Wednesday, August 04, 2010

15 Free Tech Tools for Teachers



The web is a great place for teachers to find tech tools for use inside and outside the classroom. There are now dozens of sites that offer free course authoring tools, tutorial and quiz makers, blogging platforms, gradebooks, and social applications that have been designed with the teacher in mind. Here are 15 free tech tools to explore in your spare time.



- More than 70,000 teachers use this site to share tutorials, teach classes online, and build visibility in the education community. WiZiQ also makes it easy to create and grade tests online and find students to teach.



- LearnCentral is an Elluminate site where teachers can connect and share with other educators. The site can also be used to create free courses, host live web conferences, and listen to previously recorded lectures and meetings.



- K-12 teachers can open a free web academy on Sclipo. The academy can include an online library, tutorials for students, online courses, and other learning materials.



- This free e-learning authoring tool can be used to create media-rich online courses. CourseLab also works well for creating assessments, quizzes, exams, surveys, libraries, and demonstrations.



- BookBuilder is a unique online tool that allows users to create and publish free digital books. The site would work well for any teacher interested in making original textbooks and other classroom reading materials.



- Vyew can be used to create an instant collaborative workspace online--no downloads required. Registered users can give live presentations, meet with multiple people in real-time, upload course content, or collaborate on documents.



- This free open source software provides the tools needed to create your own social networking environment. Created environments can include microblogging-style conversations, targeted message systems, and more.



- Created for education use, this blogging platform provides a space for teachers and students to practice their blogging skills online. The free version of Edublogs allows users to create private posts and pages with text, audio, and images.



- Edmodo is a free and private social platform for classrooms. Platform applications include a messaging service, a class calendar, a place to store and share files, assignment and grading capabilities, mobile access, and much more.



- This online classroom community makes web-based tools freely available to teachers and school systems. Tools include an online assignment calendar, an online gradebook, an online attendance book, instant progress reports, and secure online messaging.



- SnapGrades offers a web-based gradebook for educators. The free version of SnapGrades allows teachers to create an online gradebook, attendance book, seating charts, and a discipline log.



- This free online tool is designed to help teachers create rubrics for classroom learning activities. Rubrics templates are available for art, reading, writing, math, music, science, and oral projects.



- We the Teachers is a social application that makes it easy to find and share lesson plans online. The site can also be used to find other teachers, chat, ask questions, and join groups of teachers with similar interests.



- Created by Monster, this social site is designed to help teachers meet and network online. Resources on The Apple include forums, videos, articles, a newsletter, an "ask the teacher" feature, teacher trivia, continuing education and event information, and a job search board.



Guest post from education writer Karen Schweitzer. Karen is the About.com Guide to Business School. She also writes about for PharmacyTechnicianCertification.com.

14 comments:

said...

Thank you for sharing the list, some are new to me. I am always on the lookout for resources which integrate well with science and math teaching and learning. I will be checking these out for connections with to these two important subjects.

said...

Awesome! I am preparing workshops for our K-5 teachers for the beginning of the school year! Thank you.

said...

Lee, thanks for providing these powerful applications for teachers. Several of these I'd never seen. This is why PLNs are awesome.

Thanks again.

said...

Hi,
Thanks for sharing these amazing tools. I have already used some and some are new for me. Definitely try them. Keep up the good work.

said...

Lee, thank you for including Edmodo! Appreciate it.

-Jeff O'Hara

said...

I'm looking for a blogging platform for my students. Last year we used Edublogs. However, I'm considering something a bit more private & secure. Are you familiar with kidblog? If so, any thoughts?

said...

Great resource, have you tried Symbaloo? Used as a personal learning environment, this is a popular tool for teachers. We would love to hear your feedback. SymbalooEDU will be released soon and we are inviting schools to Beta test.

Daniela,
Team Symbaloo
@DanielaBolzmann
daniela@symbaloo.com

said...

I use http://www.cheapesttextbooks.com to buy for my kids. I recommend you give them a try, I save a lot more than most parents on books.

said...

These are great links! I always thought that free are too limited but you proved me wrong!

said...

Lee,

Thanks for including WiZiQ. Much appreciated. I'll be happy to help if anyone faces any issues or needs training for using WiZiQ.

for

said...

Teacher's need to learn of modern pattern . So they are trying to learn every time and moment. That kind of blog fill up their requirement. So this blog is a very much informative and good.

said...

Thanks for sharing such nice post.I appreciate

said...

This is great information. I work for Boise State University and we offer a totally online Masters program and online certificate programs for teachers. Our courses allow teachers to practice using all of these tools and more. Glad to see you have captured the latest here. Best wishes to you.

Anonymous said...


Hello Fellow Blogger,

I am Lauren Chaves from Digital Wish, a non-profit that helps teachers bring technology into their classrooms. I would like to invite you to join our celebration of Digital Learning Day on February 5, 2014. Its a day to celebrate progress, as well as try out new technology. We at Digital Wish will be launching a new eBook building software for students and teachers. Our software gives teachers the ability to create an book and share it with their students.

In order to promote, Digital Learning Day, we’re holding a nationwide contest where teachers can build eBooks, activities, or lesson plans. Everyone who participates will receive a free eBook account. Furthermore, the winner will receive free accounts for their students. We would like to promote this through guest blogging on your blog. Or perhaps I could just share the information with you to post. Overall, you will be partnering with a leader in digital education. We would like to invite you to also follow our blog at: http://digitalwishes.wordpress.com/blog/

We are also finishing up building this software, and in order, to complete it we need money! The best way to make sure we have enough money to make these events happen is if you and your readers vote for us in J.P. Morgan’s Give-It-Away Contest. We stand to win $25,000 from J.P. Morgan, which will then directly support teachers everywhere. The only thing you have to do is blog about it! If you have anymore questions please feel free to reach me at lauren@digitalwish.org.