LibGuides: Technology Tools and Online Resources for Education: Creating and Communicating Information

Collaboration, Discussion, and Feedback

Padlet
A digital pin board software, a virtual wall and collaborative space, that allows users to gather a variety of objects into a single digital place. Users can write text, record audio and video, add links to websites, or upload pictures. Users can “like” and comment on others’ posts. Useful to prepare for or while facilitating a live discussion; as a space to develop a collaborative wiki-like project.
Mote
A Chrome extension that allows teachers and/or students to make comments via audio within Google Classroom, Google Docs, and Google Slides. Useful for giving students feedback on written work or to facilitate conversation around digitized texts.
Jamboard
A Google tool that mimics chart paper with sticky notes, used to virtually capture student thinking on topics. Useful for capturing student thinking to jumpstart and/or synthesize ideas from a discussion.
Dotstorming
A tool similar to padlet. Useful to prepare for or while facilitating a live discussion; as a space to develop a collaborative wiki-like project.
FlipGrid
A video discussion platform that allows instructors to post discussion prompts via text or video, which students then respond to by posting short videos either in response to the prompt or in response to their classmates’ posts. Resembles social media. Instructors to give students public or private video feedback to their posts. Useful for preparing for or synthesizing ideas from a discussion; preparing for a longer writing piece.
Google Sheets/Docs
Students can use these to share work, record data, and create shared presentations.

Presentation

Canva
Has multiple presentation formats
Screencastify
Physical Document Camera
When used with a projector, allows teacher to digitally project a hard copy of a book or piece of written work to the entire class. Useful for modeling, show-calling student work, or sharing annotations on text.
Physical Projector
Allows teacher or student to project their computer screen (i.e. for a slide show presentation, to view video clips, etc) to the entire class. Useful for Explicit instruction on a topic; showing directions or instructions for a task; providing key information during work or discussion time.
StoryMaker
"StoryMaker is a powerful learning platform developed by PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs to build the next generation of media creators."

Blogs/Websites

You could use a class blog to have students post projects and responses to other student work, or to share other ideas related to your content. Given the times we live in, sharing work and ideas in a public forum is an important skill for students to develop. In order to do this effectively, you will have to teach students how to effectively engage in public forums, the expectations for what goes in posts and comments, and how their online voice builds over time. This will require additional instruction beyond the core content you'll be teaching students, but it is an important skill for students to develop over time.

Writing Tools

Grammerly
With a free account you can access this powerful writing tool. Grammarly supports streamlined and effective writing. Its suggestions help identify and replace complicated sentences with more efficient ones, refresh repetitive language, and uphold accurate spelling, punctuation, and grammar.
Analyze My Writing
This free tool is an online text content and readability analyzer. Copy and paste your writing into the homepage and access a wealth of information including word and character counts, word and sentence lengths, the readability of your text, and other assessments.
Flesch Kincaid Calculator
This free online tool can be used to show how readable your text is by providing a Flesch Readability Ease score and the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level score. These scores give an approximation of the difficulty and complexity of your writing.
Hemingway Editor
This web based tool gives you immediate feedback on your writing by highlighting specific phrases and sentences and offering suggestions to improve readability. You can paste text or write directly in the app and receive feedback on aspects of your writing like passive voice, sentence difficulty, similarities, and more.
Slick Write
Slick Write is a powerful, free application that makes it easy to check your writing for grammar errors, potential stylistic mistakes, and other features of interest. Click start writing to upload your document. Then use the menu at the left to get different feedback such as flow and sentence statistics.