SUTORI

 Sutori is a free digital learning tool for the classroom. It enables teachers and students to create interactive stories through a simple and intuitive interface. Adding images, videos, audio files is done in a few clicks while embedding quiz questions and a commenting system add further interactivity and engagement.From Social Studies to Science, Sutori can be used in every content area and for every grade level.

Some features of it:

• No need for another new account. Sign up with your Google, Microsoft, Facebook logins
• Import and set up your class within minutes. Students will be familiar with the format, while teachers will love the simple interface.
• Multiple users can work in real-time on the same project
• Embed all kinds of links and docs into a presentation
• Embed a Sutori into any website
• Get stats to see who is excelling and who needs a helping hand

You can see my Sutori by clicking the link below

https://www.sutori.com/story/how-to-classify-animals--1672ETNFLVykYtrVGftMFhLe

edX

edX is a massive open online course (MOOC) provider. It hosts online university-level courses in a wide range of disciplines to a worldwide student body, including some courses at no charge. I took the Spanish course,the beginner level.

   
And since, for this course the certificate is not for free, you can see my progress below.


 

DUOLINGO

 Duolingo is a platform that includes a language-learning website and app, as well as a digital language proficiency assessment exam. The app and the website are free. Duolingo also offers a premium service for a fee. As of January 2019 the language-learning website and app offer 85 different language courses in 24 languages. The app has about 300 million registered users across the world.

 The game is set up as a tree that you must slowly work through. When you get to the end, you’ll get a cute little trophy wearing a flag that represents the language you’re learning.

Each node in the tree consists of several lessons. Each lesson is a level that you must beat by answering questions until the bar fills up, with correct answers bringing the bar up and incorrect ones bringing it down (17 questions if you don’t get any wrong). The types of questions include free translation, putting together a translation with a set of given words, speaking exercises, listening transcription, and picture matching.

When you complete a node, it will turn golden and you will receive some number of the game’s currency “lingots”, which can be used to purchase various bonuses such as costumes for Duo the owl (the game’s mascot), bonus lessons (like Flirting and Idioms), and other fun things. The next row in the tree will also open up for you to do further lessons.

I tried to learn Spanish through this app. If you look at the photos below you may have an idea how the app works,you can see the visuals of types of exercises you come across.

SECOND LIFE

   For those who spent times on the computer and video games over the past thirty years, it’s no wonder that games have shifted a long-lived educational medium, blending game with studying in a process that lectures to the digital generation’s technological education. Between the most influential areas for game-based education is Second Life, a virtual world partially related to online role-playing games, such as Sims Online, only installed with various innovations that can perform it an excellent pedagogical device. 

  Utilizing mouse and keyboard, members move their stylized avatars, or remodel characters, into a luxurious three-dimensional scenery of woods, cliffs, and fields, chatting with other members, and socializing with them at parties, celebrations etc.. Nevertheless, Second Life is solely game member constructed. Namely, citizens completely reconstruct the realm together with the 3D configuration and programming devices equipped for them, a method that approximates an association gathering of Lego building, without that it’s arranged with people logging in from everywhere in the world. For common, the capacity to see over the shoulder of one’s virtual self-seals an area where everything appears achievable, and they’re fortunate to manage this realm as a dependable game for lucid reaming, experience, and examination. This is the game features numerous instructors obtain intriguing about Second Life, where education enhances a pleasant dare to be appreciated in an association context. Indeed from that concise explanation, the educational purposes should be clear. The experience to produce 3D gadgets collectively in actual time with others in the corresponding realm has a tremendous possibility for education building, design, and art policies. Because Second Life is a strict simulation of the real world, and the chances of exploring with actual and physical sciences are infinite. Meantime, the capacity to communicate with people from all over the earth allows administrative and cultural interchange and experimentation in a secure and contained atmosphere. Learners now must be involved in what they are getting as a knowledge. An enveloping atmosphere permits the learner to move, speak, create, and unite with the precious knowledge that they are acquiring – they can be enclosed by it and next they can provide to it. Involvement brings higher and broader, the perception of the topic. Furthermore, virtual worlds propose learners a process to undergo education audibly, kinesthetically, and orally – engaging the requirements of all the education methods at once. For example, English can be a frightening and abstract case for several learners. Thanks to Second Life, you can compose language learning easy. You can clearly illustrate how English grammar and speaking skills applying with doing role-plays. Educators can help students who struggle with language learning win an extensive attention by supporting them virtually with visualizing ideas.

