The education sector has changed significantly over the past two years. Pupils, students, teachers, tutors, and parents alike were forced to adapt to a new normal without having much guidance or support. This new normal includes hybrid learning, fully remote learning, and virtual tutoring, and all of these activities require the use of technology and digital tools.
Picking the best tools, apps, and platforms to make virtual teaching and tutoring easier for professionals in the education system can be tricky. The market is now inundated with a myriad of tools and programs, and it can be hard to pick the ones that best fit your teaching style. That’s why we’re recommending 7 of our favorite digital education tools, tools that we think teachers and tutors should try out in 2022.
1. Kahoot!
If you haven’t used Kahoot yet in your teaching, you might want to give it a try, as it’s incredibly successful and helps children learn in a fun, interactive way. The learning platform uses gamification to create multiple-choice quizzes that review students’ knowledge, skills, or just as a fun way to relax between other classroom activities. Its games are called ‘kahoots’ and they can be easily accessed through a browser or the Kahoot mobile app.
2. Canva for Education
Canva for Education is probably one of the most useful online tools for educators out there. It’s free to use for K12 teachers and their students, and it helps ease virtual communication through visual creativity. It’s very easy for a teacher or tutor to access thousands of educational templates for every subject or grade, including Math, English, or Science. It’s a great app that saves teachers a lot of time and effort, and helps keep students focused and interested through visual stimulation.
3. Headspace
The past two years have taken a toll on our mental health, and teachers and tutors have been going through a lot of stress and change. That’s why we had to include a meditation tool to our list, to help educators destress, relax, and recharge between online lessons. Headspace is one of the most popular meditation apps among educators, and it helps you integrate relaxation, breathing, and meditation into your busy daily life. You can even choose different ways to destress, by listening to nature sounds, relaxing music, poems and stories, working on your sleep, guided meditation and breathwork, and mindfulness exercises.
4. Poll Everywhere
Poll Everywhere is a great online tool that allows classrooms and online audiences to use mobile phones to stay engaged. With Poll Everywhere, educators can run surveys, Q&As, quizzes, live online polls, word clouds, and more, in an easy and intuitive way that appeals to younger generations. The app can also integrate with Google Slides, Keynote, and PowerPoint, making it easy for educators to add polls to any lesson or presentation.
5, Mote
Mote is an incredibly useful and popular Google Chrome extension and app that helps educators save a lot of time, by using their voice instead of typing to communicate. The tool allows educators to transform their lessons and add a human touch, with the help of voice messages and audio transcripts. It can be integrated into Google Classroom, Google Forms, Slides, Docs, and anywhere else! Another neat feature is that Mote can translate your voice lessons into any language, which helps educators reach and communicate with students across the globe.
6, Memrise
Memrise is a great tool that helps with language learning. It’s an app that uses a complex algorithm that determines the best moment to test pupils on their language skills. In this way, it picks the best time to reinforce skills learned, and helps further push progress for app users. At the same time, it teaches words, phrases, and expressions that are used in reality by locals, so app users can learn about different cultures and languages and broaden their horizon.
7. Flipgrid
Flipgrid is a favorite among teachers and tutors across the world. It’s gotten quite a few upgrades this year to make it easier to use, and we think it’s worth giving it a try. It’s an intuitive video messaging app that makes teaching fun in a visually appealing manner that keeps students engaged. It allows users to play with stickers, add colorful filters, add and edit comments, and basically makes every teaching session fun and interactive.
If you need help picking the best tools and platforms to enhance your virtual teaching or learning, feel free to reach out to Da Vinci Collaborative. Let’s work together to find the best digital tools for your teaching needs and keep students and pupils focused, engaged, and productive during classes.
