There’s a distinct phenomenon in the tech community: Massive amounts of fun and productivity. My team and I love the blend of creativity and development, and we work passionately day and night to create new tools for designers and developers. Today, we’re taking a step back to reflect on how far digital learning tools have come in the past five years, what’s changed over time, and where they are headed in the future.
The Most Popular Digital Education Tools For Teachers And Learners
Hundreds of digital education tools have been created to give autonomy to the student, improve the administration of academic processes, encouraging collaboration, and facilitating communication between teachers and learners. Here we present 11 of the most popular.
1. Edmodo
Edmodo is an educational tool that connects teachers and students and is assimilated into a social network. In this one, teachers can create online collaborative groups, administer and provide educational materials, measure student performance, and communicate with parents, among other functions. Edmodo has more than 34 million users who connect to create a learning process that is more enriching, personalized, and aligned with the opportunities brought by technology and the digital environment.
2. Socrative
Designed by a group of entrepreneurs and engineers passionate about education, Socrative is a system that allows teachers to create exercises or educational games which students can solve using mobile devices, whether smartphones, laptops, or tablets. Teachers can see the results of the activities and, depending on these, modify the subsequent lessons to make them more personalized.
3. Projeqt
Projeqt is a tool that allows you to create multimedia presentations, with dynamic slides in which you can embed interactive maps, links, online quizzes, Twitter timelines, and videos, among other options. During a class session, teachers can share with students academic presentations which are visually adapted to different devices.
4. Thinglink
Thinglink allows educators to create interactive images with music, sounds, texts, and photographs. These can be shared on other websites or social networks, such as Twitter and Facebook. Thinglink offers the possibility for teachers to create learning methodologies that awaken the curiosity of students through interactive content that can expand their knowledge.
5. TED-Ed
TED-Ed is an educational platform that allows creating educational lessons with the collaboration of teachers, students, animators—generally people who want to expand knowledge and good ideas. This website allows democratizing access to information, both for teachers and students. Here, people can have active participation in the learning process of others.
6. cK-12
cK-12 is a website that seeks to reduce the cost of academic books for the K12 market in the United States and the world. To achieve its objective, this platform has an open-source interface that allows creating and distributing educational material through the internet, which can be modified and contain videos, audios, and interactive exercises. It can also be printed and comply with the necessary editorial standards in each region. The books that are created in cK-12 can be adapted to the needs of any teacher or student.
7. ClassDojo
ClassDojo is a tool to improve student behavior: teachers provide their students with instant feedback so that good disposition in class is ‘rewarded’ with points and students have a more receptive attitude towards the learning process. ClassDojo provides real-time notifications to students, like ‘Well Done David!’ and ‘+1’, for working collaboratively. The information that is collected about student behavior can be shared later with parents and administrators through the web.
8. eduClipper
This platform allows teachers and students to share and explore references and educational material. In eduClipper, you can collect information found on the internet and then share it with the members of previously created groups, which offers the possibility to manage more effectively the academic content found online, improve research techniques, and have a digital record of what students achieved during the course. Likewise, it provides the opportunity for teachers to organize a virtual class with their students and create a portfolio where all the work carried out is stored.
9. Storybird
Storybird aims to promote writing and reading skills in students through storytelling. In this tool, teachers can create interactive and artistic books online through a simple and easy-to-use interface. The stories created can be embedded in blogs, sent by email, and printed, among other options. In Storybird, teachers can also create projects with students, give constant feedback, and organize classes and grades.
10. Animoto
Animoto is a digital tool that allows you to create high-quality videos in a short time and from any mobile device, inspiring students and helping improve academic lessons. The Animoto interface is friendly and practical, allowing teachers to create audiovisual content that adapts to educational needs.
11. Kahoot!
Kahoot! is an educational platform that is based on games and questions. Through this tool, teachers can create questionnaires, discussions, or surveys that complement academic lessons. The material is projected in the classroom and questions are answered by students while playing and learning at the same time. Kahoot! promotes game-based learning, which increases student engagement and creates a dynamic, social, and fun educational environment.
Enhancing Learning: Tools For The Digital Classroom
There is certainly no shortage of tech-based tools to use in the classroom. In this article we’ll examine some of the best, focusing specifically on those that are designed for encouraging, enhancing, and managing learning.
1. Socrative
Socrative professes to be “your classroom app for fun, effective classroom engagement”. In a nutshell, it is a cloud-based student response system, allowing teachers to immediately test student understanding by way of mini-quizzes, assigned to them on class laptops or tablets. Quizzes can be multiple choice, graded short answer, true-false, or open-ended short response. Socrative’s strength lies in its “on the fly” assessment method, providing teachers with valuable and timely feedback.
2. Scratch
Scratch is a simple, fun, and engaging introduction to programming, designed specifically for 8 to 16-year-olds. Users can combine music, graphics, and photos to create interactive games, animations, and slideshows. All of their creations are shareable with others in a student’s online community. It’s important to note that Scratch will really only teach programming concepts, not so much real, authentic programming.
