SEATTLE ROLL-CALL: We brought 30+ edtech tools and entrepreneurs to Seattle this past Saturday. To celebrate, here are five S’Cool Tools that graced the EdSurge Seattle Summit with their presence!
Free! Smart decision-making is one of the most important skills for students to develop--and one of the toughest to teach. PlayForward offers a way for your students to learn about the outcomes of their decisions before living through tough choices. Students learn about risk reduction and HIV prevention by directing an avatar and seeing the consequences--but in the game, unlike life, students get unlimited do-overs.
Free! Are you looking for resources and ideas for your STEM classroom? Check out 21 Teach, a free library of K-12 apps, e-books, videos, games, assessments and more, covering material from counting to statistics. (Using the 21 Teach database is free, but some of the linked material does involve fees.)
Freemium: Want to prepare, distribute, collect and grade assignments on your iPad? You can via the Skaffl platform; in addition, students can upload, write, draw and edit assignments directly on the app, which you can see in real time. Skaffl also functions offline, so you can grade and organize student work on the go.
Freemium: Running into roadblocks while trying to develop curricula according to Common Core State Standards? ThemeSPARK, developed by a former teacher, breaks down standards into discrete steps to incorporate into your lesson plan, from distinguishing different points of view to citing textual evidence in primary sources.
Freemium: It’s wonderful when students want to develop their interests through independent reading--but it can be tough to recommend books when you don’t share your seventh grader’s curiosity in space pirates or time travel comic books. Artifact recommends good reads for your students using criteria such as plot, style, and reading level.
