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EdLight offers tools for capturing and providing feedback for student work products. Follow the three easy steps to create assignments, take a picture of the work, and provide feedback on any device. Provide student feedback using rubrics, text, stickers, or record an audio message. Share EdLight tasks using Google Classroom, Clever, or student codes. Free accounts allow you to save up to 1000 images with up to two co-teachers.

tag(s): assessment (140), communication (126), editing (95), Formative Assessment (42), Learning Management Systems (20), Teacher Utilities (223)

IdeaBoardz is an easy-to-use a collaborative whiteboard created for brainstorming and sharing ideas. Instead of starting with a blank board and adding information, IdeaBoardz provides several options for creating boards from templates. Choose to create a board, add a name and description to begin. Use the dropdown box to select the type of board from choices such as pro and con or creating from up to ten sections. Next, share your board using the URL provided. Finally, participants select the plus sign located next to a heading to add a sticky note and type comments. Registration is not required; however, creating an account allows participants to revisit saved boards.

tag(s): collaboration (135), graphic organizers (57), iwb (29)

Miro is a robust interactive whiteboard tool. Zoom in and out of the whiteboard to make it any size for viewing and adding information. Miro includes many templates for creating flow charts, mind maps, and planning activities. After creating an account, add a new board. Use the dashboard to add notes, templates, add comments, upload items from your computer, and much more. Collaborate with others by sharing the URL for your Miro board. Free accounts allow you to include an unlimited number of team members and create three editable boards.

tag(s): collaboration (135), graphic organizers (57), iwb (29)

Mural for Education offers flexible tools for virtual collaboration and communication. Think of it as a virtual whiteboard workspace that includes sticky notes, shapes, and connectors to create diagrams and mind maps, drawing tools, images, and more. Use Mural to create breakout rooms for group work or prepare and share study guides and classroom calendars. Apply for a free account as a student or for a classroom account. Start collaborating by following the prompts provided by Mural to begin designing your workspace using templates or from a blank board. Use the dashboard to add text, icons, images, and more. Facilitators also have options for adding contributors, setting a work timer, and setting parameters for the session chat.

tag(s): collaboration (135), graphic organizers (57), iwb (29), Online Learning (34), remote learning (32)

Learning Heroes shares resources that help schools form strong partnerships with families that advance social, emotional, and academic development. Resources begin with building a plan to start the school year on a positive footing, evaluate and take steps to promote student progress, and provide tips and tools to support continued learning over the summer in the Summer Remix section (scroll down the main page and its on the right). Other tools include discussing racism, planning tools for teacher/parent communication, and interactive guides to grade-level expectations.

tag(s): back to school (56), parents (52), professional development (296)

Create and share videos for social media platforms with Headliner. Add images, text animation, clip audio, add video, and more to personalize content. Choose from several video editor templates or go straight to the video editor to begin creating. Upload videos to add transcript, use the audiogram wizard to make a video from audio, or create a video from a URL linking to an online article. When finished, publish your video and download to your computer.

tag(s): communication (126), editing (95), multimedia (63), social media (63)

Create beautiful visual designs with Adobe Express. First, follow the prompts to create an account, then select a creation to work on; these include flyers, presentations, banners, posters, business cards, social graphics, advertisements, YouTube thumbnails, and several others. The canvas where you will create has a right menu. Choose a template, text, photos, shapes, backgrounds, and design assets from the left menu. Next, you can select colors, animation, background, resize, or design from the right menu. When complete, share via email or through the social media links provided, or download.

tag(s): blogs (82), communication (126), creative writing (125), design (76), digital storytelling (173), microblogging (14), posters (46)

Voxer is a combination of instant voice and text messages. You can also text images and your location. Voxer will work with your headset and Bluetooth so you can be hands-free. It is available on the web and all mobile devices. Hear messages live, or listen later. Broadcast messages to an individual or group, or listen and respond to chats in Walkie-Talkie mode and not even be in the app. Voxer allows talk and text across countries, wireless carriers, or data networks at no additional charge. Registration with email is required.
This site includes advertising.

tag(s): chat (41), communication (126), DAT device agnostic tool (133), listening (119), microblogging (14), multilingual (82), social media (63), speaking (22), speech (66)

Seesaw is a digital portfolio that is totally free for all devices and on the web. Students can showcase their work, videos, text, drawings, and images, and get feedback from teachers and parents. Create a class blog in your Seesaw for students to write blog posts. Teachers create an account with email and then start creating as many classes as needed. There is no limit on the number of students a class can have. Once students have parental permission, give students a "join" code for their class, and they sign up from there, choosing to access their account through a Seesaw generated QR code or their email. Teachers can enable or disable student likes, comments, and editing. Blog posts and comments must have teacher approval before becoming public. Students will be able to reflect on their work with a voice recording or text, and can share artifacts from their portfolio by clicking the red button at the bottom of the screen and then either print or get the item QR code. Once you have an account, click Help & Teacher Resources to find Getting Started Tips, Tutorial Videos, FAQs, and Activity Ideas grouped by grade level. If your district blocks YouTube, the tutorials may not be viewable. Please be aware that Seesaw falls under the FERPA laws for "directory information" and "educational records." Any school getting funds from the Department of Education (public schools) is required to disclose to parents and get written consent to use Seesaw with their child.

tag(s): blogs (82), communication (126), DAT device agnostic tool (133), digital storytelling (173), Learning Management Systems (20), portfolios (20), Teacher Utilities (223)

Manage behavior and boost involvement in class quickly and easily. ClassDojo allows you to recognize desirable behaviors and accomplishments in real time. Use it on any Internet-connected device in your classroom. Be sure to check out the Resources from the top menu for helpful, timesaving items like a Back-to-School night presentation, a Parent Introduction letter, a Student Introduction video, and Student Account Facts. You can choose an avatar for each student. Student behavior records are automatically created, updated, and reports are generated with just one click by you. You can even write comments to parents about why a student lost a point. Weekly summaries are automatically emailed to parents. Students can earn badges. On ClassDojo, students can now have their own portfolio to share photos and videos of their successes. The wording on the ClassDojo site indicates that ClassDojo "will always stay free for teachers."

Please be aware that ClassDojo falls under the FERPA laws for "directory information" and "educational records." Any school getting funds from the Department of Education (public schools) is required to disclose to parents and obtain written consent to use ClassDojo with their child.

tag(s): behavior (49), classroom management (144), DAT device agnostic tool (133), game based learning (318), gamification (89), Special Needs (45)