Free Online Tools

If your district has identified a particular learning management system for your move the online learning, please make sure that you follow their suggestions for implementation. There are many different options, so we are sharing some of the most popular resources for learning management systems where you may choose to 'warehouse' and share your lessons and materials with your learners.

• Google Classroom & GSuite for Education - Google has also created a Teach from Home resource

  • Did you know that Google Classroom can be accessed on XBox and Playstation?

• Canvas (This link is to the instructor guide)

• Schoology (This link is "Getting Started on Schoology for Instructors")

• SeeSaw

• Teams via Microsoft Office365

Assessments and quizzes can be both formative and summative. One of the 'perks' of digital assessment is that they can often score themselves. The following tools can be used for creating online quizzes and assessments

• Google Forms

• Formative

• TeacherMade for Converted PDFs

• Doc Hub for Editable PDFs

• KamiApp for Editable PDFs

• Kahoot

• Your Learning Management System's Assessment Creator

There are several ways to offer direct instruction to your students. Consider if you're going to offer your direct instruction synchronously or asynchronously. Do you need to record yourself and hold up notes to your webcam or will a screencast suffice? Try to be the same personable educator in the classroom and include your face for you students - regardless of whether you are recording yourself (asynchronous) or hosting a webinar or livestream (synchronous). Try to include a written script of your video for accessibility and/or upload it to YouTube so that it can be easily closed-captioned.

• Zoom (synchronous)

• Livestreaming (synchronous)

• How to Upload a Video to Youtube Tutorial (asynchronous)

• Google slides (with audio - asynchronous)

• Screencastify (asynchronous)

  • Screencasting Tutorial for Screencastify

• Loom (asynchronous)

  • Screencasting Tutorial for Loom

• Nearpod (synchronus and asynchronous)

Used to using a document camera with your students. IPEVO has a free solution that uses your cellphone to function as the document camera. There are two pieces:

• For your computer: Download Visualizer

• For your phone: Download iDocCam

Note that both your phone and computer must be on the same network. Open both and choose the camera from your phone and then use it as a document camera. If you are using a web conferencing solution, share your screen and choose Visualizer. Then use the phone as your document camera.

Finally, look for ways to mount your phone.

Here are some tools to help explain things to students and have students explain their understanding to you:

• Explain Everything (Freemium - 3 boards free)

• Flipgrid

• Google JamBoard (Free)

• IPEVO - See Document Camera above

• Padlet

• Remind

There are several ways to host games which may engage your students to review material or test their knowledge both asynchronously and synchronously. You can host gimkit review games while holding a synchronous meeting, or other games allow you to assign the game so students can play at any time on their own. Many of these tools have banks of games or flashcards that have already been created which you can modify and repurpose for online learning. These are a few resources you can use to help you build games:

• Gimkit (synchronous)

• Quizlet Digital Flashcards (asynchronous)

• Quizzizz (synchronous or asynchronous)

• Kahoot (synchronous or asynchronous)

If you're trying to build discussion, there are several tools to you can use. Some use video, while others use text. Consider the tools your students will have available to be involved in discussion. You can hold discussion while hosting a Zoom Webinar, but the following tools allow you to have students engage in discussion asynchronously.

• Flipgrid

• Backchannel

• Parlay

• NowComment

• Google Slides & Google Docs

• Google Classroom (Questions)

• Twist

• Also consider the ability to use discussion boards in your district's learning management system of choice.

One of the more challenging areas, especially for science educators, may be putting your labs online. Here are a few resources to help you with those labs.

• PhET Simulations

• Biology Simulations

Often, we would like students to read and respond to something. First, look in the content resources to see if the reading and response you plan to assign may already exist in a robust content resource such as CommonLit, NewsELA, or Discovery Education. If not, you can build read & respond activities with these tools:

• Google Docs

• Google Forms

• Actively Learn

When it comes to research, it is often helpful to curate a list of resources for your students. If you have a learning management system, you can probably share links there. Make sure you're curating and not dumping! There are other ways to curate a list of links for students to explore. Consider whether or not students and caregivers will need to print the materials. If that is the case, consider using a link-sharing tool like bit.ly to make sure the address of materials is accessible from another device like a smart phone.

• Wakelet

• Google Docs

• Bit.ly

• Nearpod

It is important to set up a protocol or set of norms for student questions. What will be the best way for them to submit questions to you? Email? Weekly Zoom meetings? Here are a few other digital tools you can use to allow students to ask questions which will allow you to keep the answers public (so you're not answering the same question repeatedly). Think about these tools as a way to build a set of FAQs.

• Google Forms & Google Sheets

• Google Docs

• Using your LMS of choice to setup a discussion area for questions in each module/lesson.

Sometimes, we want to insure students are really watching what we need them to in order to understand content. This may be a screencast you've taken using the tools listed in direct instruction or a YouTube TED talk on a topic pertaining to your content. This tool will allow you to embed questions into those videos as you assign them to students:

• EdPuzzle

• Google Forms

• How to Upload a Video to Youtube Tutorial

  • Screencasting Tutorial for Screencastify

  • Screencasting Tutorial for Loom

There are several ways to move student reflection and worksheets online. As always, consider the importance of the worksheet before moving it online. Check to see if there is already created practice by searching your content areas if the worksheet is meant to allow students to practice their skills.

• Flipgrid for Reflection

• Google Docs

• Google Forms

• TeacherMade for Converted PDFs

• Doc Hub for Editable PDFs

• KamiApp for Editable PDFs

• Floop for Feedback

When you have your students writing online, consider what kind of writing, and the amount of writing you'd like them to do when choosing your tool:

• Google Docs

• Google Form (for submitting a paragraph response or a few sentences)

• Google Slides (for sharing writing - assign each student a slide to type their thoughts in a shared slide deck)