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The pandemic changed the trend of learning in a classroom. It veered us from the physical to the virtual world. The virtual world came with its challenges of understanding, shredded transparency, and a not so interactive mode of operation, especially between students and teachers. Some students were able to adapt better to this new transition, while others including teachers did not. Technology not just brought complications along but also solutions. Learning was made easy as more and more issues were addressed and changes were made accordingly. Many tech tools for teachers were made for their convenience so that students could participate actively in the classroom discussions and not feel bored or tired sitting and listening to what the teacher had to say, which was quite monotonous for teachers as well as students.
Tech Tools for teachers in 2021
Kahoot
It is a participative forum that can transform traditional classroom-style hand-raising into a fun activity, a game that the whole class can relish. Kahoot allows active participation by the students, thus boosting their confidence and making the online learning experience an entertaining one. It is an excellent platform for distance learning or any sort of interpersonal activity. The site has pre-made content for the users, they just have to participate in the already constituted content. They can do group work, assignments, and many other activities that include teamwork.
Mine craft education edition
It can help students learn and boost their mathematics skills, along with practice papers for STEM stream students. It has a variety of learning lessons for both teachers and students. The concepts are simplified to make students understand better. It is a platform that allows students to bring their knowledge to the table, and play games alongside, engaging them more in the learning process and making the entire method fun. It allows students to participate actively and maintain their interests.
PearDeck
It is an excellent tool, integrated with Google slides to include direct instructions for maximum and engaged student participation. Teachers can include sound effects and gifs in the slides to make the learning material interesting and intriguing for students. Learning is better when done in a student-friendly manner, with better audio and visual effects, and hence, this tool is the best to make education better and more interactive in the online session.
Storybird
It is an excellent tool to narrate amazing stories and tales of the forgotten times to playgroup kids. Stories have always been an integral part of every child’s childhood, and if technology is contributing to bringing more stories in the house, why say no? This tool has picture books to comics to poetry to novels to take you back to the good old times of anecdotes, making it the most loving and widespread tool on the internet among children and adults.
Google Expedition and Virtual Tools
It is yet another amazing learning tool available online to provide an exquisite travel experience even when we are sitting inside. It is also capable of teleporting students back to ancient times, thus making them get to know the subject from the roots and fall for it. This tool has exclusively helped children and teachers to make the online experience a fascinating and impressive one.
Headspace
It is an outstanding technical tool to de-stress and focus the brains of students as well as teachers. It contains guided meditation clips to help people explore the world of peace and provide reflection on their activities. Headspace has numerous mindful activities to offer to maintain the clarity of mind and keep it focussed. This tool has made people more aware of their mental health.
Edpuzzle
It is an amazing tool to create visual content that is videos by the teachers to be referred to at any time by the students. It is helpful in times of coming up with solutions to questions in the form of videos, making it easier for students to understand better.
Tynker
It is a computer science education website. It has wide-ranging coding lessons making it easier for students to access the learning material from a single platform. Teachers also love using it because it has fun events like Hour of Code to help computer science and STEM stream students.
Anchor
It is a class lessons podcast. Podcasts have taken over the world of videos that can be studied or listened to with the click of a button. It is a free podcasting tool that can be utilized by students to understand the semantics of a subject better virtually.
Prodigy
It is the most widespread software application used by students when it comes to learning mathematics. It makes even the laziest bunch of students excited and makes them practice the subject more. Teachers can use this app for better mathematics learning activities. They can also track students’ progress.
AllSides
It is a fact-checking website to bring out bias-free, factual information. Fake news has a way to creep in via social media platforms. The information can be checked and corroborated easily using AllSides. Contemporary issues can be better understood by students and will help them to understand the wider picture.
PollEverywhere
It is the best platform for rapid-fire contests that can be held after each class to make students concentrate during the teaching lessons. This can be used as a quizzing platform for kids.
TedEd
TedEd provides motivational and inspirational talks to keep the class environment motivated. It covers a plethora of subjects ranging from inspiration to academics to sports to movies to technology to life crises situations in the lives of people. It has increased the knowledge of a lot of people. The horizons of the brain can be widened with the help of TedEd.
YouTube
It is the most widely used social media platform for learning by students. It has varied content. From subject knowledge to current affairs, everything is available on a single platform, making it a favorite of students as well as teachers.
Widespread reliance on technology has made numerous resources available to us, but finding the right one becomes all the way more critical for students. The above-mentioned tech tools can help teachers and students to confront such issues.
Also read: Reviewing the Tools that Make Online Education Tick
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Is it necessary to use all the resources at once or one or two resources would do?
Ans. You can choose which tech resource to use according to your requirements. Using all the tech tools may confuse you. Use the one which is required to address your problem better.
2. How reliable are the above-mentioned tech tools?
Ans. All of them are extremely reliable. They are user-friendly and can help understand things better.
3. Is it true that YouTube alone has taken over all the study material available online?
Ans. YouTube has amazing and various learning videos but to say it is the best out there is a mistake. You must try checking other tech tools to just get a glimpse of other resources as well.
