Tools

Here are the tools we investigated during the course plus some others that you might find useful:

Flipgrid

Create and post short videos. Have an online conversation by responding to a video with a video.

Socrative

A student response tool similar to clickers, but easier. Use for formative assessment, quizzing, and adding interactivity to lectures.

EdPuzzle

Make watching a video an interactive experience. Pause videos for questions, reflection, noting key points. Assess students' learning and engagement.

Screencast-O-Matic

Create a screencast with narration and video

Google Slides

Collaborate to create and present a slide deck.

Backchannel Chat

Useful for outer circle participants in a Socratic seminar fishbowl activity.

Piazza

A discussion tool that encourages students to ask and answer each other’s questions.

Padlet

Padlet is built for collaboration. It’s a pinboard, a whiteboard, a drawing canvas, a screen recorder and more.

BitPaper

BitPaper centers on a collaborative whiteboard, but it also has audio, video, chat, and screen sharing.

OneNote Class Notebook

Students and educators can sign up for Office 365 for education for free. One fantastic tool you get with it is OneNote class notebook.

Perusall

Invented at Harvard, Perusall encourages students to do assigned readings by making reading a social experience via shared annotations.

VoiceThread

Create a voice discussion around a video or other content. They don’t make it obvious that there’s a free version but you can get it here.

TedEd

Build a lesson around any TED Talk or YouTube video.

Playposit

Like EdPuzzle. Can trim videos, add pauses for questions and reflection.

Kahoot

A response system like Socrative. Has more game options.

Quizlet

Create question and answer sets, then let students use them to study and practice in different ways, including by playing games.

Adobe Spark

Create web pages, short videos, and graphics.

SpeakPipe

Easily create an audio recording and share it.

Wakelet

A curation tool. You can use it to share resources with students or you can have students do the curating as part of an assignment.

Peardeck

A response system like Socrative. This one integrates with the PowerPoint or Google slides you’ve already made.

Infogram

Create beautiful infographics, presentations, and reports.

Visme

Create beautiful infographics, presentations, and reports.

Canva

Create beautiful infographics, presentations, and reports.

PBWorks for Education

Students collaborate to create wikis. I prefer this to the Blackboard tool because it lives on after the course.

Google Sites

Create a website or have your students collaborate to create one.

Blogger

Students create their own blogs or collaborate on a class blog. An alternative to the Blackboard tool.

Explain Everything

Create Khan Academy style whiteboard tutorials with this IOS App. Records and creates a link.