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142 distance learning tools

Timothy MugabiJuly 22, 2020

Student working on a computer

Distance learning is more important (and common) now than ever before. And while it certainly brings a fair share of its own challenges for both students and teachers, it also has a number of benefits.

For students, these tools are new and novel, so they’re sure to engage them in different ways. It’s even possible that some students will discover something they’re passionate about — or really good at — by using these tools. For teachers, each learning tool can come in handy.

So, with that in mind, here are 142 great distance learning tools and resources you can start using today.

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142 distance learning resources

1. Full curriculum/multi-subject tools

  1.  ABC Mouse: Activities, songs, games and quizzes for math, reading, science, and art (pre-K–3) 
  2. BrainPOP: Interactive lessons, including animated videos, mind maps, and quizzes across all major subjects (K–12) 
  3. EducationCity: Lesson plans and activities for English, science, math, languages and computing (pre-K–6). Gives teachers instant, real-time data analysis of students
  4. Flocabulary: A method of teaching English, math, social studies, and other subjects through hip-hop music
  5.  IXL: Personalized learning platform offering math, English, science, and social studies education (K–12)
  6. Khan Academy: Full coverage platform for all subjects K through 12, with a special emphasis on STEM subjects
  7. MathScienceMusic: A collection of various tools designed to help teachers create more engaging lessons for students in math, science and music, and occasionally combines elements of each 
  8. MobyMax: Emphasis on finding and fixing learning gaps. Full curriculum for K–8 
  9. Nearpod: Allows teachers to add interactive elements to existing lessons for greater student engagement or to customize thousands of existing lessons 
  10. NeoK12: Huge collection of games and activities for every subject 
  11. RethinkEd: For teaching behavior and social and emotional learning (SEL) 

2. Classroom management/learning management system (LMS)

  1. TedEd: Thousands of lessons and accompanying quizzes and assessments to test comprehension 
  2. Classcraft: Gamified classroom management tool that engages students through role-playing and quests. Teachers can reinforce positive behavior by awarding points, which students earn by working together, fighting epic bosses, and, of course, learning new things
  3. Blackboard Learn: Organizing classrooms, course management, assessments, and more in a single place
  4. Canvas: An LMS that makes it easy to involve parents, allowing them to see assignments and grades. Offers integration with other popular tools, like Google Docs 
  5. ClassDojo: Easy-to-use classroom management tool that allows teachers to set up student profiles for teachers to view their progress 
  6. Google Classroom: Feature-rich LMS that integrates with other Google tools 
  7. Edmodo: Teachers can communicate with students, share resources, and monitor their progress 
  8. Schoology: Comes with over 200 tools, as well as integration with popular platforms
  9.  Wabisabi: LMS with an emphasis on future-based learning, including critical thinking, mindfulness, and STEM subjects 
  10. Moodle: Widely used and easy-to-use LMS, with the ability to track student progress 

3. Lesson planning/curriculum creation tools

  1. Common Curriculum: Excellent tool to help teachers and senior staff with curriculum creation and lesson planning 
  2. Planboard: Created by Chalk. Allows schools and districts to build unified digital lesson plans and curricula
  3. PlanbookEdu: Lesson planning tool that integrates well with Google educational apps

4. Presentation tools

  1. Buncee: For creating engaging, interactive presentations 
  2. Google Sites: Teachers can make custom sites for their classes, and students can create them for projects and presentations 
  3. Google Slides: Google’s free, online version of PowerPoint 
  4. PearDeck: As well as making their own presentations, students can learn from a variety of interactive webinars 
  5. Slido: Tool for making presentations more interactive. Can be utilized by both students and teachers 
  6. Storyboard That: Allows students to create visual presentations using animated characters

5. Video and communication tools 

  1. Classhook: A library of well-organized video clips and playlists, for integration into lessons 
  2. Edpuzzle: Allows teachers to source videos from YouTube, annotate them, write questions about them, and more 
  3. Flipgrid: Allows students to create videos and give mini-presentations. Created by Microsoft. 
  4. Google Hangouts: Free software that integrates messaging, phone calls, and video conferencing 
  5. Kialo Edu: Encourages discussion, debate and the development of students’ critical thinking skills
  6. Loom: Easy-to-use screen recording software to record and share short screencasts and video messages asynchronously
  7. Pronto: Streamlined chat and video platform, with support for live broadcasts of up to 400 attendees 
  8. Remind: A handy tool that allows teachers to remind students and parents of assignment due dates and other important events
  9. ScreenOMatic: Popular, easy-to-use tool for screen recording and editing 
  10. Skype: One of the most widely used video conferencing apps in the world 
  11. Start.me: Great for creating custom home pages or information portals with resources for students, teachers, and parents 
  12. Talking Points: Multilingual communication app. Especially useful if you have non-native English speakers in your classroom
  13. Video Ask: Great for creating video presentations, instructions and FAQs
  14. Video Scribe: Software for creating quick whiteboard animations 
  15. WeVideo: Online easy-to-use video editing tool that promotes collaboration
  16. WhatsApp: Excellent communication tool for keeping in touch with students 
  17. YouTube: One of the most popular video sharing platforms of our generation. Teachers can arrange relevant resources into playlists or create their own channel with private (or public) lecture videos
  18. Zoom: Widely used video conferencing software that many schools are now using for synchronous lectures

