Top 10 for Leaders!
In January 2015, Jean Montano published a post, “Top Ten EdTech Tools to Set Your Class Up For Success” in the Top Hat blog. While Jean’s tools were aimed at college professors, her post inspired our TICAL cadre to create these similar lists for administrators and other K-12 school leaders.
Collaborative environments - Things that help facilitate or initiate collaboration
Organization - tools that facilitate organization
Increased participation/communication without prep time - Speed and ease for user
Collaborative environments - Tools that help facilitate or initiate collaboration
Resource Name | Description | URL |
Google Drive | Your personal network on the web. Complete suite of applications that includes word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, forms, and more. | http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/how-to-use-google-drive/ |
OneDrive | Microsoft’s equivalent to Google Drive and very useful leaders who use Microsoft Office or Office 365. Besides storing documents on the web, you can also collaborate on and edit documents using simplified, web-based versions of the Office programs (e.g. Word, Excel, etc.) | http://www.7tutorials.com/simple-questions-what-windows-live-skydrive |
Padlet | Online board for posting. Great for teamwork in meetings, real time responses, can save information for later reference and planning. | |
Cisco Jabbar | free app for video conferencing | http://www.cisco.com/web/products/voice/jabber.html |
Visual Ranking Tool | Working in collaborative groups, teams set priorities for any topic that can be represented in a list. | |
Schoology | Student and staff learning management system. Adaptable, easy interface | https://www.schoology.com/home.php |
Edmodo | Free-online management system | |
Haiku | Learning management system | |
Google Hangouts | Free online video app includes screen-sharing and document sharing. Must sign up for Google+ | http://www.google.com/+/learnmore/hangouts/ |
ideascale | Gather suggestions in real time from parents, students, faculty or staff and transform those ideas into campus realities. |
Organization - tools that facilitate organization
Resource Name | Description | URL |
Doodle | Meeting organizer that saves time and emails | |
LiveBinders | Organization for Content that needs to be shared and accessed frequently | |
Evernote | Keep notes & files across multiple platforms. Multiple ways to input and share with others. | |
Visual organizer for topics, themes; can also create “private boards” for your department, school, team. | ||
Diigo | Social bookmarking website which allows signed-up users to bookmark and tag web-pages. Additionally, it allows users to highlight any part of a web page and attach sticky notes to specific highlights or to a whole page | |
Delicious | Keep, share, and discover with this social bookmarking service | |
Symbaloo | Visual social bookmarking app. | |
Bag the Web | Resource curation tool. Perfect for up to 10 resources (more than that consider using LiveBinders instead) | |
SmartSheet | Online project management, productivity and team collaboration application. Intuitive and easy to use—much easier than typical project management software! | |
Google Calendar | Collaborative calendar |
Increased participation/communication without prep time -
Speed and ease for user
Resource Name | Description | URL |
Group Me | Private chat room messaging | |
Remind | One-way group communication via text or email | |
Social media | ||
Today’s Meet | Backchannel chat platform for classroom teachers and learners. Designed for teachers. | |
Poll Everywhere | Excellent tool for group meetings - immediate feedback on questions to get group response - can include short responses. | |
Kahoot | A classroom response system which creates an engaging learning space, through a game-based digital pedagogy. Also great for adult input in a workshop. | |
join.me | Free, very simple ways to share your screen with one or more people at other locations. Great for doing a demo or for online meetings. Basic account is free. | https://www.join.me/howitworks |
YouTube | Online videos, Can create a channel and share selected videos with your group. | |
Free Conference Call | Free conference call tool also provides a recording of your call. | www.freeconferencecall.com |
Scoop.it | Discover, curate and publish great content to get visibility online. |