It's that time again! Teaching from home time, and this time you want to up your game a bit make your lessons a rich, interactive dimension to Online Learning for your students. Here are 5 super terrific, easy, and free tried and tested teacher tools to use to create engaging online learning. These tools can be used with students from preschool to post-school.
This super terrific resource allows educators to create interactive teaching content which can be shared online and offline. It is super easy to use as a drag and drop, web-based builder. With Genially you can create presentations, infographics, games, interactive images, and training materials. While a free membership allows educators to create an unlimited number of creations and views and templates. A subscription gives access to extra features including offline views, downloading content as PDF and JPG (image files), as well as, analytics and advanced graphs and charts.
Click to see and interact with this awesome example of an Interactive Image: https://view.genial.ly/60e828b6ab0a5010151b8afa/interactive-image-interactive-image
This super terrific resource allows educators to Teach, Monitor, and Coach all in the online space using, video and an interactive student whiteboard. This can be shared on one of the multiple student devices and controlled by the teacher on the other virtual end, a perfect companion for online learning. Getting started is easy and support is readily accessible through easy-to-follow user guides and live webinars. Watch the video of this resource in action.
This absolutely fabulous and super terrific tool allows educators to remove the backgrounds from images or videos and make these transparent. This is perfect for building custom slides to share with students, or even as a tool for students to remove backgrounds and use their photos or videos as part of digital media projects. To use the site you simply upload your photos or videos, wait and then download a copy of the image with the background removed. Have a look at the example below:
Before After
One of my favourite online super terrific tools, is Nearpod. Nearpod is fantastic for making online learning interactive, engaging and purposeful. Nearpods can be set up for self-paced learning experiences which would work well with older students and for flipped learning approaches or can be used as live interactive sessions. Educators can create lessons, videos or activities.
These work a treat when students log in to the same virtual space as the teacher such as through a Zoom, Meets or via Teams session. Students join experiences using the weblink and join codes.
The teacher can control the sequence of slides, set up interactive activities and view student responses in real-time and even incorporate hands-on interactive games, AR experiences and group collaborative experiences as part of the lesson. At the end of the lesson, the teacher can download a report and a copy of student's responses to the tasks set during the Nearpod. The best part of Nearpod is the integration of the site with Google Slides, so you turn your Google Slide into a Nearpod in a matter of clicks.
The Nearpod Library is full of a broad range of templates, activities, lessons, videos and resources for teachers to duplicate, modify and use. Try out one of my self-paced Nearpod lessons and see how it works for yourself.
CreatorStudio is a Google Slides Add-On that allows educators to convert their slides to GIFs & Videos. It is a free add on and as easy to use as clicking a button. You will need to find the Creator Studio from the Google Marketplace by clicking the Add On button.
Once installed you can find the Creator Studio under the Add-Ons menu. Here you can select either video, gif or SlideCast. You can then select which output you would like to convert your file to and follow the wizard to creator your output.
See the finished product below.
For video tutorials on using any of these wonderful tools visit www.marvellousmrsk.com
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