Getting kids engaged in reading has always been hard, even before the technology-induced ADHD of our current time set in. When you consider the fact that the majority of youngsters aren’t comprehending what they’re reading, it makes a lot of sense that they may not be so into sitting down and doing their…
Having started out as a free quiz making website for educators, Los Angeles-based ProProfs quickly has become the leader in providing tools for educators and businesses to create quizes, tests, and training for students, employees, and staff. ProProfs, the brainchild of serial entrepreneur and computer…
Educators looking for an effective way to make the classroom experience go digital, this is for you. ClassConnect is a startup that lets you share content with your students using the Internet. That includes not only class notes but also multimedia content like YouTube videos, and images that are found on media sharing sites such as Instagram and Pinterest. And you can also use ClassConnect to share website links with your students. Wikipedia articles they should make a point of reading, blog posts written by people who not only have something original to say but actually know how to say it… you can easily share links to all these sites and blogs with your students.
And what’s even more interesting is that the site lets you become connected with other teachers and educators, and interact with them to the full. You can exchange tips and advice for making the classroom experience better for all of your students, and also share your full lessons with them. Any seasoned educator will be able to tell you if there’s something that should be done differently at once.
Something like this is what Teachingchannel.org aims to do. The guys responsible for this idea record videos of astounding teachers throughout the US, and upload them on their site so that other people who work in education can get inspired watching masters in that art.
The videos can be seen not only at the Teachingchannel website, but also in Youtube. However, if you love to be a teacher and feel you’d be interested in this site, you will be interested in registering. Signing up will allow you to enjoy a personal workspace in which you can schedule your classes, write down ideas you want to use in them, get reminders, and store any kind of notes.
Also you can get to follow the teachers you admire and keep track with their activities. You can search for teacher using a menu in the section of the site dedicated to them. That menu allows you to browse through subject, grade in which they teach, or if they have other roles in the education world.
Not many websited are dedicated specially to teachers, so if you are one, take advantage of this original service and give it a try. The registration is free, and you can even sign in using your facebook, twitter, or linked in account.
Read more on Teachingchannel.org – Online Space For Teachers…
Teachers and all these parents that understand education begins at home are advised to give this website a look. 19Pencils.com is where the top educational content from all over the Internet is brought together, for you to use to enhance your classroom experience or to go through with your children. This content includes quizzes, polls and full websites that have been built in order to educate people of all ages.
And in addition to letting you use and reuse all that content as you see fit, the site comes with tracking tools for measuring how well the person you’re trying to educate is doing. This will let you how have a perfect idea of which topics have already been understood, and which need to be revised a little more yet.
Plus, if you’re a teacher on 19Pencils.com you’ll be able to create a class website. This will let all your students get the content they need in the same page, without having to go hunting for it somewhere else and getting easily distracted along the way. And being able to create your own page also makes it easy for you to share the resources you’re using with your colleagues. They’ll get to know everything without even needing to ask you a single question, everything is going to be displayed on your page.
Teachers who complain that it isn’t easy to incorporate the latest technology on their classrooms have clearly not tried Classpager. If you’re a teacher and you’ve complained about such a thing, you’ll find this new service allows you to interact with your students via SMS, broadcast updates to them both during and after classes, and ask them questions in real time. They’ll also be able to ask you for help with any assignment they’re having trouble with, and get your timely assistance.
One of the big stumbling blocks of services such as this one is that parents are naturally reluctant to have teachers contact their children after school. Well, that shouldn’t be a problem when using ClassPager since everything’s crystal-clear. Parents can see all the messages that are being swapped, and check that everything’s kept within professional protocols.
And a really nice feature is that ClassPager lets you send group messages, and reach out to your whole class at once. It’s time-saving features like these what make the whole service so good, and a worthy entrant into a scene that’s slowly growing in depth. (See ClassParrot for a similar app – we originally featured it on Killerstartups here.)
