Education is the most important aspect of human life. It’s what gave us the ability to grow beyond our instinctual selves and create vast civilizations that span the globe.
Through education, we gained innovations, technologies, and social awareness that we never dreamed of before. It’s an ever-present concept that permeates human existence. And in this century, the world has shown how current educational tools and methods need to modernize. In our increasingly digital world, education needs to adapt to survive as algorithms consume more and more of the human psyche.
People’s attention spans are getting shorter, and on a governmental level, education departments all over the world are getting slashed. So with that in mind, there’s an increasing need for educational tech tools that are accessible to both students and teachers.
And to help you get up to speed, here are 5 ed tech tools that you should try in 2023.
1. Planboard
One of the most difficult parts of any educator’s workday is creating a creative and robust lesson plan. With Planboard, you’ll be able to easily create lessons for your students. It is an intuitive lesson-planning platform that’s free and easy to use, no matter how tech-savvy you are. People rarely understand how much behind-the-scenes work an educator does, and having a tool that streamlines it can be extremely helpful.
It’s a fully customizable tool that can adapt to your teaching style and schedule, and you can even use it as a grade book. Instead of using standard text editors like Word for your lesson plan, give Planboard a try. Since it was designed with education in mind, you’ll never have to worry about formatting issues.
2. Google Classroom
These last few years have proved that there needs to be a stable digital alternative for classrooms. A place where you and your students can aggregate files, meet up for consultations, and hold classes. Google Classroom is precisely that. A safe space for you to connect with your students in case you need to teach remotely.
While it lacks some features, it is a solid baseline for educators to keep their classes organized. And just like any other Google product, it’s easy to understand, and it integrates perfectly with the rest of Google’s repertoire. This means you’ll easily connect your Docs, Sheets, and Slides to your lessons, and you’ll have everything accessible in the cloud.
3. Kahoot
The best way to balance engagement with evaluation is with Kahoot! It’s an online quiz-making platform that has gained massive popularity in the past few years.
In it, you can create interactive quizzes that your entire classroom can interact with. This drives up engagement and creates an environment of positive competition. All the while, you’re evaluating how students are progressing with your curriculum. Kahoot can be a strong motivator at the beginning of a class or a lovely review at the end of it.
4. Remind
Communicating with your students or their parents can often be difficult. It creates a dichotomy where an educator needs to sacrifice personal information and free time to cater to a parent.
That’s why it’s recommended to use a separate messaging platform for your personal and professional life. Remind is a messaging tool that focuses on creating a safe connection between educators and their students.
5. BetterLesson
Personal development is also a large aspect of an educator’s life. With BetterLesson, you’ll be able to continuously grow your career as well as improve your lessons.
Using it means you can connect with other professionals that can help you develop new ideas and strategies. And if you’re worried about a specific problem or aspect, you can even take on-demand courses that deal specifically with your issues.
Conclusion
Being an educator is tough work. It takes a crazy amount of time and energy to do it effectively. So there’s no reason to make your job even harder by not using these tools.