The 101 Hottest EdTech Tools According to Education Experts

If you work in education, you’ll know there’s a HUGE array of applications, services, products and tools created to serve a multitude of functions in education.

Tools for teaching and learning, parent-teacher communication apps, lesson planning software, home-tutoring websites, revision blogs, SEN education information, professional development qualifications and more.

There are so many companies creating new products for education, though, that it can be difficult to keep up - especially with the massive volumes of planning and marking teachers have to do, never mind finding the time to actually teach!

So how do you know which ones are the best?

Well, as a team of people passionate about education and learning, we decided to do a bit of research to help you out.

We’ve asked some of the best and brightest in education for their opinions on the hottest EdTech of 2020. These guys are the real deal - experts in education, teaching and new tech from all over the world from England to India, to New York and San Francisco. If it's just mobile applications you're looking for, check out our 60 best educational apps.

They’ve given us a list of 101 amazing, tried and tested tools that they absolutely could not live without as education professionals.

Looking for a new learning management system that fits your needs? Technology Advice have put together an excellent detailed breakdown of the market leaders and what features they offer. Read their trusted LMS reccomendations here.  

Their recommendations include a host of free, paid and free-trial options. Ready to take a look?

1. Twinkl - Saving Teachers Valuable Time

Twinkl are the educational publishing company that is revolutionising the way teachers work worldwide, with content creators in the UK, US and Australia.

Experienced, passionate teachers have created over half a million lesson plans, classroom activities and teaching tools tailored specifically to you as a teacher to download as and when you need them. Twinkl takes the stress out of lesson planning, giving teachers more free time and significantly fewer headaches!

Twinkl are pioneering EdTech in the classroom. The Twinkl Go! hub provides interactive educational games and activities for computers, tablets and smartphones. Twinkl are also making exciting strides into the world of augmented reality with their collection of AR education materials.

With an average subscription price of £6 / $8.99 a month, we think it’s complete no brainer to sign up to their full subscription package. Alternatively, you can try some free teaching resources by creating a free account.

Their motto is to help those who teach, and with their impressive forays into EdTech, we’re sure that they will.

2. Wisey

As recommended by Ben Collins

“Wisey is a really clever app that uses AI to generate curriculum aligned questions. You simply type in a topic, and it generates a range of questions, from multiple choice to open-ended, at whatever level your students are at. You can even upload your own resources and the AI will extract questions from it."

I think we're going to see more and more of these sorts of AI tools in future.

3. Gimkit

As recommended by Jon Corippo - CUE Chief Learning Officer 

“GIMKIT- actually designed by a high school student and super popular with older students. Earn money for in-game prizes and even have "boss battles" where one player can take on the entire class.”  

Gimkit is a super innovative live quiz learning platform in which students answer questions on their own device at their own pace. Gimkit can be used in any classroom to introduce or review concepts; it's like a mashup of Kahoot! and Quizlet. The live gameplay is fast-paced and engaging like a game show, but when it's assigned for independent practice, Gimkit allows students to review on their own with many of the same game mechanics. 

4. Floop

As recommended by Jennifer Gonzalez of Cult of Pedagogy

Floop is a cloud-based website where students can receive annotated feedback from teachers and peers. Students upload images of an assignment to the platform, and teachers put markers in places where they want to provide written feedback. Students are able to see and respond to comments, creating a feedback loop that allows teachers to see patterns of student learning.

Students get the feedback they need when they need it. Give feedback 4x faster than traditional methods with a digital dropbox and comment banks.

“What makes this tool unique is the mechanism that allows students to point directly to places on their work that they need help with, then get assistance that can also target specific spots on the assignment. We’ve been able to do that with writing assignments through tools like the commenting feature in Google Docs, but it hasn’t been quite as available in other subject areas.” Jennifer Gonzalez

5. Splash Learn

As recommended by Yasir Shamim of purevpn.com

“I came across SplashLearn, a great application for teachers and kids. It has lots of useful content and great reporting features. It's great because as you get things correct it increases in complexity — so it continues to challenge even those learners that are ready to move on.
StudyPad’s flagship product SplashLearn is transforming the way elementary school children in grades K-5 learn and study math through a highly engaging, and personalized program. SplashLearn is available across all digital platforms (iOS, Desktops, Android) and has been used by more than 30 million students worldwide."

6. Nearpod - Create, Engage and Assess Through Mobile Devices

As nominated by Beth Holland, Katrina Keene of the Teach-In Tech Gal blog, Debbie Sachs from Cult of Pedagogy, Michael Cohen of The Tech Rabbi, Jon Corippo and Courtney Kofeldt.

As a teacher, it can be difficult to create engaging lessons that fully capture the attention of all of your students. Harder still is creating lessons that encourage learning through interactivity and action.

Nearpod is an amazing tool that solves these problems.