AccuTeach.com is a social site for teachers, parents and students. Educators the world over can create personalized profiles, and use the site to share lesson materials with their entire school communities. Students can have access to these materials from just anywhere they can connect to the Internet, and they can both use them online and have them printed. And their parents can monitor everything, they can see in which ways their teachers are communicating with their kids, and ensure everything is kept within the boundaries it should be kept. Of course, parents can also use this service to help teachers organize events, and contribute to the school community on the whole.
AccuTeach.com is free for everybody. Teachers, students and parents can get their own accounts ready in minutes, and even faster than that if they use Facebook to connect to the service.
AccuTeach is competing against social sites such as TalkChalk and Schoology (reviewed here and here on KillerStartups.com). These are sites that (for the most part) have better interfaces and features. Check them out and see what you think. But I’m sure you’ll agree that AccuTeach still has got some way to go before it can catch anybody’s eye.
Read more on AccuTeach.com – Social Site For Teachers And Students…
There’s a real need for social networking services that are aimed at teachers, students and their parents. Some have already surfaced (see Class.io and Diipo, for example), and they’re really good in themselves. But we need more. And thankfully, that’s what we’re getting. TalkChalk is the latest social service that brings students and their parents in online contact with educators.
To all intents and purposes, what TalkChalk does is to extend a classroom well beyond the four walls where the learning experience takes place. On this site, students can work and collaborate among themselves as if they were at school. The teacher keeps an eye on all that they’re doing, and he is there to answer their questions. He is also there to make sure all the students are behaving well. And something as worrisome as cyberbullying is kept from happening since students can report abusive behaviour to their teachers.
And parents are aware of all this. They can see what’s happening on such a virtual classroom at all times, and the children can speak to them in the same way that they can speak to their teachers.
So, everybody is kept on the same page. Children can turn to their teachers at all times. And by letting parents help teachers in their difficult jobs, a service like TalkChalk can but make our educational system work more quickly, and (in the end) more successfully.
Do you remember Quizinator, the platform that lets teachers and instructors create exams, studysheets and quizzes to use in their classrooms? Well, Fifty Sneakers is the evolution of that site. It lets educators do all that, but it also comes with some content management, networking, and sharing features of its very own. If you’re a teacher, it’ll let you build tests that can include not only text but also images and videos, and then have them shared in multiple ways. Yet, you’re the one who’s setting down who’s seeing what – content limits are determined by no-one but you.
A tiered approach to pricing means that a free plan is provided along with four paid ones, each coming with larger storage, student profiles and community management options. The four available paid plans are “Mini” ($3.99), “Basic” ($5.99), “Pro” ($8.99) and “Community” ($14.99). They are all billed monthly, and you can cancel your plan at any time. No fees are charged for doing so, and all the data that you’ve uploaded and stored is remaining in your possession.
Paid plans also come with some really handy features like letting you have your tests automatically graded, and access to public and private communities to import/share resources.
Read more on FiftySneakers.com – Create Tests And Exams Online…
An educational platform that aims to leverage the kind of technology which is actively available on classrooms nowadays, Socrative empowers teachers to engage their students with educational activities on laptops, smartphones and tablets. These include exercises, quizzes and games, and teachers are enabled to correct and grade everything instantly. And then, to provide their students with timely feedback. All of the Socrative apps can be set up in minutes, and they load in seconds.
When it comes to multiple choice, true/false and short answer questions, the responses of students are represented visually. And as far as pre-planned activities go, teachers can view reports online as a Google spreadsheet, or as an Excel file that’s been sent via e-mail.
Socrative, then, allows teachers to assess their students and improve learning over time. A service like this one was long overdue – although laptops and tablets have become available within classrooms settings, they haven’t really been put to the best possible uses yet. The right apps just weren’t there. But now that companies like Socrative are delivering them, we might as well be on the verge of witnessing some really groundbreaking educational developments.
