors
DESCRIPTION:
To better understand what we are talking about, we can divide this program into two sub-categories: boards and mind maps.
In both cases, educational content (such as text, images, videos, audio, files) can be collected and organized in an interactive way.
For instance, students can access a board called “World War II” where they find material about that topic; they can also interact in these spaces and add more material or exercises or just provide comments.
FUNCTION:
Content Sharing: these programs are like a nice building where educational content can be stored and added to.
The building can be the class or a subject or a specific topic. Students can enter the building and explore it.
These programs can be used before, during, or after the explanation of a topic. They add to and provide great support to student learning.
PROGRAMS:
Another very interesting program is Trello, which is a valid free alternative to Padlet.
– Mind maps are a great support for students and teachers in a class. They are nothing new, but technology allows interaction on the same map in an amazingly constructive way.
Popplet for iOS and MiMind for Android is among the most well-known and efficient tools for Mind Maps.
D) quizzes
DESCRIPTION:
It is not necessary to explain in detail what an online quiz is but it can be defined as a set of questions that students have to answer in order to win a competition.
Questions may vary depending on the program (multiple-choice, open-ended, or fill-in-the-blank). The level of competition depends on the program and the type of game (individual or teams, with or without points).
FUNCTION:
Learn with fun: using games and quizzes in the classroom is the best way to learn with fun.
Games naturally raise student motivation and can also change the idea of school which is sadly seen, too often, as a boring place.
The only recommendation is to tell students that playing is a very serious thing; it is amazing to have fun, but the point is still to learn something!
Have a look at our course if you wish to discover more about how to use games in the classroom.
One great idea is to get the students to create a quiz which is even more effective for their learning.
What if they are not motivated to create the quiz but just want to play it?
Launch a competition among classes about who will be able to create the best quiz!
PROGRAMS:
– Kahoot: this is the most famous online tool for education. If you’ve started to use it in your class, you’ve probably also heard your students asking to play more than once.
– Quizizz: a quiz that can be compared to Kahoot, less known but technically great, with a lot of options for questions and a really engaging meme feature.
Classification Of Teaching aids
Different list of teaching aids classified as follows:
- Traditional Teaching Aids: Traditional teaching aids include learning through Books, Periodicals, Blackboard etc.
- Visual Teaching Aids: Visual Teaching aids include posters, model, figure, chart, graph etc. It also includes graphics such as diagrams, cut-outs, globe, objects, cartoon, info-graphs, bulletin board, flannel board, picture, map and others.
- Mechanical Teaching Aids: Mechanical teaching aids include an Audio teaching machine, tape recorder, radio, motion picture, Projector, epidiascope, filmstrips.
- Audio-Visual Teaching Aids: This type of teaching aid includes video, Cassettes, Films, television, and others.
- Visual Material Teaching Aids: Outline charts, organization charts, tabular charts, flow charts etc. are also used in visual Material Teaching aids.
Conclusion
Online teaching is changing the way modern-day students are taught. It is still evolving, but it has come a long way since 1990. Many teachers and educators alike say online teaching tools have made their jobs, and of course, their lives as well, more convenient. The tools available have also sparked much curiosity on what online teaching means and what online teaching tools are in general.
Do you know the meaning of online teaching tools? Online learning is the key to success in today’s world. It offers an opportunity for every man, woman and child to develop educational skills at first class standards using the best educational tools. These tools include eLearning software, eLearning authoring tools, virtual classroom software and other such tools that will help you make your learning process more enjoyable.