When I was a student, it was frowned upon at the very least to use electronic devices such as smartphones or tablets in class. But now, ed tech tools is becoming a vital part in teaching and learning. Many teachers have successfully integrated technology in education every day to facilitate classroom learning and help students stay engaged. In fact, some of these educational apps have even been created by school teachers themselves!
In this EdTech Series, I will list down and define new education technology tools that you can use in your classroom. With so many things vying for our attention, I will try to include only those that are tried, tested, useful and FREE!
Presentations
PowerPoint has become the default software when it comes to digital presentations. Being the most common type of slideshow presentation tool, many teachers prefer to use it. Why not, it is easy to use and it has a lot of handy features that make presentations simple.
Check out these PowerPoint alternatives available online for FREE!
ASSESSMENT
Formative assessments don’t need to bore you and students out! If you want to get your students engaged in the lessons and turn the fun mode on in class or even at home, these web tools are for you! These are the latest quiz, survey and poll builders that I constantly use in my classroom to liven up my warm ups, quizzes and reviews! They raise the energy level of my classes to the highest level – every time!
11 useful tools for making quizzes, homework, surveys and polls that every teacher should try in their classroom!
Classroom Activities
The Internet is loaded with tools that can enable teachers to bring a sense of fun and engagement to their lessons. However, it is important to seamlessly incorporate these activities into the lesson and not force yourself to use them only for the sake of using technology.
Here are some ideas for leveraging technology in the classroom to kick your lessons up a notch!
Vocabulary Game Generators
Easy-to-use vocabulary games generators! I am talking about easy-to-use, free ed tech tools where teachers can easily create vocabulary games for review or warm up activities. I chose these websites because they focus only on one or two games thus they are specialized, very user-friendly and so convenient to use that you will be done making your games in seconds!
ONLINE PUZZLE MAKERS
Let your students create their vocabulary puzzles in different styles and formats! There are many types of word puzzles for all ages including adults! I like the fact that I can have a number of different unique word puzzles created to printout on the same topic. So when we are studying a topic in English, say “Family and Friends”, I can print out six different sets then split the class into six groups and give them each a unique puzzle to solve.