Greener Green - Developing sustainability practices in primary schools

Digital tools for teachers

As a school teacher or a Project Manager it’s important to lead various stakeholders, your students or school organization toward the same goal.

Again, to do this in your school, cooperating with the parents of your students that everyday come to fetch their children to school and take them after the school finishes, or with members of the local community, you may not require the use of digital tools.

It is always useful to know which tools exist and to choose in which cases it would be helpful for you to use the latest technology as a vehicle. The last years a great amount of platforms have been developed to support such actions, overcome time consuming processes and promote cooperation. In the following we present for your information examples of these platforms and their features.

Interactive presentation

Interactive presentations are not only useful for events, but also for presenting a lesson as they can easier be remembered by children.

CmapTools  

CmapTools, developed by IHMC, is a free software that enables users to build, navigate, share, and critique knowledge models using concept maps. It offers various features including the ability to create maps on personal computers, share them on servers across the Internet, link them to other maps on servers, automatically generate web pages, collaborate with other users in real-time, and search for relevant information on the web. This software is widely used for visually representing understanding.

Features

·        Creating questions for live interaction

·        Design of Cmaps that can be shared online

·        Edit your map simultaneously with other users

Mentimeter 

Mentimeter is a tool that enables the creation of interactive presentations with features such as questions, polls, puzzles, images, and slides. Audience members can participate via mobile devices and provide answers or feedback on the presentation's topic. The results can be exported and provide valuable insights for all stakeholders. Mentimeter makes presentations engaging and interactive, encouraging participation and including mobile compatibility, making it user-friendly for students.

Features

·        There is a special account for teachers, with special functions for teaching.

·        Students can join your Mentimeter without account and just by  filling  in a unique code to access your Mentimeter

·        Mentimeter automatically compares and analyses the results of students answers.

Prezi 

Prezi is a tool for creating presentations that offers an alternative to traditional slide-making programs like PowerPoint. Instead of slides, it utilizes a large canvas that allows you to highlight specific ideas by selecting and zooming in. It supports text, images, and videos, and offers a collection of templates to choose from. With the ability to move and zoom freely, Prezi is more organized, engaging, persuasive, and effective than PowerPoint, with dynamic visuals and movement instead of static text.

Features

·        Prezi offers educational free access for teachers and students so they can create their own private presentations.

·        Ability for online and offline presentation

·        Ability for a voice-over

·        Use the mobile app as a remote clicker

ISSUU 

Issuu is an online platform that enables users to view digital publications such as books, magazines, and newspapers. The platform mimics the layout of print publications, allowing users to view two pages at a time and navigate through pages with animation. Users can also save a copy of the documents to their device. Additionally, Issuu offers a feature called Smart Look which allows other websites to convert their hosted documents into digital editions. In 2009, Issuu was recognized by Time magazine as one of the best 50 sites and received an award from the Webby Awards.

Features

·        Create stories using text and photo content, and share them on Instagram.

·        Incorporate animations and generate a video for each page of content for easy sharing on social networks.

·        Publish in AMP format on amp.issuu.com and save videos to your phone.

Animation creation

The creation of animations is funny and engaging for schoolchildren.

Make a GIF 

Make a Gif is a user-friendly application that allows you to create animated GIFs from videos, pictures, webcam footage, and YouTube videos. It offers simple steps for creating GIFs, making it a fun and interactive way to create "stories" using your own pictures. With this platform, you can easily showcase the progress of a procedure or event, and exchange GIFs without the need for words. GIFs are known for their high engagement and interaction rate, making them an excellent choice for capturing your audience's attention.

Features

·        You can turn pictures, YouTube, FaceBook, Video and webcam to an animated GIF

·        Include GIFs in PowerPoints to present and show results

ThingLink 

ThingLink transforms images into interactive visual stories, presentations, and tours by allowing users to tag images, videos, and 360 media with additional information, audio, video, embeds, and web links. This creates multiple "hot spots" on specific parts of an image, turning it into a multimedia launcher. In the classroom, ThingLink can be used for technology instruction, professional development, student work publication, and creating interactive student reports.