This is the Avatar that I created

VIDCAST

  Vidcast is basically a podcast with video content. It can be used for educational purposes, creating videos about the lesson of the day. It would also make a difference for students.And good, helpful for students with visual intelligence.As a teacher you might want your students to prepare a vidcast, it would help them better understand the topic and even they have a Youtube channel or some kind of account they may share it on that platform.
  Vidcast is also fun to prepare, there are some programs that can be used to prepare those videos.One of them is Powtoon which I have used.

Click to see my vidcast made with Powtoon

VIRTUAL REALITY

  Virtual Reality (VR) is the use of computer technology to create a simulated environment. Unlike traditional user interfaces, VR places the user inside an experience. Instead of viewing a screen in front of them, users are immersed and able to interact with 3D worlds. By simulating as many senses as possible, such as vision, hearing, touch, even smell, the computer is transformed into a gatekeeper to this artificial world. The only limits to near-real VR experiences are the availability of content and cheap computing power.

When it comes to VR in education, I believe if you go to the links below, they will express it to you more thoroughly. You can listen the students' experiences, teachers' thoughts about VR and see how they use it in the classroom for what purposes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXYzj6qwCCk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJW2i5urzVk

VIDEO GAMES

  Video games are an interactive entertainment. They promote intellectual skills that support academic achievement. Educational video games promote student engagement. They are inherently incentive-based systems with the player being rewarded for solving a problem or completing a mission, while meeting certain criteria. As a result, video games train a systematic way of thinking as well as an understanding for how different variables affect each other.

  Even if video games are seen as detrimental for some people, they have their benefits. Video games draw students' attention and helps them learn and have fun at the same time. With the young learners, using those games as a material in the classroom would make them more eager to learn. Because for them it is not a boring, common lesson. Those are the children who grew up with technology,no teacher can make them sit all along and do nothing during the lesson . But when games come into play things are different, they don't even consider it as a lesson for them it is just a game but they learn things through it. 

  However, some schools benefit from these games, it still is not common. Economically, it might be a bit hard to have these games ,this technology in schools. But soon every school should be adapted. 

MINDMEISTER

  Mindmeister is an online mind mapping and collaboration tool that runs on mobile devices and on your web browser.But what is mind mapping and how it can help students to raise their achievement.Mind mapping is a great tool to increase creativity, boost memory and improve understanding of complex topics. Maps can store and structure vast amounts of information.They display hierarchy, show relationships between topics and let students see the big picture at a glance.Students learn faster take better notes and brainstorm more effectively with mind maps and most importantly mind mapping doesn't feel like work.Mindmeister for education is already used by thousands of academic institutions all over the world.Some main reasons of why it is widely used:

- Students can work on their maps from home school or seamlessly link their classroom and homework activities.
- They can brainstorm and collaborate in real time, making group exercises a lot more efficient and fun.
- Teachers can create engaging presentations in a matter of minutes and share them with whole groups or grades at once
- Teachers can verify student participation, trace the exact thought process of students and manage access to mind maps with just a few clicks.

Click to see my Mindmeister

NEARPOD

Nearpod is a platform that allows teachers to create,download and teach interactive lessons across all student devices including ChromeBooks, iPads, iPhones and Android devices.Also Nearpod works seamlessly with Google classroom and integrates with learning management systems like canvas and schoology.Teachers can easily upload their existing Powerpoints,PDFs,Google Slides and Sways and convert them into interactive nearpod lessons by including engaging activities like draw it,quizzes,polls.And with nearpod VR teachers can take their students on a virtuel field trip anywhere in the world,all from the comfort of your classroom.



Click here to see my Nearpod

PIXTON

  Pixton is a cartoon creation tool that allows its users to create awesome comics.This tool is very easy to use and does not require any artistic skills to work on it. You can introduce it to your students and let them create their own comics and share them with each other.As a teacher to make your lesson more fun and gather your students attention you can teach them a grammar topic by making up a story which that specific grammar topic is used in context.

You can see my Pixton down below