NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK: Every year, ISTE has a startup pavilion where up-and-comer companies strut their stuff. Here are a few that caught the eyes of teacher attendees--and ours, too.
Free! Nexed’s Answerables provide a virtual learning ecosystem for you and your students. Explore your PODS, or Personal Online Development Space, to help your avatar find online PD, or help your students create accounts to find resources, like tutoring from certified teachers or a DNA puzzle game. Users under 13 need parental consent.
Free! Kornukopia’s cloud-based LMS (learning management system) provides a platform for teachers to create assignments, from term papers to participation grades, and attach grading rubrics and due dates. The assignment syncs up with the student’s calendar, and grades enter into the school-wide administrative system.
Free! K-12 Nest offers lesson plans and resources from a range of experts and nonprofits. Introduce tricky concepts to your students with a curriculum on teaching about racial bias from the Southern Poverty Law Center, or check out ideas for Fourth of July learning activities. While K-12 Nest is free, some of the resources come with a price tag.
Free! On Class Journals, you can create and distribute assignments to students, and evaluate their work. Create recurring assignments (like weekly lab reports), track student changes, and add additional instructions to an assignment after it has been distributed. Educators should obtain parental consent before sharing information about students under 13 on Class Journals.
