12 Top Digital Learning Tools for 2021

Digital learning tools. It seems to be the reoccurring theme in the teacher educator world and I don’t think that is going to change in 2021 either.

Teachers are in high need of motivating, engaging digital learning tools that make their already hectic life easier. Although, I’ve been now teaching from home since March, I still haven’t found that all-in-one resource.

Many of the digital learning tools and resources teachers use have to be used in conjunction. That means that, we have the digital teaching platform, the digital learning tool, and the digital learning resource going all at the same time. In my case, I have a desktop, Chromebook, and a iPad in use throughout each of my lessons.

Although I don’t have the answer to make the use of each item easier. I’m sorry…I do have a list of digital learning tools that I think are pretty cool to use during our digital teaching and learning space.

Digital Learning Tools for the Classroom

1. Freckle

This is an awesome differentiation platform that I just found out about last week. It is made for teachers to teach all students at the level that is best for them. So if you teach multiple levels, or have multiple levels of learners in your classroom, this is for you!

They have a free and premium plan, but the free plan is pretty robust itself. Freckle caters to English Language Arts, Math, Science, and Social Studies and can be integrated with Google Classroom.

The premium plan has Star Math and Star Reading integration and gives more reporting insights for feedback.

If you sign up for free with the link below and start using Freckle, then we’ll both get a free month of their premium product!

2. Padlet

Padlet is like a digital gallery walk for teachers and students. It creates a fun place to give feedback and see responses in real time. You can also share photos and videos that makes it extra fun and engaging.

3. Nearpod

With Nearpod you can make any lesson interactive. You don’t have to start from scratch, just a resource you already have. If you need a lesson you can use the pre-made lesson on their website. You can add formative assessments directy into your lesson to drive student engagement.

Nearpod enables teachers to limit distractions and multitasking during a lesson by broadcasting content and interactive activities to students online devices in real-time. There are free and paid versions but the free version is all you really need to get started.

4. Peardeck

Pear Deck is full free service that is similar to Nearpod. It brings your slide presentations to life. You can build interactive lessons, quizzes, polls right in Pear Deck. Plus, your students will have the ability to interact with your lesson by responding to questions, or prompts on their own screens in real time.

Pear Deck is great because it allows you to see which students may be struggling within the lesson with instant feedback.

5. Flipgrid

Flipgrid is a simple, free, and accessible video discussion experience for teachers and learners at all levels. All you have to do is create a topic and engage!

This is great for discussions, brainstorming, and sharing ideas. To start, all you need is to create a topic for your students, share the join code, and those with the code and join the discussion by recording videos, even just using a photo with text. It’s a fun and interactive digital learning tool to add to any lesson.

6. Ziteboard

Ziteboard is similar to Google Jamboard (see below) in the way of an interactive whiteboard. Ziteboard works on any device and is great for brainstorming, fun writing activities and works collaboratively with your students in real time.

7. Edpuzzle

Edpuzzle – Similar to Per Deck and Nearpod, Edpuzzle is a teaching tool used to place interactive content into pre-existing lessons. In this case with videos that can come from a variety of sources, such as TED or YouTube, or into videos you have made…I create videos in PowerPoint for my students and this is what I integrate with.

Most importantly, Edpuzzle is a free assessment-centered tool that allows teachers and students to create interactive online videos by embedding either open-ended or multiple-choice questions, audio notes, audio tracks, or comments on a video. – edpuzzle.com

8. Gimkit

Gimkit is an ultra fun classroom game-show type platform. Think of it like interactive jeopardy, where students compete by answering questions on their electronic devices. Instead of earning points, students earn virtual currency, which they can “invest” during the game to boost their score. -gimkit.com

And do you know why this is even more of a fun interactive game for students? Gimkit was created by a Seattle area high school student, that just graduated in 2019! With Gimkit, students are engaged and are asking to keep learning. Assignments are taken care of and even graded for you, plus remote lesson plans with your content can be created in minutes!

However, it does come with a cost. Just 1 out of 2 listed in this blog post. Although the you do have a 30 day free trial, Gimkit is $59.88 a year, or you can do a monthly pro plan at $9.99 a month.

9. BrainPOP

BrainPOP is made up of a bunch of educational websites with short animated movies just for students in K-12. This includes quizzes, online teaching resources for all subjects, including health, technology, and arts and music.

You can use BrainPOP to introduce new topics into the classroom. While, individual logins are available for all teachers and students, teachers can share the content with the whole class. Printable materials like quizzes are also available and students can even submit their work for feedback online too. BrainPOP can integrate with Google Classroom. As this is the 2nd digital learning tool that will cost you some money, for a teacher, it is kind of on the expensive side…so if you can, try to use district/building funds if available! 🙂

10. Wakelet

Wakelet is a fun digital learning tool where you can create virtual classrooms, newsletters and more! If you are looking for a way to save, organize and present your multimedia all in one place, Wakelet is for you! it is also great for curating content for both students and teachers. Student can make research reports, collaborate on group projects, use various multimedia programs and even create digital reading logs!

11. Jamboard

Jamboard- Google Jamboard is a fun interactive digital whiteboard app that is free for Ipad and Chromebook users. With Jamboard you can quickly pull images from a Google search, save work to the cloud automatically, use the easy-to-read handwriting and shape recognition tool, and draw with a stylus but erase with your finger. -Google for Education

12. AnswerGarden

AnswerGarden – Their slogan is…”Plant a Question, Grow Answers” and that is just what you do! In a very simple and quick way, this digital learning tool helps you to get feedback through word clouds. As submissions are received in real time, larger fonts indicate the most frequent responses. Which generates easy-to-use online feedback for you and students. Here is the kicker – students can only answer with 20 characters or 40 characters – you choose once you set up the first question!

There is also a bunch of modes: · In Brainstorm Mode, respondents can submit an unlimited number of answers, including unlimited copies of the same answer.

· In Classroom Mode respondents can submit an unlimited number of answers, but may only submit each answer once.

· In Moderator Mode each answer will be submitted to the AntiGarden, so you can manually approve these entries to your AnswerGarden.

· In Locked Mode the AnswerGarden is closed and no new answers can be submitted.

I used it for the first time last week, and students loved it! I had more participation than I ever had through distance learning! Also, if students were stuck or unsure, they can get ideas as more students gave feedback and generated comments.

Extra Digital Learning Tools

I want to use this area below to help grow my list if I come across something I new. If you have anything you want to add below just leave a comment and let’s keep this list growing for teachers across the world!

Kami – helps you create your existing lessons into a interactive learning experience for high engagement and collaboration.