LibGuides: Doctoral Student Guide: Tools for Educators

Tools

There are a ton of websites, software platforms, lists, apps, frameworks, and more for teachers now to help inform and improve their practice. In this digital age of teaching these tools are more valuable then ever to help engage students no matter where they are.

This is a curated list of resources that may help in the classroom, business meeting, or any other thing you have to do in person or through Zoom.

See the next tab and hover over the info button (the "i") for brief descriptions.

Equity in the classroom is increasing in emergence so resources to improve practice in this area specifically will be added to that tab as well.

If you have resources to contribute please email me.

350+ Online Learning Resources from We Are Teachers 350+ Amazing Online Learning Resources
CA Department of Education Links for Distance Learners Below is a non-comprehensive list of publishers offering free distance learning resources. At the URL listed, users can learn about the specific resources available as publishers continue to expand their offerings. Districts are not mandated to utilize only state-adopted instructional materials, and many classrooms utilize a network of resources. In this list below, educators and parents/guardians may discover the individual resources they want for a particular need. Please note that this list is comprised of publishers who have offered their site information. The California Department of Education (CDE) has not reviewed these sites and resources, nor does the CDE in any way endorse or specifically recommend these resources. Users should carefully conduct their own evaluation based upon their own specific local needs and the appropriateness of the resources offered.
Canva Create infographics, social media, posters, flyers, etc. easily!
ClassDojo ClassDojo connects teachers with students and parents to build amazing classroom communities
Easel.ly Create inforgraphics easily and beautifully!
Flipgrid Flipgrid is a simple, free, and accessible video discussion experience for PreK to PhD educators, learners and families. Create a Topic and engage your community...together!
Flowvella Blow your audience away in one interactive presentation experience. By combining words, images, video, links, galleries, and PDFs, your story transforms into an interactive, engaging conversation.
Google Slides
Hewlett Foundation Resources for Distance Learning As more schools transition to at-home and distance learning during the COVID-19 crisis, there are hundreds of new people and places joining the digital learning field for the first time, looking for engaging and responsive resources for students and educators. We are curating a list of helpful online learning resources from our partners, many of which are freely downloadable, remixable and revisable and in the public domain. Resources created by our open education partners are marked with a double asterisk (**), and may be more likely to include customizable content for at-home learning.
Hopscotch bite sized coding
Jamboard Spark students to learn, collaborate, and engage in active new ways with the Jamboard mobile app or 55-inch cloud-powered whiteboard. Jamboard is run through Google
Kahoot Interactive, customizable games/quizzes - check them out
Kudo Board Online group card - celebrate and give kudos virtually!
Ludus For most people, a presentation is basically a marketing material. But to us, it’s a tool to communicate, to collaborate, to learn, and to play. And we believe it should be fun to build. We think Ludus, should be the playground for your imagination. A place where you create and share the most incredible stories, with a little magic touch. We’ll always do our best to make you shine, because at the end what truly matters is what you’re saying, not the tool you’re using.
Nearpod Upload and make any of your favorite PowerPoints, Google Slides, and now, any video interactive. You can even upload videos directly from YouTube. Or, search our standards-aligned library of 8,500+ interactive lessons and videos across all grades and subjects.
Padlet Padlet is a free online tool that is best described as an online notice board. Padlet can be used by students and teachers to post notes on a common page. The notes posted by teachers and students can contain links, videos, images and document files. It's super fun and easy to use
Pear Deck The fastest way to transform presentations into classroom conversations. Imagine if you could engage every student in your class, every day. What if you could instantly see who’s confused and who’s ready for more? That’s the power of Pear Deck. While Pear Deck has always worked with Google Apps for Education, now teachers at schools using Microsoft Office 365 apps like PowerPoint Online and Teams can add the magic of formative assessments and interactive questions to their classroom experience.
Prezi Have you ever sat through a really boring presentation and felt like you learned nothing? We’re here to change that. At our core, we’re a very different kind of presentation software, but what we really do goes way beyond that. We’re a presentation resource, on a mission to reinvent how people share knowledge, tell stories, and inspire their audiences to act.
Project Zero This toolbox highlights Thinking Routines developed across a number of research projects at PZ. A vast array of PZ's work has explored the development of thinking, the concept of thinking dispositions, and the many ways routines can be used to support student learning and thinking across age groups, disciplines, ideals, competencies, and populations. Thinking Routines originated in PZ’s Visible Thinking research initiative. Over the years, researchers enhanced and expanded upon the original routines, and new projects developed new routines. Some of the larger PZ research projects focused on enhancing thinking include Artful Thinking, Cultures of Thinking, Agency by Design, PZ Connect, and Interdisciplinary & Global Studies.
Remind Two-way communication for updates, instruction, and more—at every level in your organization.
Scratch With Scratch, you can program your own interactive stories, games, and animations — and share your creations with others in the online community. Scratch helps young people learn to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively — essential skills for life in the 21st century. Scratch is a project of the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Lab. It is provided free of charge.
Seesaw Students explore a variety of powerful and intuitive tools (like draw+record, collage, video, and more!) to show what they know in the way that works best for them
Slidebean Pitch Deck Design Create powerful presentations. Use our AI-powered online presentation tools, or consult with our team of experts.
Socrative Immediate feedback is a vital part of the learning process. Socrative gives you just that for the classroom or office – an efficient way to monitor and evaluate learning that saves time for educators while delivering fun and engaging interactions for learners.
Visme Design and share beautiful on-brand presentations, infographics and any other visual communications for you and your team.

CUE Racial Equity Tools CUE’s Racial Equity Tools aim to change the minds, hearts, and practices of faculty, staff, and leaders—all of whose collaboration is essential to achieve racial equity in higher education.
Equity Unbound Equity Unbound is an emergent, collaborative curriculum which aims to create equity-focused, open, connected, intercultural learning experiences across classes, countries and contexts. Equity Unbound was initiated by Maha Bali @bali_maha (American University in Cairo, Egypt), Catherine Cronin @catherinecronin (National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching & Learning in Higher Education, Ireland), and Mia Zamora @MiaZamoraPhD (Kean University, NJ, USA) for use in their courses this term (September-December 2018), but it is open to all. Equity Unbound is for learners and/or educators at all levels (e.g. undergraduate, postgraduate, professional development) who are interested in exploring digital literacies with an equity and intercultural learning focus, in an open and connected learning environment. Our motto is: “The only way to make borders meaningless is to keep insisting on crossing them.” (Lina Mounzer)
Students at the Center Hub Students at the Center helps educators to understand and make use of current research on student-centered approaches to teaching and learning. Our goal is that each student – with a special focus on students who identify as Black or Brown, have learning differences, are English Language Learners, have recently immigrated or are low-income – have meaningful opportunities to acquire skills, knowledge and dispositions so that each student realizes their fullest potential.
Teaching Tolerance Our mission is to help teachers and schools educate children and youth to be active participants in a diverse democracy. Teaching Tolerance provides free resources to educators—teachers, administrators, counselors and other practitioners—who work with children from kindergarten through high school. Educators use our materials to supplement the curriculum, to inform their practices, and to create civil and inclusive school communities where children are respected, valued and welcome participants.
Ungrading in a Pandemic Not necessarily equity based, but certainly care based, this blog post is a strategy on how to incorporate student voice and needs into coursework