Through blogging and working with ed tech companies, I come across a large number of educational tools. To help make things easier for myself and others, I have created top 10 lists, curated lists on Pinterest and Edshelf, and also created digital books. However, I always wanted to create a bucket list if I was starting in a new district/school etc. Hopefully, people will find this list useful and perhaps a nice way to save districts money.
Web 2.0 Sites
- 9 Slides - A fantastic site for adding narration or video to a wide variety of presentations.
- 19 Pencils - A great free site for teachers to curate the web and find resources to add to a customized class web page.
- Animoto - One of the most popular sites for education for creating stunning videos and presentations.
- Biteslide - A wonderful free site with educational portal for students to create digital scrapbooks and projects.
- BoomWriter - An amazing site for students to create digital books in a safe/secure environment. These books are then published and can be ordered. Also, has an educational portal where teachers can create classes and student accounts.
- ClassBadges - A new site for teachers to award digital badges for student accomplishments.
- ClassDojo - A terrific web 2.0 site for teachers to manage student behavior in a fun innovative way.
- Edshelf - A wonderful site for finding, curating, and reviewing educational web tools.
- Glogster EDU - One of the most popular Web 2.0 sites around for creating interactive posters/projects with educational portal.
- Kidblog - A safe secure way for students to create and learn how to blog.
- MentorMob - An innovative site for curating the web into learning playlists to help support guided learning.
- Meograph - A new site for four dimensional digital storytelling.
- PowToon - A fantastic new site for creating stunning animated presentations.
- SpellingCity - The best site around with an educational portal for teachers to create vocabulary and spelling lists for students and integrate them into educational games.
- VoiceThread - Might be the most popular Web 2.0 site around, ideal for digital storytelling.
Educational iOS Apps
- The Answer Pad - An amazing web tool and iPad app for capturing and assessing student data.
- Brainstormer - A great iOS app for brainstorming in a visual way that is ideal for generating writing prompts and more.
- Doceri - The perfect all-in-one solution for the iPad that allows teachers/students to create on an interactive whiteboard then record/screencast.
- Educreations - A great free app/web tool to find and create video lessons.
- Experience Life - A beautiful interactive iPad app that is ideal for learning about the different systems inside the body. Great for MS/HS Science/Biology teachers.
- FluencyFinder - The best iOS Reading Assessment app for teachers. Ideal for grades 1st-8th with instant real-time feedback as well. New updates will include questions for Reading Comprehension.
- Go Class - A excellent and robust web tool/iPad app for teachers to create lessons on an iPad and share with their students as well as track student progress for instant feedback.
- The Grading Game - A fun iOS app to help strengthen one's grammar and writing skills.
- Level It Books - The perfect iOS app for scanning a book barcode to get a reading level.
- Nearpod - One of the best all-in-one solutions for the iPad that helps teachers engage and share presentations with students.
- Sentence Builder - A iOS app for elementary school students to help build/strengthen their grammar/writing skills.
- Show Me - A great free iPad app for creating and recording tutorials/lessons.
- Story Patch - A fantastic iPad app for digital storytelling that teaches the different parts of a story.
- Teachers Tech - A wonderful iOS app for teachers to find "how to" tutorials/videos on educational Web 2.0 technologies.
- Timeline Maker - A great iPad app for creating timelines.
- Toontastic - One of my favorite free iPad apps to use with kids to create to digital stories.
Digital Videos in the Classroom
While there are a number of paid solutions for finding educational videos, such as Discovery Streaming (United Streaming) or BrainPOP, there are a number for excellent free solutions as well.
- Backpack TV - A new site for finding educational videos on a wide variety of subjects.
- Explania - A great site for finding educational and instructional animated videos.
- Knowmia - A fantastic place to create and find 1000s of educational lessons.
- Mobento - A terrific place to find educational videos with the added ability to search for spoken words inside a video.
- Neok12 - One of the best places to find educational videos, lessons, and games.
- WatchKnowLearn - A great free site similar to Discovery Streaming for finding educational K-12 videos.
- YouTube Teachers - YouTube offers a educational portal for teachers for finding educational videos.
Images for Education
- 3D Toad - A new site for finding interactive educational 3D images.
- Humanline - A terrific new site for finding royalty free educational images.
- Pics4Learning - One of the most popular places for finding images to use in education.
Search Engines
Students browsing the internet for information can be a very tricky issue when having to deal with CIPA/COPPA compliance. That's why a lot of schools use a paid solution such as Nettrekker or something like that. However, there are some nice free alternatives that can be used in a school setting.
- KidRex - A safe search engine for kids powered by Google.
- Sweet Search - My favorite safe search engine to use by students.
- Top Marks - A nice place to find educational web content.
Content Management Systems
There are a ton of paid CMS solutions that are ideal for education such as Blackboard. However, this can get rather expensive for most districts. Here are some nice free alternatives that are being used in schools throughout the world.
- Edmodo - A free CMS/Social Network combined into one, made just for education.
- Moodle - Probably the most popular free CMS used in schools.
Mobile Phones in Education
- Cel.ly - A great way to use phones in education such as taking notes, messaging, and more.
- Remind101 - A safe/secure way to text message students and parents.
- SendHub - A fantastic secure way to send group messages to staff, students, and parents.
Educational Online Games
Due to the vast number of educational sites for games, I've provide a link to my Pinterest board: http://pinterest.com/dkapuler/educational-online-games/.
David Kapuler is an educational consultant with more than 10 years of experience working in the K-12 environment. For more information about his work, contact him at dkapuler@gmail.com and read his blog at cyber-kap.blogspot.com.