6. English language arts (ELA) tools

  1. ReadWriteThink: Tons of resources for teaching English, including lesson plans, printouts, and interactive exercises for students 
  2. Wordsmyth: Online dictionary with exercises, word lists for improving vocab, quizzes, and puzzles

7. Reading tools

  1. ActivelyLearn: Higher-order questions on a variety of subjects: English, social studies, and more
  2. Book Creator: Students can create digital books online 
  3. Common Lit: Digital library of articles and books for improving student literacy
  4. Epic: Library of digital books and videos for K–5 (Apple and Google Play)
  5. ReadTheory: Thousands of worksheets and activities for improving students’ reading comprehension 
  6. ReadWorks: Tools with a focus on developing comprehension, covers STEM subjects and social studies as well as English 
  7. Starfall: Teaching phonics and math for K–3 through games, books, and songs 
  8. StoryKit: Create books and add multimedia features like voice recording and images (K–5)

8. Writing tools

  1. Boom Writer: Teachers can create assessments and vocab lists to develop students’ writing skills 
  2. Bulb: Online portfolio platform that integrates with lots of popular LMS platforms and educational tools 
  3. Draftin: Simplified version of Google Docs, for collaboration and versioning
  4. Google Docs: Online document creation tool that’s useful for sharing documents, leaving feedback, collaborating in real time, and much more 
  5. Grammarly: Corrects spelling and grammar, helps by pointing out common writing mistakes 
  6. Hemingway: Assists students with improving the readability of their writing by pointing out lengthy sentences, redundant words, grammar misuse, etc., making them more aware of their writing style and offering tips for how to improve it 
  7. Kaizena: Handy text and audio feedback plugin for Google Docs 
  8. Kidblog: Enables students to develop their writing and content creation skills by publishing their own blog posts 
  9. Lightsail: Intuitive e-reading app with interactive elements for keeping students engaged. Allows you to create embedded assignments
  10. Quill: Features a variety of exercises for developing writing and grammar 
  11. Seesaw: Digital portfolio app where students can put their work on display for their teachers and parents. Teachers can track students’ progress over time
  12. Storium: Develops students’ writing skills with an innovative, card-based writing game 
  13. Story Starters: Helps K–6 students to develop their writing skills with a series of prompts. Made by Scholastic

9. Math tools

  1. Cue Think: Teaches math and critical-thinking skills through student collaboration 
  2. Delta Math: Randomly generated math problems, with step-by-step solutions, for middle and high school students 
  3. Desmos: Interactive calculator for plotting curves 
  4. Free Math App: Easy-to-use site for recording digital math work, as well as rapidly annotating work and easily identifying where students are struggling 
  5. Geogebra: Handy tool for plotting 
  6. Happy Numbers: Tools and resources to help K–5 students build a solid foundation in math
  7. Illustrative Mathematics: A comprehensive suite of math curricula, designed to encourage engaging mathematical discussion, supported by tasks, lesson plans, and professional learning
  8. Mathalicious: Teaches math through real-life examples, like pop culture and food, that are of interest to students (grades 6–12)
  9. Mathletics: Enables students to compete in live math challenges, whether internally or against other schools 
  10. Mathonline: Videos, problems, and summaries that allow students to learn at their own pace 
  11. SplashLearn: Great games with a built-in reward system, for K–5 students 
  12. Math Learning Centre: Tools and materials for pre-K to 6 students
  13. Virtual Nerd: Video tutorials aimed at middle school students 
  14. Webmath: From Discovery Education, a math-help website that generates answers to specific math questions and problems, as entered by the user 
  15. Youcubed: Emphasis on helping students develop a creative math mindset through inspirational math problems 

10. Science tools

  1. Gizmos: Large library of math and science simulations 
  2. How to Smile: A collection of materials and activities from a variety of museums, media companies, and educational institutions 
  3. Mystery Science: Engaging, interactive lessons for K–5 
  4. National Geographic: Extensive library of educational resources for teachers and students 
  5. Nova: From PBS, features physics videos and simulations for students, as well as teacher guides 
  6. Science Friday: A great way to give students a science lesson, with new material, including articles and a podcast every week 
  7. Smithsonian Science Education Center: Lots of great teacher resources from the world-renowned Smithsonian Institute
  8. Stemscopes: From CNN, a treasure-trove of materials, videos, and simulations for K–12 students

