Top 20 Education Technology Tools for Teachers in 2015

http://reachingteachers.com.au

PRESS RELEASE

For immediate release

As teachers, we may often feel as if dealing with our workload is like trying to keep our head above the rising tide. It has lulls and it has its moments of frantic activity, but what’s most tiring is how any free time can’t be enjoyed in the dread of the upcoming piles of lesson plans, tests to grade, student performance to evaluate, and to find new ways of improving learning outcomes as the parents and the administration demand.

But does it have to be this way? Teachers have long struggled with the sheer lack of hours in the day and the budget for tools make lessons truly memorable and effective for students. Teachers do not need to solve everything alone, however. Now there are new apps, websites and online education technology tools that can help educators organize classroom activities, automate workflows, and encourage student involvement in civic affairs.

Here are twenty of the most useful new apps, websites and online communities for teachers this 2015.

Learning resources

• HowStuffWorks
  The website hosts thousands of topics with video and illustrations to allow anyone learn more about how everything works. Find answers on everything from “What if we had no Moon?” to “How does bug spray work?” and other interesting questions that will get your students interested in expanding their breadth of knowledge.

• Exploratorium
  San Francisco’s Museum of Science, Art and Human Participation, Exploratorium has a website with plenty of links to fun online science activities.

• Hippocampus
  The Monterey Institute for Technology and Education provides a voluminous free selection of multimedia content on general education subjects to high school and college students.

• Fun Brain
  An online games portal with a focus on games that have educational value. Teachers can find games and curriculum teaching aids that will help with whatever subject matter.

• Cool Math
  Here you’ll find an extensive collection of educational games making the learning of math fun for all ages. It also contains activity templates and suggestions for teachers and parents about encouraging good study habits.

• Spelling City
  Free vocabulary, spelling, writing, and other language learning games for all ages. It also offers a mobile app for easier access to its teaching resources on the go.

• MusicTheory
  Free animated lessons, exercises and tools for instructing the fundamentals of music in a quick, easy-to-use website. Also provides mobile apps for offline access.

• Raz Kids
  The site provides a full reading curriculum course with hundreds of animated audio books, interactive quizzes, and detailed online assessments for teachers and parents about particular reading skills.

• Scholastic Kids Press Corps
  News by kids for kids, it encourages students to learn reporting, express themselves better, and for teachers to involve current events into their teaching. Students get to establish themselves

• iCivics
  Teaches students about civics and encourages them to participate in democracy by playing the role of the president and the government.

• Collaborize Classroom
  A free online collaborative platform that enhances classroom instruction with the ability to set up discussions, upload resources, launch projects, and creates automatic reports and student portfolios that make grading easier.

• Weebly
  A free and easy way for teachers and students to create a classroom site and blog to connect with students and parents about their scholastic activities. Students can also sign up for free and create free sites of their own.

• Challenge Yourself to Blog
  This site challenges and instructs students to create and blog and develop a world-wide audience, and to be inspired and inspire others by showing what they can do instead of just limiting the results of the projects to their teacher and classmates.

• Scratch
  MIT’s colorful drag-n-drop programming language teaches kids about basic conditional logic and programming concepts and invites them and teachers to create interactive stories, music, games, and online art.

• Schoology
  A learning management system that makes online education a collective effort by empowering teachers to share and collaborate on any device. It provides website and cloud hosting, course templates and shared resources, and social media features.

• Edmodo
  With 42 million teachers, students and parents, it is a collaboration hub that provides customized online classrooms and connects teachers to share their methods for improved learning outcomes.

• Epic Ed Community
  This community assists and empowers educators, technology facilitators and school administrations as they undergo the digital transition within their schools and districts.

• Computing ++
  This site helps teachers learn and teach about computing and computer science problem-solving methods.

• Lifepulp
  Become inspired by this social networking site that aims to help individuals better their lives and reach their goals through its assembly of motivational and inspirational content. Find real-life stories and advice to lift you up when things start to seem overwhelming.

• PLP Network
  A community that concerns itself with Problem-based Learning and fostering initiative and inquiry learning from students, they present a collection of connected learning practices that can be applied immediately into the classroom.

 

Can you think of any not included in this list? Post your comments below so all teachers can be more effective!

Emily Ko is a primary school teacher, co-founder of http://ReachingTeachers.com.au, and a regular contributor to top education sites around the world.

Follow her on twitter at @reach_teachers!

About Reaching Teachers

Reaching Teachers is Australias busiest teachers marketplace where teachers can buy and sell K-12 teaching resources.

For press contact:

Andrew Carmody
Digital Habitat
Andrew [at] digitalhabitat [dot] asia