Online teaching is an increasing common practice at present. The advantages of distance learning are great, but this has led to the development of many different online teaching apps. This article will discuss some of these different apps, and what they can offer you as an online student or teacher. If you have set out with the intention of taking up online learning, you may find this post to be very useful.
There are many ways of teaching online. It can be done through using the computer through Skype or by using portable devices like tablets and phones. There are so many educational apps out there, however, not all of them are useful for teachers. With this article, you will get to know about the different kinds of apps that can really help you get more students.
Apps and tools for teaching
1- Nearpod
The first app that proves ideal for livening up lessons, and made especially for teachers, is the one called Nearpod. This application allows teachers to present multimedia lessons that students can upload to their mobile devices. The Nearpod app is completely free and offers different layouts, which make it suitable for various teaching activities.
nearpod.com (ios) / nearpod.com (Android)
2- Viper (Windows)
The second app worth mentioning and proving suitable for teachers is the one called Viper. It is in fact a valid Windows application that contains ready-made themes which allow teachers to present them directly to pupils. In this app, students are also able to compare their work to understand how to write better by avoiding grammatical errors, paying more attention to syntax and typos.
viper.en.softonic.com (Windows)
3 – Attendance
The third app that proves effective for teachers, who have an Android device, is the one called Attendance. Teachers can use it to draw up a list of attendance in their various classes, and to help them keep track of the studies and classwork of each individual student. This app also allows a photo to be added to each name so that the teacher can better verify and follow the necessary information.
Attendance (Google Play)
4 – TooNoisy
The fourth app for teachers is a little bizarre, but in some ways useful; in fact, it is called TooNoisy. It was created to detect environmental noises and it can be used for both an Android device and with an iPhone in a classroom. This app specifically emits a beep when the aforementioned noise threshold is excessive. The main function of this app is dictated by the fact that students, themselves, can become more aware of how to behave, and regulate their behavior. It also helps students avoid the risk of punishment by a teacher or educational representative if they aren’t following the rules.
toonoisyapp.com (ios and Android available)
5 – ThingLink
The fifth app that a teacher can download for free from Google Play on his mobile device is the one called ThingLink which is used to keep students attentive during lessons. In addition, the app is useful for creating interactive images for teachers who intend to use them to better explain a topic or make concepts clearer to students who download it on their mobile device.
thinglink.com (Android)
Audience response
6 – AnswerGarden
With this free tool, teachers can ask their students a question which can be answered with a single word or short phrase. Responses are received through a web link, QR code, or AnswerGarden’s iOS app, and begin to populate on a display screen in a word cloud. The words that are submitted most often will appear as the largest in the cloud. This is a very handy tool to use for brainstorming activities with a group in the classroom.
answergarden.ch (ios)
7 – Poll Everywhere
The first company to offer an alternative to clickers, Poll Everywhere started as a service that allowed students to respond to a poll via text message. Now students can also respond through a web browser or through Poll Everywhere’s mobile app. Polls can be created using multiple-choice, ranking graphs, clickable images, and questions that include LaTeX syntax and alphabets from different world languages.
8 – Slido
With Slido, students can submit questions through a regular web browser using a unique event code. Questions which appear on the presenter’s screen can be upvoted by other participants, moving the most popular questions to the top. Once a question has been answered, the presenter or teacher can remove it from the queue. Slido also offers audiences polling with multiple-choice and word cloud options.
Book publishing’s apps
9 -Blurb
This site helps teachers create photo books with text that use templates for a variety of book types: cookbooks, children’s books, portfolios, memoirs, magazines, and more. Books can be kept in digital form or purchased as a paperback, a hardcover, a magazine, or an e-book. Printed books are not cheap; save this for something special.
10 – Book Creator
This flexible tool allows students of any age to create e-books. These books can contain photos, text, audio and video files, and even hand-drawn images, which are embedded in content like Google Maps or Flipgrid grids. Finished books can be shared through a link, downloaded as an EPUB, or even sold through iBooks and Google Play. Teachers can create classroom libraries, and the site has tons of resources and ideas for classroom use.
11 – Lulu
For student writers who want to publish their works, print-on-demand sites like Lulu are growing in popularity. By using this tool, authors upload manuscripts, which they can sell in print or as e-books through markets like Amazon. Authors are not charged a fee to publish, but when a book sells, Lulu earns back the cost of production plus a percentage of the profit, with the author keeping the rest.
12 – Storybird
Although this site is no longer free, it may be worth the price. Users can begin by browsing through a gallery of professional artwork until they find an inspiring image. When they find an image that interests them, they write a story or poem to accompany their chosen visual. Students can choose from a collection of images and build a picture book around them. The site also offers excellent resources for teachers, like writing lessons and private class settings.
13.Epic
It is a free educational app that helps teachers feed the curiosity of their students. Helping educators access countless books and resources, this app also helps to make lessons interactive and interesting. With specialized classroom tools and reports it makes teaching easy and engaging.
