10 Digital Educational Tools That Will Remain Useful Post Pandemic
Since COVID-19 vaccines are now being administered, it is safe to say schools would never be locked down again because of the pandemic, and there wouldn’t be a reason for learning to go 100% virtual. Nevertheless, many of those digital educational tools that became suddenly popular during the schools’ lockdown will continue to make teaching easier and deepen students’ understanding of course materials. A few of them will continue being useful even after the pandemic is over and schools go back to running on-site in full capacity. Below are 10 of the digital educational tools;
Since COVID-19 vaccines are now being administered, it is safe to say schools would never be locked down again because of the pandemic, and there wouldn’t be a reason for learning to go 100% virtual. Nevertheless, many of those digital educational tools that became suddenly popular during the schools’ lockdown will continue to make teaching easier and deepen students’ understanding of course materials.
A few of them will continue being useful even after the pandemic is over and schools go back to running on-site in full capacity. Below are 10 of the digital educational tools;
Microsoft PowerPoint and Prezi are used for making presentations, but unlike PowerPoint, which is based on creating slides, Prezi makes use of one large canvas that can be panned and zoomed to various parts to emphasize the ideas being presented. According to the developer of Prezi, this unique attribute leads to more persuasive and engaging presentations.
The software supports the use of text, images, and videos, and it also comes with templates that can easily be customized. As a digital educational tool, it integrates with Google Classroom, Zoom, and Microsoft teams; it can also stream on Google Meet, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Prezi’s design can as well be exported as a PowerPoint presentation.
Paying lots of money to buy books, after paying school fees, gets many parents worried. To lessen this burden in primary and secondary schools, cK-12 was launched to reduce the cost of academic books. Through this digital tool, educational materials are created and distributed over the internet. The materials aren’t only text – they also contain videos, audios, and interactive exercises.
Teachers and students can print and modify books on cK-12 to suit their local use, but they must comply with necessary editorial standards.
This tool is designed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, it allows students to programme their interactive stories, games, and animations, giving them the option of sharing these contents with the online community. Scratch helps students become creative thinkers, develop their reasoning skills, as well as help them learn how to work in a team.
The platform is used across disciplines, including math, computer science, language arts, social studies, etc.
This digital educational tool is based on the premise that children tend to exhibit more positive behaviours in future when rewarded for current good behaviours. Using ClassDojo, teachers award points for good conducts such as listening to the teacher, completing the classwork, not making noise, etc.
The platform provides real-time notifications to students, and all the information about student behaviours can later be shared with their parents and school administrators through the web.
Storybird promotes writing and reading skills through storytelling, and it is one of the world’s largest storytelling communities. The platform works by curating artwork from illustrators around the world, and this inspires writers to turn the images into visual stories that are original in a few seconds.
In schools, teachers use the tool to create interactive and artistic books; they also use it to create projects with students, organize classes, and grade the students. Stories created on Storybird can be printed, sent in email, and embedded in a blog.
This platform is used for making marketing videos, video ads, how-to videos, slideshow videos, social media videos, promo videos, birthday videos, etc. In schools, the app lets teachers make audiovisual content for lessons, through its easy-to-use interface. Animoto comes with templates that can be edited and customized in any way.
This digital educational tool is based on games and questions. Teachers usually use it to create questionnaires, discussions, or surveys that complement academic lessons. According to the platform, it is used by over 7 million teachers globally. And because Kahoot! sessions are game-like, they enhance students engagement and create a fun learning experience for them.
Schoology is a learning management system like Google Classroom. Therefore, it allows teachers to create and distribute materials to students. It also allows teachers to assess the students and track their progress. In addition to that, the platform has other features not available on Google Class such as recording audio and video within the platform, embedding multimedia within the assignment description, having a grade book, etc.
Quizlet helps students to learn about a subject and assess themselves using flashcards, games and other fun activities. The platform guides students and provides them with a digital educational tool for studying on-the-go and testing their understanding of the subject from literally everywhere.
This tool helps to inspire a passion for reading and writing in children. Using the app, students can create storybooks by using writing and illustrating skills. The app also allows the collaboration of multiple students on a single storybook, and students working on a storybook can video chat to share ideas.
From the list, you would have inferred that the named digital educational tools are mostly used for creating infographics, presentations, videos, animations, as well as for assessments, quizzes, and grading. The reason for this is that the itemized teaching activities are the main backbone of education, and that’s the reasons the listed tools will remain relevant even when the pandemic is over.