CATESOL Reflections Part 2: Tech

Anytime I’m at a conference or around other educators, I always listen for mentions of new tech tools for teaching. If I hear someone mention a website or app, I jot the name down, so I can check it out later. Afterall, you can never have too many tools in your toolkit. This year at CATESOL I didn’t come away empty handed. This post covers some new things I heard about.

1. Great big story

This one is definitely my favorite. It’s a website with many short video stories. The videos are all professionally done and engaging. The best part is they’re all perfectly captioned, so they meet accessibility standards.

2. Sli.do

I haven’t had too much time to check this one out yet, but it seems promising. It’s a platform that allows you to ask questions and have students answer in real time which you can display on the screen for all to see. I imagine it in some ways similar to to socrative.com. According to the presenters, you can set it so answers are anonymous to help encourage participation.

3. Explain Everything

This is a video design website where you can create animated videos. I haven’t tried it yet, but it looks on par with Powtoons. It does have a free option, but you’re limited with the number of projects you can create.

4. ELLLO

This one seems promising. It’s a website with tons of videos at various levels. The videos have quizzes along with them, so this is a great place for learners to go for extra practice.

5. Hypothes.is

This is a Chrome extension that allows you to highlight or annotate text on any web page. With more and more happening online these days, this tool offers teachers and students the ability to take notes on the digital texts they read.

6. Flipgrid

I haven’t checked this one out yet, but I’ve heard from a number of different people that it’s a great platform. It’s an interactive and creative platform that lets students post and respond to videos.

What is your favorite tech tool to use? Pass it along in the comment section below.

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