ClassParrot is a new mobile service that enables teachers to get in touch with their students via SMS, in a way that doesn’t compromise anybody’s safety. ClassParrot ensures that the numbers of students are always kept private – teachers send their text messages to ClassParrot, they never get to know the actual numbers they are sending their SMSes to. That is, teachers message their students through the ClassParrot website. And just to make things even more transparent, parents can opt-in to receive the messages which are being sent, too.
A platform like ClassParrot can be used to remind students about upcoming tests and exams, to send homework updates, to announce events that students could be interested in attending… these are just some of the most obvious uses that spring to mind. And in all cases, we’re talking about a platform that is letting teachers save not only time but also unnecessary headaches.
ClassParrot is completely free to use. If you’re a teacher and you’d like to know more, then I encourage you to sign up for the service right here.
Read more on ClassParrot.com – Texting For Students And Teachers…
The Flat Stanley Project was started in 1994 by Dale Hubert, and it was to become one of the most interesting literacy and community building programs on the Internet. To put it in simple words, The Flat Stanley Project involves sending a cardboard cut-out figure (Flat Stanley) to classrooms which are located all across the world. That is done to fuel the imagination of students – just imagine the effect that bringing a Flat Stanley which has been in Africa into a classroom in LA can have, and how much it can stimulate the creativity of children.
Well, now The Flat Stanley Project is being given a whole new lease of life with the release of its first mobile app. This app (which you download for free here) basically enables students to include a Flat Stanley in any picture of themselves that they’re sharing with others. That can include everything from fellow students to family members who are located faraway, and photos can not only be sent to others but also uploaded to the Flat Stanley website.
All of the photos that are featured there are actually moderated. That is, adults (mostly teachers who have been participants of The Flat Stanley “cardboard in the mail” program) check what is being submitted before authorizing it to go live.
The Flat Stanley Project is one of the safest and most entertaining ways for kids to develop an interest in foreign countries, and (as far as I’m concerned) this mobile app is the closest we’ve got to the concept of having penpals from all across the world updated for our current day and age.
Read more on FlatStanley.com – The Flat Stanley Project Revised…
Teachers have got it made. That is what one has to think after checking the myriad of sites that simplify their work to no end, of which Muuua is a prime example. This startup enables classroom professionals to build partnerships with colleagues and collaborate with unprecedented speed and ease. The site itself defines what it does as a sort of dating system where people are matched by ideas, and that is a nice analogy.
On Muuua, any teacher can specify where (and what) he teaches and be matched with educators who share these very same things at compatible places, so that they can begin pursuing a professional collaboration. A web-based monthly planner is provided for users of the site to input information more clearly.
As a service, Muuua has the distinction of being both supremely easy to use (to the point that even teachers who are averse to computers will take a liking to it) and free from spam and interferences of any kind. The whole platform is really smooth and focused, and it never loses sight of what it has been created for: letting educators meet and communicate online.
Read more on Muuua.com – Collaborative Platform For Teachers…
A platform that is meant to be used by teachers who want to take the educational experience above and beyond, what SocialMaestro lets them do is to create a virtual classroom that acts as a continuation of the physical ones they work at. This virtual classroom will let them connect with students in a way not far removed from how people connect on social sites, with the one big (and obvious) difference being that all the interactions taking place there are going to be education-oriented ones. They will be able to share materials with their students, to update assignments and to answer any question that they might have right away.
This is all really useful. And it gets even better, as SocialMaestro doubles as an online gradebook. Teachers will be able to view class grades, and also to have reports generated at a mere click. Plus, they will be allowed to communicate with parents and discuss anything appertaining the education of their children both smoothly and clearly.
Read more on SocialMaestro.com – Create A Virtual Classroom…
There are so many web tools teachers can use in their classrooms that separating the wheat from the chaff takes an incredible effort. And being a teacher is already an around-the-clock job to begin with. The minds of teachers seldom stray too far from their classrooms. It would be terribly unfair to expect them to devote even more time than they already devote to their jobs. They actually need all the support and help that they can get.
