Explore 75+ Useful EdTech Tools for K-12 & Higher Education

Which EdTech tools do our ShapingEDU Community members find most useful when teaching their students? We asked our Community experts and changemakers to upvote for the tools they deemed most helpful. Then, we organized these tools using ShapingEDU Innovator in Residence Dr. Ruben Puentedura’s EdTech Quintet framework to present to you more than 75 EdTech tools to discover.

Check out which tools made the list:

Gaming

Tools that allow for playful exploration of ideas, and in doing so construct feedback loops that help grasp better what is and is not understood.

• Baamboozle
  Free gaming platform.
   
• Blooket
  A modern classroom review game.
   
• Duolingo
  Free language learning apps that provide language certification.
   
• Escape Rooms
  The College of Charleston Libraries offers tutorials on how to implement an educational escape room concept.
   
• Flippity
  A free resource that allows for the creation of quizzes, flash cards, presentations, memory games, word searches and more.
   
• Jeopardy PowerPoint Template
  A game template which recreates Jeopardy!'s show and includes realistic pictures, questions and even sounds.
   
• Khan Academy
  Free online courses, lessons and practice in math, art, computer programming, economics, physics, chemistry, biology, medicine, finance, history and more.
   
• Kahoot!
  An online game-based learning platform used to generate multiple-choice quizzes.
   
• Slido
  An interaction app to engage your participants with live polls, Q&A, quizzes and word clouds.
   
• StudyMate
  A smarter way to make flash cards.

Mobility

Tools that allow us to fulfill the promise of "anytime, anyplace" technologies, creating and exploring anywhere in the world, and grounding hybrid learning

• AutoDesk
  A suite of emerging technology software tools.
  
  
• Canvas / Canvas Network
  Canvas is a learning management system, while Canvas Network offers open, online courses taught by global educators.
   
• Curriki
  Nonprofit organization that developed CurrikiStudio, a free full-service learning content authoring suite designed to create dynamic and engaging curriculum online for seamless delivery to learners.
   
• Google Drive / Google Docs
  Free cloud-based storage service that allows educators and students to digitally store and share Google documents and more.
   
• Google Docs Voice Typing
  You can type and edit by speaking in Google Docs or in Google Slides speaker notes. Only available in Chrome browsers.
   
• Google Sites
  Collaboratively create engaging, high-quality sites for your team, project or event. The sites look great on every screen, from desktop to smartphone. All without learning design or programming.
   
• Google Search Advanced Feature
  When you perform a Google Search, you can filter your results to find images that offer licenses for reuse.
   
• H5P
  Create, share and reuse interaction html5 content in your browser.
   
• iNaturalist
  A nature app that helps you identify the plants and animals around you. A joint initiative by the California Academy of Sciences and the National Geographic Society.
   
• Peardeck
  Designed to support proven strategies in daily classroom instruction, this app allows administrators to support effective instruction, allows teachers to create impactful lessons and allows students to actively engage with lessons.
   
• Scannable
  A scanner app for documents that captures the paper in your life quickly and beautifully, transforming it into high-quality scans ready to save or share.
   
• Screencastify
  A leading screen recorder for Chrome.

Social

Tools that allow us to communicate with each other, collaborate on projects, and share the results of our collaboration

• Accredible
  Design your own professional badges in five steps.
   
• AnswerGarden
  A minimalistic feedback tool used for real-time audience participation, online brainstorming and classroom feedback.
   
• Calendly
  A scheduling automation platform to eliminate back-and-forth emails for finding the perfect time.
   
• ClassDojo
  A tool that connects primary school teachers, students and families through communication features like photos and videos and messaging.
   
• Doodle
  Free online scheduling tool.
   
• FlipGrid
  A free video discussion app from Microsoft, in which curious minds connect in safe, small groups to share videos, build community, and learn together.
   
• Hypothesis
  An online tool to annotate the web and engage your students with social annotation.
   
• Loom
  Video communication tool. Works on any device using Loom’s desktop and mobile apps or Chrome extension.
   
• Nearpod
  A student engagement platform designed to make teaching with tech easier by engaging students with interactive learning experiences.
   
• Notability
  A note taking app that allows you to present and share your notes, record and replay your notes and more.
   
• Padlet
  A cloud-based software-as-a-service, hosting a real-time collaborative web platform where users can upload, organize, and share content to virtual bulletin boards.
   
• Perusall
  A social learning platform that encourages students to engage with each other and course material to create a collaborative learning experience.
   
• Plickers
  A free, accessible and engaging educational tool to assess students and collect instant results in the classroom.
   
• Remind
  A communication platform for teachers, families and administration.
   