Features

·        Upload your own image or video and make it interactive

·        Use media of other users

·        Provides an option for separate account for teachers with specialized features

Animaker 

Animaker is a web-based animation software that can be used for a range of purposes including marketing, education, business, and personal videos. It features a simple drag-and-drop interface and a variety of templates to help users create their desired video style with ease, without the need for any installations.

Features

·        Use Animaker to make your presentation more interesting

·        Great amount of images and formats

·        Import images, characters and audio in your video

·        Access to Animaker Class,  a creative toolkit for classrooms 

Digital collaboration and assessment 

Google keep 

Google Keep is a free app for creating, managing, saving, and sharing text-based memos, lists, images, and voice notes, which can be accessed on any device with internet access. Ideal for quick note-taking on the go, it launched in 2013 and connects to Google Drive.

Features

·        Keep is user-friendly with a minimal and intuitive interface.

·        It excels in voice notes, converting speech to text and saving the original recording.

·        With the ability to use the app anytime and anywhere,

·        It's great for sharing notes with students or colleagues.

OneNote   

OneNote is the perfect tool for organizing your classes. Keep your teaching materials and curriculum in a private digital notebook that can be accessed from any device, allowing you to easily adapt, adjust, or edit your notes anytime and anywhere. Incorporate handwritten notes, videos, and images to add clarity to your notes, and share the content with your class to spark discussion and add additional notes.

Features

·        OneNote can synchronize your notes to any other device you use

·        Access from different locations even offline

·        Ability to use a class notebook for collaboration with your students

·        OneNote is part of Office 365 package

Padlet 

Padlet is a free, user-friendly tool for collaborative digital pin-up boards, ideal for brainstorming or sharing information. Users can share text, opinions, questions, images, websites, or combinations thereof on a single board, which can be shared through multiple channels. The board updates in real-time as changes are made by other users, making Padlet an interactive tool suitable for use in classrooms, group assignments, or remotely.

Features

·        Padlet Backpack is a separate account for teachers that offers special features for in-class teaching.

·        It allows teachers to invite students to contribute without requiring registration

·        Supports a wide range of file types that can be used on the padlet.

·        Teachers can also share their padlets with peers.

Plickers 

Plickers is a free tool which enables you as a teacher to ask multiple choice questions and gather answers from students, without need to use devices. Personal paper cards with unique barcodes,  held by students  in a certain position will be able to answer your question. After scanning with the Plickers app, you immediately get an overview of all answers given by your students. Plickers is an activating tool, which you can use to start your class, get opinions or just practicing curriculum just before examining.

Features

·        Immediate results

·        Get a clear overview from the scoresheet in the app that you use as a teacher

·        Students don’t need devices

Game based learning

Children love games. To insert some gaming elements in the education is challenging for them and triggers their interest.

Kahoot! 

Kahoot! is an educational technology platform that allows for the creation, discovery, and sharing of fun learning games in minutes. These games, which are multiple-choice quizzes, can be used for any subject and in any language, and can be accessed through a web browser, phone, or the app. It's easy to use for all ages, and can be used for reviewing student knowledge, formative assessment or as an alternative to traditional classroom activities.

Features

·        Students can use their devices to join the game

·        Account is not necessary

·        There is a separate account for schools with extra features

·        Kahoot! Provides real time results to the teacher

Quizlet 

Quizlet trains students through learning cards, games and tests. Quizlet is the easiest way to study and  practice whatever you are in the process to learn. Create your own educational cards or make your choice among the millions of cards created by others. You need 5 to 10 minutes to prepare and you can generate and visualize hundreds of hours of activities on computer, mobile, tablets or exercises that could be printed.

Features

·        Different modes: Learn Mode, Write Mode, Combine Mode and educational cards

·        Materials to listen in different languages

·        Create educational cards (flashcards) for any subject that you want to involve your students  

Quizizz 

Quizizz is a fun multiplayer classroom activity, that allows all your students to practice together. Quizizz is a tool that allows you to conduct fun assessments both in class and as homework. Each student/team needs one device and you can create and share the quizzes with your peers. Students can directly join a quiz with a game code, without creating an account. Choose from the Quizizz library of millions of teacher-created quizzes, or create your own quiz using the Quizizz editor. In one click you have an overview of results and know where students can improve.

Can you think of a digital tool for teachers that does not apply to the previous categories?