6 Terrific Technology Tools for Teachers

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Part of being a teacher is giving students different types of tasks to complete, and giving them a different way to express themselves. The tools on this list do just that. They also allow the teacher to create things and show students how to be more creative. For example, a teacher may create an avatar as a fun helper during a class lesson. She or he may give the tool to his/her students to see what they can make with it.

1 – Tagxedo

This is little doubt will allow students to create word clouds in the various number of shapes and sizes which can be embedded into websites, blogs and wikis. Be floor is similar to the Wordle tool but has a lot more options. This is for students who are old enough to construct blogs, and who are old enough to understand its interactive nature. Furthermore, when the element is complete, a viewer can hover their mouse pointer over the cloud and see the words pop out slightly.

2 – Nanoogo

This is a tool that allows students to share their ideas and thoughts in a visual way.  It is a nice alternative to PowerPoint slide shows and dramatic classroom productions. The student is able to present things such as essays, speeches, book reports, and biographies in a visually pleasing and unique fashion.

3 – Jing

This is that all that students can download onto the desktop computers. It allows the student to take screenshots and screen-casts from their desktop in a similar fashion to the “Print screen” function that is available on most keyboards. The difference however is that’s the student is able to go on to Jings editor (instead of going to Microsoft Paint) and at things such as different colors, notes and arrows.  The image can be copied, saved or printed. Where this tool set itself apart from the screen print function, is its ability to take screen-casts. A student can take a very short video of something on their screen and turn it into a tutorial/how-to video to present to the class.

4 – Voki

This still allows teachers and students to create avatars within the classroom setting environment. The avatar can be in the shape of a person, of an animal or of a fantasy figure. The student or teacher is allowed to an audio to the avatar in order to make it appear as if it is talking, or to make it appear as if it is interacting with the person who’s doing the presentation. The student or teacher may then add the avatar to a blog, wiki or website.

5 – Polldaddy

The students or teachers can create polls online for fee. It gives very clear and easy step on how to do it, which will not only help the teacher learn it, but will also help him/her teach his/her students how to use it. The poll and the end results can both be published on blogs and websites. Many projects require analysis and evaluation, and this tool will allow the teacher to collect the raw data for the students to work with.

6 –  Essay Checker

A good essay checker is hard to find, but is an invaluable teachers tool. A teacher may easily check the spelling, grammar and basic errors of an essay in no time at all. He or she may also hand the tool down to his or her students so that they may gain a benefit from the essay checking tool. Not only does it flag errors for you to check, but it will also offer solutions to those errors.

About the author: Maria is a writer for Scholar Advisor, an education portal for students.