And that is exactly what a site like this one is here to provide. EduTecher is where educators can know all there is to know about these web apps that could make their lessons more productive, and their overall lives that much easier. Thousands of tools are already included on the EduTecher database. In each and every case, detailed information on how to maximize their usability in real classroom settings is provided.
And the site is excellently rounded by a personal learning network that lets teachers connect with each other, and discuss how to provide their students with a much better classroom experience.
The concept of social networking as a way to connect teachers and students becomes more and more relevant each day. Diipo is a case in point. This new platform is meant to be used both by educators and by students that want to take their learning one step above and beyond.
Diipo favors an interface that is a sort of a hybrid from what we are accustomed to seeing when using Facebook and Twitter, and all operations are executed by using a series of dashboards and apps that make for communicating to the full. Students are able to create/join groups, to collaborate on projects, and to answer the questions posed by each other using direct messages.
For its part, teachers are enabled to connect not only with their students but also with other teachers. This gives Diipo a truly expansive aura, and it might as well be one of the features that drive more educators to the service. Plus, Diipo makes for sharing files (such as pictures and documents) and links, and the service is obviously all the better for it.
History teachers who are looking for ways in which to effectively engage their students are well-advised to check this site. Not only will they get a collection of versatile tools to teach with documents in their classrooms, they will actually be able to create their very own activities using the documents within the Docs Teach database.
Such a process is made all the more comfortable since teachers can bookmark content as they see it, and summon it back again whenever it is needed. And as many custom activity sets as the teacher wishes to use can likewise be created.
The documents featured on the Docs Teach database all come from the National Archives, and they have been categorized according to the National History Standards. They go as far back as the 18th century, to the days of the birth of the American nation. And the present date is reached, with all the major events of contemporary history being minutely covered.
Many lament that the full power of the Internet is not really being used when it comes to enhancing the experience of classrooms. But if platforms like Naiku manage to break on through, then that might change for good.
Essentially, Naiku gives teachers a chance to collect student achievement data much faster and more accurately than by traditional means. In particular, the creators of Naiku believe in the advantages of what is termed formative assessment, a process in which teachers and students connect with each other outside of the physical boundaries of the classroom. Formative assessment means that teachers always know the point students are in the learning process, and are able to modify the lessons that they are to impart so as to really enlighten their students.
And that is what teachers who use Naiku will get a ready chance to do: connect with students via technology, to understand their current levels of learning and to increase both the efficiency of what they teach, and the engagement of their students. Item authoring, item selection, assessment scheduling, assessment construction and assessment administration are all simplified using the Naiku web platform. Plus, teachers can also communicate and collaborate among themselves.
Learnable is a new educational platform for the creation of online courses. Through this site, it is very easy to profit from your knowledge and get students who are willing to pay for learning from you. You create a course, Learnable promotes it and sets down a price, and then it pays you a fair percentage from all the money that is generated.
All kind of courses can be imparted through this website. Video production, yoga, web programming, social media, blogging… skills that range truly far and wide can be marketed thanks to Learnable.
Courses can obviously be browsed by category, and the latest that have been created are all showcased for those who begin using the site in earnest to know what has been added since they last checked it out. And the site also makes room for featured courses. These obviously come at an additional cost to the ones who post them.
Kidzmet is where parents can find teachers, coaches and tutors for their children. And the way everything works, the matching process is incredibly accurate.
Basically, the children have to take an online assessment (in which they are obviously guided by their parents). Based on this assessment, Kidzmet will determine not only the learning styles of the children but also their innate talents and even their personality traits. And using that information, it will be able to produce matches with a higher degree of suitability that the ones offered up by competing sites.
Of course, each and every teacher that is part of the Kidzmet database has been rated and reviewed by the parents that have hired him before. This will give parents the peace of mind that they must have when it comes to hiring one such professional. And a really commendable feature is that Kidzmet can notify parents when new teachers become available in the area that they live in.