• Socrative
  A classroom app for fun, effective engagement and formative assessment.
   
• Triceder
  A web-based app that is an easy brainstorming and voting tool to make group decisions amazingly easy.
   
• Wakelet
  This app allows you to save, organize and share content from across the web.
   
• Zoom
  Video conferencing platform.
   
• Zotero
  A free, easy-to-use tool to help you collect, organize, annotate, cite, and share research.

Storytelling

Tools that capture aspects of the world as text, drawings, photos, or videos, and allow me to make meaning about the world I’ve been exploring by telling stories about it for others.

• Adobe Express
  Free web and mobile design app to edit images and video.
   
• Animoto
  A cloud-based video creation service that produces video from photos, video clips and music into video slideshows.
   
• Audacity
  Free, open source software, Audacity is an easy-to-use, multi-track audio editor and recorder for Windows, MacOS, GNU/Linux and other operating systems.
   
• Canva
  A free-to-use online graphic design tool to create social media posts, presentations, posters, videos, logos and more.
   
• CleverPDF
  Offers 44 powerful and permanently free online PDF tools.
   
• EdPuzzle
  An app to create beautiful interactive video lessons for your students.
   
• Explain Everything
  Whiteboarding tool that allows you to create engaging lessons, assign activities and tasks, record instructions and give interactive presentations.
   
• Grammarly
  Free grammar checker to check your English text for grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors.
   
• HitFilm
  Powerful VFX & video editing software to make films your way.
   
• Imaginary Teleprompter
  Free professional online and offline open source teleprompter tool.
   
• Jimdo
  Online tool to create a professional website or online store with the website builder.
   
• Microsoft Sway
  A Microsoft Office app that allows you to create visually striking newsletters, presentations and documentation.
   
• Pixlr
  Photo editing and design tools.
   
• PowToon
  A visual communication platform to make jaw-dropping videos and presentations.
   
• Speakflow
  Helps you record videos and seamlessly collaborate with your team — all from your web browser.
   
• StoryMap
  Tell stories about photography or art, or to show a journey on a historic map.
   
• Strikingly
  Easiest website editor possible.
   
• TED-Ed
  TED’s youth and education initiative. This award-winning education platform includes a growing library of original animated videos, an international platform for teachers to create their own interactive lessons, teaches presentation literacy skills and celebrates innovative leadership within TED-Ed’s global network of more than 650,000 teachers.
   
• ThingLink
  Award-winning education technology platform that makes it easy to augment images, videos and virtual tours with additional information and links.
   
• TinEye
  An image search and recognition company; experts in computer vision, pattern recognition, neural networks and machine learning.
   
• Twine
  An open-source tool for telling interactive, nonlinear stories.
   
• Veed
  An online-only, web-based platform for video creators to edit and publish their work. Add subtitles, transcribe audio and more.
   
• Video Ant
  A web-based video annotation tool for mobile and desktop devices.
   
• Web Captioner
  A video tool that makes your event, speech or classroom lecture accessible with real-time captioning.
   
• WeVideo
  A cloud-based editing platform that allows users of all skill levels the opportunity to create professional-style videos, podcasts and more.
   
• Wheel of Names
  A free, easy to use, and highly customizable website that you can use to pick a random item from a list.
   
• YouTube
  Online video sharing and social media platform; the second most visited website after Google Search.

Visualization

Tools that translate abstract concepts like a number, a position in space, or a set of events in time, into a tangible two- or three-dimensional object as a graph, map, or timeline

• 3D Warehouse
  Share and download SketchUp 3D models for architecture, design, construction and fun!
  
  
• Dotstorming
  A collection of tools that enable collaborative brainstorming, planning and decision making.
   
• Genial.ly
  Create presentations, infographics and other content by yourself or with a team.
   
• Gliffy
  Enterprise-grade diagramming software that allows any team to visually share ideas.
   
• Jamboard
  A digital interactive whiteboard. Developed by Google.
   
• Miro
  A visualization collaboration platform that enables teams to work effectively together, from brainstorming to planning to managing workflows.
   
• SketchUp
  3D modeling software.

Honorable Mention | The Padagogy Wheel
A comprehensive and graphical list of apps developed by Allan Carrington (Designing Outcomes, Adelaide, Australia) that includes Bloom’s Cognitive Domain Categories and Dr. Ruben Puentedura’s SAMR Model!

Now that you know what EdTech tools to consider for this year, browse our recommended reading list for Fall 2022.

Special thanks to the changemakers at State University of New York (SUNY)’s EmTech WIKI team for helping to populate this list! Learn more at https://suny.edu/emtech.