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Professional Development Opinion

Fall Into Tech Tools: 7 Tools to Engage Learners

By AAEE — October 06, 2015 2 min read
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Want to impress the interviewer when you get asked the question, “How do you engage learners with technology?” - why not give one of these technology tools a try?

Below are seven teacher tested and student approved engaging technology tools to try out in your classroom.

Tech tool

Website

Description

Gynzy

//www.gynzy.com/

If you have an interactive whiteboard, specifically a Smartboard, then you need Gynzy. This FREE tool allows you to search through already created content based on subject area or grade level. This website includes access to content in language arts, math, science, and social studies for grades K-8. It also includes some classroom management tools such as a time function, scoreboard, and a traffic light.

Quizizz

//quizizz.com/

Jazz up your next formative assessment with this engaging multiplayer quizzing tool. With this tool, you can search for already created quizzes or make your own. You can customize quiz questions and time limits for each question ranging from 30 seconds to 5 minutes. You can even personalize with images. This is a fantastic tool for differentiating the product for students. Once you create your quiz you can have students join the game to play live as a large group or during small group/individual instruction.

Peardeck

//www.peardeck.com/

Did you ever have a student get ahead of you on a PowerPoint presentation? With Peardeck, that will never happen again. This tool allows students to follow along with you as you go through your presentation. It also allows you to input questions for formative assessment. You can upload already created PowerPoints, Google slides, or pdfs and customize the presentation. When you are finished you can download the results from each student. It is a great way to assess prior knowledge on a topic or get feedback on how students are doing with a concept.

Plickers

//www.plickers.com/

This tool is a website and an app for Android and iOS. It is a nice tool if your classroom has limited technology resources. First, you provide students with specific barcodes (they look like QR codes).Then you assign each code to a student. Once each student is assigned a code you input questions/responses into the Plickers site. Next you ask the questions and students hold up their codes. Depending on which way they are holding the code it relates to a response (A, B, C, or D). Then you simply open the app on your device and scan the room with the app. Once all codes are scanned, you obtain real time results from students.

Kahoot

//getkahoot.com/

This tool offers already-made games on a variety of topics and grade levels, so you don’t have to recreate the wheel. It also allows you to create your own game. A neat feature about this tool is that it has a competitive side. The fastest and correct student gets the most points. At the end of each question, a leaderboard shows up that has the top 5 students. This tool is a dynamic tool to use in any classroom.

Ted Ed

//ed.ted.com/

Are you a fan of Ted Talks? Well, Ted Ed offers educational ted talks complete with already created assessment and discussion points related to the video. You can even create your own lesson on TED ED with personalized assessment and discussion points embedded into the learning experience.

Twitter

//twitter.com

Social media makes for an engaging and interesting way to teach professionalism, research, crowd sourced information and keep students engaged after class.

Dr. Samantha Fecich, Assistant Professor & Instructional Technologist

Andrew Jones, Student (Senior Biology Major)

Grove City College, Grove City, Pennsylvania

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