With thousands of edtech products on the market, consumers are met with the daunting task of picking out products that address the needs of their students, better teaching practices or make the schooling experience better. With over $537 million spent on K12 education in 2015, there is no doubt that this industry is booming and that teaching establishments are investing in edtech more than ever.
So, in the hopes of bringing to light some of the best edtech tools in the industry; below are 5 edtech tools that everyone should be using. Some are age specific, but most can be adapted to any classroom.
Discovery Channel has always offered a variety of resources for students young and old. Their Digital Techbook Series aims to transform textbooks into easy to use digital resources. Not only are there preloaded curriculums around science, geography, and other social sciences but Techbooks is changing the textbook and how educators utilize them. The Techbooks come varying levels of difficulty and are custom made to suit the needs of students from elementary to high schools. This edtech product is seeing great results with students in Arizona seeing an 11 % improvement in Arizona’s Instrument to Measure Standards (AIMS), due to the use of Techbooks and similar results have been recorded in other states.
Aimed at university students and professors, Connect is a digital learning platform that boosts content knowledge, provides live feedback and encourages student engagement. In 2016, over 3 million university students used Connect to better their grasp of subject matter and to communicate with their professors. All content is written by subject experts, and the analytical tools give educators insight into how students are performing. Other features, such as” voice recording lecture capture” make this app a great addition to any higher learning education class.
This digital library has more than 7000 books in it and acts as a learning space where students can create a profile of books based on their interests and subject needs. MyOn provides educators with live feedback and tracks students’ reading achievements as well offers them quizzes and additional resources to explore the content they have read. Reading is an essential element of education, and this edtech is pushing both educators and students to explore and engage with age-specific content.
Formative has been labeled as a “game changer,” and its soaring popularity speaks to this. This edtech feature allows teachers to set assignments, receive live results and provide feedback. It can be utilized with students of any age and educators can tailor their feedback and assess class performance at a glance. Some features are pre-aligned with Common Core and Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) standards. What makes this app so worth using is that it gives teachers alternative options for assessment and tries to move away from the overused multiple choice option. Formative is changing the way that testing is done and both students and educators will appreciate it’s easy to use interface.
The notion of play has always been an important aspect of education. DimensionU pushes students to play to play multiplayer games in order to promote math and l literacy in grades 3- 9. Students are encouraged to compete against one another and turn, foster a positive relationship with the subject content. The games can be downloaded onto a device or played online.
What all five of these tools have in common are their commitment to students and their academic achievement. Whether this is through games or better Digital learning tools are becoming increasingly important in education and if they are to be used to their full potential both educators and students need to be using the very best.