Features:
- Library of resources
- Special classroom tools and more
14.Trello
Trello is used by a number of educators to assign works and keep track of the projects and assignment submissions. In addition to this, it can be used for sharing study material and other resources. It is an easy to use app that is gaining popularity in the educators’ community.
Features:
- Easy drag and drop editing
- Quick access
- Archive if notes and records
- Quick file uploads and more
15.Tick Tick
It is an easy to use to-do list app. It helps teachers to stay on schedule. With an option to integrate calendars, it ensures that the teachers stay on top of their deadlines and activities. The simple structure of the app makes it all the more useful.
Features:
- Events and schedules in one place
- Calendar integration
- Quick access and more
16.TED
It is an amazing platform where a lot of teachers and educators share their stories and interesting lectures. Teachers can take inspiration from these and these can also be used as study material and resources for children. Though it does not fall under the exact definition of an educational app, it is one that’s worth tuning in to.
17.Zoom
With the onset of the global pandemic, there has been a marked increase in the number of people using Zoom for business meetings, team huddles, and Online Teaching. Zoom enables teachers to reach a large number of students. It is primarily a video conferencing app and does not have any LMS features and though some people complain about the security, it has helped a lot of teachers and students. Considering the fact that teachers have to use Google forms or other similar ways to circulate assignments and share other content, it is safe to say that it is not a holistic platform. As mentioned earlier, It is a video conferencing app and not designed for education as such. Nevertheless, the advantages cannot be sidelined.
Features:
- Video conferencing
- Quick access
- Schedule meetings
- Customize your background and more
18.Google Meet
Similar to Zoom, Google Meet is also primarily a video conferencing app. A huge amount of teachers and schools have resorted to using Google Meet for conducting their classes. It is a good platform for interacting with students and taking classes but lacks LMS features.
Features:
- Unlimited meetings
- Video conferencing
- Live capture
- Screen sharing
- Messaging and more
19.Remind
This is an app that can be used by teachers to send reminders to students and to engage with them. It helps teachers in building a strong classroom community that is inclusive of parents and students. This app can be used to keep students updated and parents informed about various improvements and happenings. It is a two-way communication app, so the students can reach out to the teacher when in need. This tool helps teachers in a lot of ways. The disadvantage being, there’s no option for live classes, it is just a messaging app.
Features:
- Quick messaging
- Schedule announcements ahead of time
- Group messages
- Content sharing
20.Kahoot
Kahoot is a tool that teachers can use to make their online classes more lively and engaging. Kahoot helps teachers to create educational games. Teachers just have to prepare a bunch of questions and enter the prepared questions and answers into the site to create an instantly playable game. This will help take the monotony out. Students will have to download the Kahoot app and use it as a buzzer while answering their teacher.
Features:
- Create games easily
- Sharing and organization
- Reports and analytics
- Host games using videos and reach students outside the classroom
Benefits of Applications for Teachers
Here are some of the major benefits of educational applications for teachers.
1.Saves Time
As mentioned earlier, taking classes online can pose a lot of difficulties and online teaching tools help ease the process. For instance, earlier, it used to take a lot of effort and time to create a presentation and add videos and images but now, with the help of tools like Animoto, it has become a lot easier. The same is the case with classroom management and resource sharing.
2.Student-Tutor Connect
An array of online teaching tools ensure that the connection and the rapport between teachers and students are not lost. Remind, for example, helps teachers to stay connected with their students. Teachmint is a holistic app that permits students to stay connected with their teachers and helps teachers make announcements, tests, and share study materials with their students.
3.Wide Reach
With the increase in online teaching tools, coaching classes, and tuition centers have the potential to reach a large multitude of students belonging to all walks of life. Contrary to the earlier method of teaching, where students from a specific locality chose the tuition center near to them, online methods work wonders for both teachers and students alike.
Things to Keep in Mind While Using Mobile Applications
There is a marked line of difference between online teaching and regular teaching.
- As teachers, you have to ensure that your connection does not get interrupted and that there is a backup plan in case of a sudden mishap. We have discussed in detail about this topic in one of our previous blogs, if you have not read it yet, read it here.
- Learn about the apps in detail, read reviews, and look at the ratings. Ensure that it is secure.
- Make sure that you read the privacy policy and terms and conditions before clicking on the “I agree” button.
- Make sure that your phone is not heating up and consuming a large amount of internet data while using the app. In a country like India, where the digital divide is prominent, ideally, we need apps that have been optimized for India. Try and find apps that don’t consume a lot of data.
- Do a thorough research. There are a lot of articles that talk about topics like “educational apps for teachers android’, “teaching apps for android” and likewise, read them.
With more and more fun online teaching tools coming into the market, teaching has become structured and interesting. Innovative techniques and strategies are employed by teachers so as to ensure that their students are engaged and are benefiting from the classes. Certain teaching apps for android are exceptional and has received much attention.
Conclusion
Since the advent of education online, great importance has been attached to different online teaching apps that help teachers to reach out to their students. Online education has become widely accepted among the student community, who are finding it easier to manage their time with these apps.