The EdTech Game Show: NCEA 2019
Check out all the tools from our game today!
Try it out!
Below are links for all the tools featured today! Check them out and let us know what you think by tweeting @aoptech and using the #aoptech hashtag!
CommonLit
CommonLit is a free digital library of leveled texts: news articles, poems, short stories, and historical documents. You can filter collections by grade level, Lexile level, theme, genre, literary device, and even Common Core State Standards. An adaptive-technology-type toolbar for online reading includes a dictionary, a highlighter, text-to-speech functionality, and translation features for 13 languages.
Newsela
Newsela is an online news-as-literacy platform (and Chrome app) that features current, high-interest articles on everything from current events to myths and legends and from literature to science. Content is updated daily, with stories from a wide range of sources (from the Associated Press to Scientific American to the Washington Post) in both English and Spanish. On top of this, all articles are Common Core-aligned and available in five Lexile levels, ranging (roughly) from third to 12th grade.
ClassCraft
Classcraft is a web-based fantasy-themed behavior- and learning-management role-playing game. Students choose a character (Warrior, Healer, or Mage) and then form teams and work together to gain experience points (XP) through positive classroom behaviors and academic achievements.
Adobe Spark
Adobe Spark is a design and media-creation platform that's best used on the web but is also available on iOS and in beta for Android. The platform features three project types: Post (social graphics), Page (web stories), and Video (animated videos).
EdPuzzle
Edpuzzle is a web-based interactive video and formative assessment tool that lets users crop existing online videos and add content to target specific learning objectives. Teachers can search the extensive library or upload their own videos to customize them with voice-overs, audio comments, embedded assessment questions, and additional resources.
Geoguessr
Geoguessr is an addictive puzzler web tool and app that task students with guessing the location of Google Street View images from around the world. When they're ready to guess, students drop pins on a map next to each picture, but not before scouring the image for clues.
Flipgrid
Flipgrid is a website that allows teachers to create "grids" of short discussion-style questions that students respond to through recorded videos. Each grid is effectively a message board where teachers can pose a question and their students can post 90-second video responses that appear in a tiled "grid" display.
Padlet
Padlet is a website and app (iOS, Android, Kindle, Chrome) that allows kids to collect information from the internet and pin it onto virtual bulletin boards using a simple drag-and-drop system. Videos, text, links, images -- basically anything -- can be added to a board and organized there, like a page full of Post-it notes.
Voting Tools: Mentimeter and Kahoot
Check out Mentimeter and Kahoot as awesome live voting tools for the classroom! These are easy to use and FREE!
Other Teacher Favorite EdTech Tools:
Quizizz for Formative Assessment
Class Dojo for Classroom Management
ReadWorks for Text Comprehension and Analysis
IXL for Skills Practice
Code.org and Code Combat for Coding/STEM
Alissa DeVito
Associate Director of Educational Technology, PreK-12
Archdiocese of Philadelphia Schools
Email: adevito@archphila-oce.org
Website: www.aoptech.org
Twitter: @alissa_devito