3. Prezi
According to Prezi, “creating, giving, and tracking beautiful interactive presentations is as easy as 1,2,3” with their cloud-based presentation software. Prezi presentations are nothing like your traditional presentations; zooming in and out and moving side to side across one single, very attractive and modern canvas, focusing on images and videos inputted by the user. Prezi is very popular and consistently receives excellent reviews.
4. SelfCAD
SelfCAD is a free, cloud-based 3D CAD software package for students. It is incredibly easy to use, yet provides an authentic, ‘real world’ 3D design experience. Another notable feature— SelfCAD has teamed up with MyMiniFactory, to provide a database of already completed 3D printable designs, making thousands of 3D objects available for immediate 3D printing. All around, it is a very powerful and effective tool for learning in STEM, and several schools are getting on board.
5. Quizlet / Quizlet Live
Quizlet provides a platform for students and teachers to create and share their own learning materials, including flashcards and diagrams. Quizlet Live is the free in-class quiz game, produced by Quizlet, that can then bring these learning materials to life. In this engaging and interactive game, students must all contribute, stay focused and communicate well to win. Quizlet consistently receives excellent reviews and is a great way to bring study notes into the 21st century.
6. Google Classroom
Google Classroom is a powerful community-based social tool for learning. It allows students to post questions and receive answers from their teachers and fellow students. Furthermore, teachers can post intriguing questions and lesson materials for review at home. It can also be integrated with other Google products such as Google Forms, which can be a great way to get feedback from students.
7. Adobe Spark Video
Spark Video is part of the Adobe Spark suite. The application enables students to produce short, animated, narrated explainer videos. Students can easily add photos, video clips, icons, and voice, as well as professional-quality soundtracks and cinematic motion to their video creations. Video and vlog making is a great way to engage students creatively, and an ‘out of the box approach to class projects or reviewing learning materials.
8. Khan Academy
With Khan Academy you can literally learn anything; all for free. Lessons are presented by way of videos, interactive activities, and challenges. Learners also earn badges in line with their achievements and can save their progress to their own profile. Khan Academy is a great way to supplement your teaching, provide extra work to your gifted and talented students or help those who are struggling with certain content.
9. Seesaw
Seesaw is an easy-to-use learning portfolio application, enabling students to document, showcase and reflect on what they are learning at school. Work can be made accessible to parents as well. The collective monitoring of learning by students, teachers, and parents is a great way to motivate students, and the tool is incredibly popular with teachers.
10. Class Dojo
Class Dojo is a free classroom communication, community building, and behavior management application. A well-behaved student body is associated with better learning for everyone in the class as it minimizes distractions and improves student focus. Class Dojo enables teachers to not only track behavior and share this with parents, but also assign students tasks that build positive behavioral skills and traits.
20 Digital Tools for Classroom for Innovative Teachers & Students
1. Prezi
- suitable for students of all ages
- suitable for teachers
Prezi is a digital software for creating interactive presentations. According to their research, the innovative way in which Prezi helps you make presentations – by zooming, leads to more effective, more persuasive, more effective, and more engaging presentations compared to presentations made with PowerPoint. If you are still unaware of what you can do with the software, we strongly recommend that you check it out and present it to your students. Who knows, maybe this would be one of the digital tools for the classroom that would help you keep the attention of the kids.
2. Haiku Deck
- suitable for students and teachers
A digital tool with whose help you can easily make presentations on your iPad, iPhone, and on the web. The tool works online and offers a huge database of stock photos with which you can create image-based slides. Haiku Deck makes it easy to create presentations on the go and literally carry them in your pocket. Haiku Deck can be also integrated into Google Classroom which has been very popular lately. See a quick video of how Haiku Deck makes presentations fun and easy:
3. Scratch
- for students primarily between 8 and 16 years old
Although mainly purposed for students, Scratch can be used by people of all ages. This digital tool lets students create engaging projects like games, animations, interactive art, stories, and more. If your students have an interest in making programs, Scratch is definitely one of the digital tools for the classroom you have to introduce them to. This program would give the little ones a brilliant start to make them think innovatively and creatively.
4. Animoto
- suitable for students of all ages
- suitable for teachers
Video is one of the most engaging mediums of the modern-day which is why you should definitely incorporate it into your classroom. Animoto is one of the digital tools for the classroom that can be used by both teachers and students for educational purposes. Animoto helps you create animated videos easily. You can create photo slideshows, stitch various videos together, add text and more images to come up with a truly engaging video in the end.
5. Pixton
- suitable for students of all ages
Why make students write a story when they can draw it for a change? Digital tools for classrooms like Pixton boost the children’s visual thinking and creativity while it engages them to the fullest. This tool allows little and big students to make comics and storyboards. This activity can be both educational and fun. If you are an educator, you can try Pixton for free before introducing it to your kids. A perfect tool to boost the students’ imagination!
6. BoomWriter
- suitable for students of all ages
A great digital tool for collaborative writing. BoomWriter is suitable for children of all ages but especially for the little ones who are still reluctant to write. BoomWriter encourages students to write a story together by voting for each person’s version of the story.
