These five online software tools can really help teachers deliver instruction more effectively and enhance the student experience
If you ask any teacher, most of them will tell you that much of their time and effort goes towards planning lessons, arranging tests and creating effective and engaging educational materials. More time and effort is spent on these areas than the actual teaching of the lessons in the majority of cases.
With so many online resources now available on the internet to ease the workload for teachers, this no longer need be the case. While it can be a little daunting for educators move from the traditional “pen and paper” tools to more contemporary online tools, it is a lot easier than you think.
You don’t need to be a computer whiz to reap the benefits of online teaching tools to make your teaching lives a lot easier. Here are some of the top online tools available for teachers.
1. Lesson planners
Think of lesson plans as road maps where you have a general idea of the direction you want the lesson to take, but be prepared for an interesting diversion that could happen along the way. Having a lesson plan helps you maintain focus and ensure you cover all the relevant aspects of your topic.
Therefore, finding anything that can help you to speed up the planning process can be a great tool to have at your disposal.
Online Lesson Plan Maker by Teachnology.com.
With a free online lesson plan maker, “Teachnology” has a dozen of their own teacher resources. You can save your plan after you have generated it and includes a “what to include in your lesson plan” tutorial.
10MinuteLessonPlans.com by Jenson Learning
You can get a free step-by-step lesson plan builder which allows you to create and plan classes in 10 minutes.
2. Gradebooks
A hugely important aspect of your teaching is keeping track of grades. Grade tracking helps you to keep a record of, not only student test scores, but also their attendance and overall progress. Using a software to keep records of students’ scores can make it much easier and quicker to see the progress and areas of improvement needed for each student at a glance.
The Gradekeeper.com.
Gradekeeper is a software download which allows teachers to enter assignments and scores for students. Once entered, Gradekeeper calculates grades as well as providing seating charts and printable reports. You can also receive progress reports by email. Individual licenses are available from $20.
First Class Gradebook by 1st-Class-Software.com.
Heralded as the “best electronic grading / teacher’s Gradebook software on the market today”, this web-enabled Gradebook allows teachers, students and parents to login and see their grades. A free trial is also offered.
3. Polling and survey tools
Online survey tools are an important addition to a teacher’s arsenal as it allows you to get feedback from students, parents and colleagues. Not only will it allow you to find out the opinions of the parents of your students, but will also allow you to gather information of the areas that students may feel they need more help with or clarification on.
Obsurvey.com
Obsurvey is web survey software that allows you to create a survey using over 30 done-for-you survey templates. It is tool for conducting your own online surveys, with your own questions. You don’t need to download any software as it is an online based survey tool where surveys can be distributed online with a personal, password protected link.
Here you can create your own online surveys, collect responses and analyze the results with full automatic reporting provided (including graphs). Results and reports can also be downloaded and printed.
4. Image editing programs
Image editing is fast becoming a required skill for teachers with the need for scanned and drawn illustrations as well as posters, webpage photos and slide show images. Thankfully, you don’t need to be an artist to create eye-catching and smart images with these helpful software aids.
GIMP.org
GIMP is a free, downloadable image editing program for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. It is easy to use and easy to install and can be used for basic and advanced image editing.
PhoXo.com
This is a free and powerful image editing software which takes up very little space on your computer. It is considered a mini Photoshop and allows users to make a variety of image edits with over 50 special effects. It also provides a wide variety of useful and powerful tools such as clip art, cropping, retouching and red-eye removal.
5. Test authoring tools
Teachers and schools give students tests for very important reasons – to see if students are learning, to track progress, assign grades and also to create motivation. Being able to automate the process of creating and distributing educational tests can be a handy tool for any teacher. With these softwares, you can create paper and online tests, worksheets, tutorials and study guides.
QuestionWriter.com
With Question Writer, teachers can create customized professional tests and assessments with 20 different available templates. You can put your quiz on a disc or on the web and results can be viewed online or downloaded to Excel. A 30 day free trial is available.
EduIQ.com
With a few mouse clicks you can create e-tests for students with EduIQ’s “Advanced eLearning Builder” authoring tool. It allows teachers to generate e-learning materials such as tests, tutorials and quizzes. The tests created with the builder are then graded and supplied with a customizable commentary.
Claire Morgan graduated from Sussex University, U.K. with a BA in Media Studies in 2005. In 2006, she moved to London and started her 5 year term with a well-renowned non-profit music licensing organization in London and was promoted to Business Support in 2010.
