Top Coolest Tech for Teachers
Classrooms as We Know Them
“Click-Clack.” For weary students, it’s nausea-inducing. For more enthusiastic pupils, the tapping is more mesmerizing. But it’s not the mystic white chalk that is being referenced. It’s the clicking of fingers on a laptop. That’s right. We live in an era where technology from tablets to AppleWatches has become so predominant in daily life that it has even penetrated academia and has entwined itself with instructing mechanisms, slowly altering the face of classroom interaction as we know it. Here are some of the coolest tech that teachers can use to revolutionize learning.
InfuseLearning
Caught in a hurricane of tasks? If you’re a teacher who is bogged down by a mountain of homework assignments to mark and other job tasks, as well as the burdens of personal life, lament no more. InfuseLearning is here to help you create free quick assessment quizzes. There are multiple question formats, ranging from your standard multiple choice selections to your extended text responses to now answers in the form of drawings. That’s right, you heard me. Drawings. And no, we’re not talking about some silly Etch A Sketch toy, but fully fledged response inputs to tests and quizzes.
This tech also allows teachers to stay up to the moment with student responses so they can even glimpse into kids’ study habits and schedules. InfuseLearning is packed to the hilt and its analytics even permit it to translate text into a slew of languages. Pick this up if you’re busy with quiz efforts but still want to see results. If only body toning were that easy…
SoundCloud and ThingLink
SoundCloud is a social platform where users can create both music and voice sounds and share their gem creation with others. ThingLink permits you to integrate video, audio, and text into images. These two platforms synergize and revolve around one another like two dwarf stars in technological unison.
Now how can teachers utilize them to optimize learning and classroom efficiency? Say it’s a social studies, geography, or world history class. Trawling over every location of significance on the map would be exhausting and time consuming; even an extended briefing might make the eyelids of attentive students heavy. This is where the tech duo comes in. Instead of pulling down an actual map, teachers can now make their own custom diagram and place hotspots around the map (usually capitals) which would be packed with narration clips, text, and video. Hey, this tech setup definitely beats the hassle of chalk, point stick, map, even laser pointers – and ensures increased attention spans.
Go!Animate
Go!Animate is definitely geared towards younger children and is more likely to be deployed in elementary classrooms than of those in subsequent education. Essentially what you do with this tech is choosing a couple of characters from a panel and submit a thin script. The online service converts your dialogue from text to speech. This is where the “Animate” in Go!Animate comes in. Once the simple procedure has been fulfilled, the tech allows you to create an animated video with sequences where your characters move and talk to each other based on your input. In homes the tech can string together entertainment or be exercised for recreational purposes, but in the classroom it can be used to create more engaging content and tutorials for younger students.
Leap Motion
You won’t find a significant portion of American students leaping for joy before they enter a classroom, but now teachers have a reason to leap for joy during class. Leap Motion is a motion controller that comes in a frame that resembles an iPod. It uses high-fidelity infrared LEDs which users can toggle computers from up to eight feet away. Its hand motion detecting capabilities nullify any need to be glued to a mouse, keyboard, or touchpad. Best of all, it’s compatible with both Windows and Mac.
This product grants teachers great breathing room and gives them the leisure to roam around the classroom as they never could before. This tech is not only easier on the neck and back, but less awkward and more engaging for students. A hunched over, restrained teacher is a distracted teacher who might discourage even the most vested learners.
Remind
No matter where you are, you see people on their phones typing away. Texting is so commonplace nowadays; why not incorporate that into your lesson plan and group text your students about looming agendas, current tasks, and other urgent matters? “Because you need their phone numbers,” you say. Well not anymore. Remind allows you to create texting distribution groups without going through the pain of fumbling for your mobile to acquire your students’ contact information or the unease of handing out your own.
This service is used solely to relay messages, and no personal information has to be exchanged. Even as just an option to your students, this could help them be more productive and never miss an assignment. Could this be a welcome mat to corporate espionage or the basis for a future loophole in dating? While those questions cannot be readily answered, Remind is certainly shifting networking inside and out of classrooms.
Classrooms Will Be Affected
We know just how impactful and inspirational teachers can be.The numerous enlightenment experienced at a tender age can be attributed to the figure with a piece of chalk in hand. They can forge and cement life goals and career paths. We’ve all been inspired at one point or another in our lifetimes by a teacher who helped us get to where we are today. Though the endpoint may remain the same, the means of education is being altered at this very moment. Living alongside the rapid advancements that dawned in the 21st century, those growing up right now and future generations may not even need to see the outline of white chalk or hear the click on the board to draw inspiration from education, thanks to the arsenal of cool tech that teachers now wield.
About The Author:
Li Huang, a tech writer in Fueled.
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Li Huang, a tech writer in Fueled.
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