7. Explain Everything
- suitable for educators and upper-class students
Explain Everything is all about interaction in a virtual environment. This digital tool allows students and teachers to collaborate on an interactive whiteboard thus encouraging group activities. This software can also be integrated with Schoolwork, Dropbox, Evernote, GDrive, OneDrive, and more useful apps. With the drag-and-drop options, Explain Everything is super easy and intuitive to work with.
8. Educreations
- suitable for educators and upper-class students
As an interactive whiteboard and screencasting tool, Educreations is an alternative to Explain Everything. Educreations allow you to explain any kind of concept in an interactive digital environment which means you can teach and learn from anywhere. The app allows you to approach each student individually by replaying their work and allowing them to learn at their own pace.
9. Glogster
- suitable for students of all ages
- suitable for teachers
Glogster is one of the amazing digital tools for the classroom which helps children learn by using visual content. This app allows you to create multimedia posters by combining text information, photos, and videos. The creations are called glogs and stored in a special library called Glogpedia. Containing over 40 thousand different blogs on various subjects and topics, this tool can become one of your most trusted tools for teaching children effectively.
10. Flipsnack
- suitable for students and educators
11. Padlet
- suitable for the whole class to use
Padlet is a digital pinboard that allows participants (students and teachers) to contribute by pinning different images, videos, text files, links, and more. Digital tools for classrooms like Padlet motivate students to work together and brainstorm like a team. You can customize the background to a corkboard, blackboard, wood, sand, and many more options, the layout to a grid, stream, or freeform, as well as control who has access t
12. VoiceThread
- suitable for K-12 students
VoiceThread is a great digital tool that can be used in the classroom in many ways, especially to practice the students’ oral language. VoiceThread is basically an app for presentations and storytelling which actually records the student talking. This way, the students can practice their speaking skills while building confidence and allows teachers to assess their work. Here is a demonstration video made by a teacher who uses VoiceThread for educational purposes. She also gives ideas of how other teachers can use VoiceThread with their class.
13. StoryJumper
- suitable for K-12 students
A great tool that boosts the imagination of the children. StoryJumper is an app for creating storybooks by using writing and illustrating skills. StoryJumper is certainly one of the digital tools for the classroom which inspires a passion for reading and writing. Moreover, this digital tool allows for the collaboration of multiple students on a single storybook. Students collaborating on a storybook can video chat which makes StoryJumper great for group projects. Here is a great tutorial on how to create a storybook with StoryJumper.
14. Storybird
- suitable for K-9 students
Storybird is a great digital tool for writing stories in a visually appealing way, thus motivating students to write and read stories. Storybird uses artwork to inspire people to write. Of course, there are various types of stories that engage differently aged students. There are picture books for students K-5, chapter books for students Grades 5-9, and poetry for everyone. This app develops the ability of the brain to connects words and images.
15. Quizlet
- suitable for students of all ages
A great app that can come in very handy for students of all ages. By using flashcards, games, and more fun activities, Quizlet allows students to learn a subject and assess themselves. Everyone can create their own study set or choose an already existing study set. Quizlet even lets you study on the go, so students can learn and test their knowledge from literally everywhere.
16. Socrative
- for educators
Socrative is one of the digital tools for the classroom that will help you assess your students and get immediate insight into students’ knowledge. At the same time, using Socrative is fun for you and your students, so basically, they can have fun while taking a test! You can launch various types of assessments and follow the results in real-time.
17. Edmodo
- for students, teachers, and parents
Edmodo is an Education Network which teachers, students, and parents can join. Edmodo provides a digital classroom environment and gives you access to many resources. At first sight, it pretty much looks like the social media networks we know, so you will intuitively understand what, where, and how to join groups and communities, and collaborate with other users in the network. Edmodo allows you to create a digital classroom where you can invite your students and even start sending digital assignments.
18. Schoology
- for students, teachers, and parents
Schoology is a learning management system that is free to use and it allows teachers to create and distribute materials, give assessments, track progress, etc. Basically, with Schoology, you can do everything that you do in Google Classroom, plus more features. You can organize content much more easily, embed multimedia within the assignment description, record audio or video within the platform, have a grade book, set completing rules, and many more.
19. Piktochart
- suitable for students and teachers
Piktochart is a great digital tool that can be used by both educators and students for various educational purposes. This tool allows you to create infographics, presentations, posters, and more visual materials. It is perfect for a classroom activity, as well as a home activity. They offer special plans for education teams of more than 25 people which is basically the category where you and your students fall into.
20. Visme
- suitable for students and educators
One of the great digital tools for classrooms which provide educators and students with tools to create infographics, presentations, reports, and more visual content materials. Visme provides all kinds of templates and graphic resources to help visualize any kind of data or assignment. You can insert videos, make animations, insert links, etc.
Conclusion
Digital technology is changing the way classrooms are being taught. It’s no longer just showing up on time with a notebook to take notes. Digital learning tools today have made our communication seamless and efficient. I believe these tools will help teachers to be able to better understand their students, and give them opportunities they may have not been exposed to before.