Teaching Tools & Technologies
Videos, slideshows, games, and interactive group activities are all part of the online teacher’s toolbelt, and when a teacher is as savvy with technology as the students, amazing things can happen in an online classroom. These tools for online teachers and learners can improve communication between participants who may be thousands of miles apart geographically, but learning together in a shared technologically enabled space.
1. Articulate Studio
Articulate Studio is a tool for authoring eLearning course materials, and the company keeps a blog that updates on happenings concerning education and how it ties into technology. Posts highlight different innovations, as well as walls that people typically run into when trying to innovate in the EdTech community or work in online learning.
2. The Sloan Consortium
Tap into Sloan-C for community, insight, inspiration, education, and professional resources geared specifically to online educators. A membership in this organization can provide numerous other benefits that can add clout to your resume.
3. Online Learning and Distance Education Resources
Online Learning and Distance Education Resources is run by Tony Bates and is dense with tools for improving distance education around the world. With quality commentary and up-to-date news, the site is incredibly thorough and helpful for teachers looking to expand their breadth of knowledge.
4. SmartBuilder
SmartBuilder is a suite of point-and-click authoring tools for elearning courses. Since building courses with SmartBuilder doesn’t require the user to write any code, it is accessible and easy to learn for any user with an interest in constructing their own online course.
5. Turnitin
How would you like to use software that checks against plagiarism, reduces grading time, improves feedback to students, and engages those students? Turnitin offers all this and more to help make the online educational experience one to fully savor as it evaluates and improves student writing.
6. Prezi
Simply put, Prezi is a virtual whiteboard that transforms presentations so viewers can better see your ideas, understand them, and remember them. The smart folks are already using this too, from bestselling authors to business leaders and entrepreneurs around the globe.
7. Scratch
Create stories, games, and animations and share them online at Scratch with over three million other projects. Scratch is a project out of the MIT Media Lab; although designed specifically for ages eight through sixteen, it is a creative tool for people of all ages.
8. LiveBinders
Lose those three-ring binders and gain some LiveBinders, instead — the best way to collect resources and organize them online. This tool is great for students, too, and allows educators to share resources with peers or students with ease.
9. RubiStar
Do rubrics make your head ache? Try RubiStar, a free tool that helps teachers create quality rubrics in short order. Save your rubrics online so you can gain access to them from any computer. RubiStar also offers free registration and a rubrics search engine.
10. myBrainshark
Face it — learning curves can be intimidating, and the worst fear is loss of valuable time in the process. myBrainshark can help you to create great online courses and presentations by taking the mystery out of processes such as adding voice to PowerPoint, narrating documents, uploading videos, and producing Podcasts.
11. ClickClass
ClickClass is an e-learning authoring tool designed to help users deliver and manage online learning content. Use it for free to learn how easy this tool can be, and pay only after you acquire more than two active users of your content.
12. Resources for Teaching Online
Resources for Teaching Online helps teachers build valuable courseloads for eLearning and working with students online. The site underlines different online teaching methods, advice for planning and building a course online, among other useful links.
13. Classroom 2.0
Classroom2.0 is a dynamic social network for anyone who is interested in participative technologies and their uses in the classroom. Join over 70,000 participants in this community-supported network to share experiences, tips, and resources for digital classroom excellence.
14. Teaching With Technology eLearning Wikispaces
If you’re an educator who craves sharing and learning information about your career, then you might want to check out the Teaching With Technology Wiki. This site is growing into a comprehensive source of information about all e-learning aspects, from the beginning components of an e-learning course to assessing that course’s viability.
15. E-Learning Council
E-Learning Council is a very dense site for compiling useful resources for eLearning teachers. They have annual symposiums, a forum, and a blog that all make it easier for teachers to increase the effectiveness of their teaching.
16. Edudemic – The Teacher’s Guides
Edudemic is a colorful, captivating tool for teachers to increase the effectiveness of their teaching through useful tips. Aside from good resources and tips, they also have introspective articles that analyze different aspects of the teaching process and commentary.
17. New Instructional Designer Instructions
New Instructional Designer Instructions equips teachers with the resources to effectively design coursework for students and help set them up great eLearning courses.
18. eLearning Guild
eLearning Guild provides a great community for eLearning professionals to come together and be able to collaborate on different initiatives and explain what techniques or methods are currently working. Additionally, the resources provided on the site allow for teachers to make their own quality content, pulled from a variety of sources.
19. Wikispaces Classroom
Wikispaces Classroom is a content-based resource for teachers to manage the pace of their class through a newsfeed, effectively provide assessments, and keep their projects on track. The site is a fantastic tool for the evolving face of technology in education.
20 Planboard
Use Planboard to save time by removing repetitive actions from your life — align your teaching schedule, create a template for all your lesson plans, and integrate and track educational standards into your methodology in one easy-to-organize space. You can share schedules with students or substitute teachers, attach notes and files directly to your lesson plans from any computer, and embed videos and other multimedia content into those plans to engage your students.
For the full list please go to http://top5onlinecolleges.org/teaching-tools/