11. Social studies tools

  1. Parlay: For facilitating class debates and discussions
  2. Flipboard: Curated international news stories for students. Teachers can use these to create assignments
  3. Newseum: Site that educates students on the importance of a free and independent press. Features the front page of daily newspapers from all around the world
  4. Digital Civics Toolkit: Tons of great resources to help teachers bring civics to life for their students 
  5. Model Diplomacy: Enables students to learn about international affairs and diplomacy through simulation and role-playing 

12. Coding and computer studies tools

  1. Code Academy: Introductory coding courses 
  2. Marshmallow Coding: Designed to teach younger students the fundamentals of coding 
  3. Penjee – Fun way to learn the scripting language Python
  4. Tynker: Fun coding exercises and games, including Minecraft 
  5. Scratch: Program interactive animated stories and games, primarily for students ages 8–16
  6. W3schools: Popular website for learning the coding languages that power the web, with accompanying code examples and quizzes
  7. Code.org: Courses and resources for K–12, including an hour of code for those interested in learning more about programming and computer science 
  8. Crunchzilla: Text-based coding games to get students used to programming syntax and variables

13. Music education tools

  1. Cyber Fret: A huge collection of video tutorials for guitar learners
  2. Easy Music: Features animated videos to teach music fundamentals, with voice recording capabilities (Apple and Google Play)
  3. NoteFlight Learn: Create a custom instructional website.Compose, record, assess, and share music with students on any device
  4. Online Metronome: A handy app that offers a digital metronome
  5. Tuner Online: Online tuner for the guitar, ukulele, and other stringed instruments 
  6. WURRLYedu: Extensive music library and lesson plans

14. Language learning tools

  1. Duolingo: Popular gamified app that helps students to learn dozens of languages for free 
  2. Fabulingua: For Spanish learners, instruction through interactive stories
  3. Google Translate: Translation tool, for both language assignments and communication with multilingual families
  4. TeachVid: Teachers can use any YouTube video to create text reconstruction exercises and quizzes

15. Comprehension, assessment, and quiz tools

  1. Edulastic: Huge library of questions that allows teachers to create quick student assessments
  2. Formative: Real-time assessment tool that allows teachers to build, distribute, grade and analyze the results of benchmarks, formative assessments 
  3. Go Conqr: Create flashcards, mind maps, quizzes, and more
  4. Kahoot!: Teachers can create their own learning game or quiz or choose from millions of existing games 
  5. Mentimeter: Create interactive presentations, quizzes, and word clouds
  6. Poll Everywhere: Make presentations more engaging with polls, quizzes, and other interactive elements. Plus, teachers can repurpose old presentations by adding activities to them
  7. Quizlet: Create quizzes and flashcards for reinforcing and testing comprehension
  8. Review Game Zones: Allows you to create games from review questions for fun assessments 
  9. Socrative: Teachers can rapidly create assessments to test students’ comprehension 
  10. Wooclap: Create interactive presentations with polls, ratings, clickable images, etc. 

16. Art and creativity tools

  1. Artsy: For older students who want to increase their art knowledge and awareness 
  2. Bomomo: Experimental drawing tools that allow students of all ages to explore their creativity 
  3. Google Arts and Culture: Tons of art content and resources, including virtual tours of cities, to assist students with art assignments 
  4. Incredible Art Department: Tons of resources for teachers, including lesson plans 
  5. Kids Playzone: From Crayola, games and activities for younger students, as well as lesson plans and resources for teachers
  6. Make Belief Comix: Students can create their own comic strips 
  7. Pixton: Students can express their creativity by creating comics and graphic novels
  8. Toy Theater: Fun Lego-esque building tool for K–8 that builds creativity

17. Student collaboration tools

  1. Edublogs: Allows students to collaborate on blogs and interactive websites. Made by WordPress
  2. ePals: Students can collaborate with peers around the world 
  3. Padlet: Students can create and collaborate on interactive whiteboards, webpages, and docs
  4. Web Whiteboard: A simple tool for brainstorming. Teachers can use it to instruct classes, and students can use it to collect and store collaborative ideas

18. Generally handy tools and resources

  1. Dropbox: For sharing resources and automatically backing them up 
  2. Google Drive – Also for sharing resources. Teachers can share resources with their students 
  3. Pocket: Bookmarking tool for things of interest

Photo credit : Google for Education

Intrinsic motivation: 
The key to tiered intervention

When students care about their behavior, a good tiered intervention program becomes great.

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Distance Learning

Intrinsic motivation: 
The key to tiered intervention

When students care about their behavior, a good tiered intervention program becomes great.

Get playbook