First, Nearpod provides a host of pre-made, fully-interactive lessons developed by subject matter experts for all school levels and subjects. Furthermore, Nearpod allows teachers to import lessons from any file type and begin adding interactive elements, web-links or video snippets to them.

Educators can then synchronise their prepared lessons to all students devices, casting the lesson simultaneously to each student and able to monitor their progress throughout the lesson.

What really set’s Nearpod out from the crowd is their innovative ideas for further enhancing interactive lessons. Nearpod users have access to Nearpod 3D, providing fully rotatable 3D images to use for teaching, and Nearpod VR, allowing integration with Smartphone VR headsets like Google Cardboard to create virtual field trips for students.

No wonder they were voted into the top spot!

7. Kahoot! - Making Learning Awesome!

As nominated by Michael Cohen of The Tech Rabbi, Bethany Petty of Teaching With Technology, and Neil Jarrett of EdTech for Beginners.

Kahoot! is a game-based learning platform and one of the world’s fastest-growing learning brands with more than 40 million monthly active users in 180 countries. Kahoot! makes it easy to create, discover, play and share fun learning games in minutes—for any subject, in any language, on any device, for all ages.

Launched in 2013, with the mission to make learning awesome, Kahoot!’s free game-based platform engages the heart, hand and mind, creating a wildly more social, meaningful and powerful pedagogical experience. Kahoot!’s platform and easy-to-use features not only attract educators and students but reach beyond the classroom to corporate powerhouses, sporting and cultural events, and any social and learning context.

Kahoot! allows teachers to quickly create fun learning games for students based around multiple choice questions. After creating the game, students can use any device to sign-in to the game ‘room’ using a unique code to complete lessons and compete against their peers.

Displaying the questions and game on a primary display encourages students to use their personal devices only for choosing their answer. This means group engagement and discussion is promoted throughout the session, creating what the Kahoot! team call ‘campfire moments’.

Kahoot! then promotes students to proactively pursue their learning goals by creating their own Kahoots, attempting to beat previous scores and inciting class discussions around the learning topic.

Whether used as an attention grabber at the start of a lesson or a re-energising tactic part way through an intense revision class, Kahoot! Is surely a great tool for any teacher.

8. Buncee - Create, Present and Share Engaging Multimedia Lessons

As nominated by Nikolaos Chatzopoulos of Tech Trends for Teachers, Nicholas Clayton, and Shelly Terrell of 30 Goals Challenge for Teachers.

Buncee is a creation and presentation tool which supports educators as they foster the 4 Cs of learning in students: critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity. Some of Buncee’s many features include over 10k student-friendly graphics designed by their team to help make learning fun, the ability to record audio and video directly into a Buncee, integration with YouTube and Pixabay images and much more.

Students are able to engage and immerse themselves in what they are learning, be more engaged with the material, and therefore improve their comprehension. Buncee can be used to develop future-ready skills in students of all abilities. Students from as young as six and seven years old are using Buncee to create multimedia presentations which demonstrate learning acquisition, critical thinking and creativity, while also communicating stories.

Teachers integrate Buncee as a tool for individualized, differentiated instruction, language learning and special education, as well as lessons and projects for any subject. It is used as a classroom presentation tool for reviewing and introducing content aligned with curriculum standards. Additionally, Buncee is integrated into modes of expressed student learning including alternative book reports, research projects, digital storytelling, project-based learning, passion projects, and genius hour. With Buncee's easy to use creation canvas making learning fun is just a drag and drop away.

Our experts recommended using Buncee for outside-the-box lessons, such as creating digital posters, micro-movies or simple games as a class activity.

“A powerful, yet easy-to-use creative platform that empowers students” - Nikolaos Chatzopoulos

“Buncee hits all 4 C's by allowing students the opportunity to take a blank canvas and create something amazing. The company has awesome customer support, a content rich blog, and a gallery of ideas. As one of my student's said ‘it's the best app we have used all year!’ ” - Laurie Guyon

9. Canvas LMS

As recommended by Quincy Smith of eslauthority.com & Daniel Christian 

“One of the biggest adjustments we’ve seen teachers have to make is figuring out how to grade/mark assignments in an online environment.
As a solution for this, we’ve been recommending the Canvas LMS for their Speed Grader functionality. Canvas is a platform with a ton of features but we recommend teachers just start with what they need (in this case a solution to online grading) and get everyone familiar with it.
Even better is that Canvas has a free plan for teachers that has a ton of functionality so the only real hurdle is getting students to submit assignments via the platform. Once they do that, teachers have an array of markup tools that allow them to give feedback and suggestions much easier than simply using Preview or Google Sheets.
It’s important to note that Canvas is really an enterprise platform for schools and school systems, but we were happy to find they had the perfect solution for one of our biggest pain points." - Daniel Christian

10. Make Wonder, Dash's Neighbourhood - Robots that make learning to code fun

As nominated by Nikolaos Chatzopoulos of Tech Trends 4 Teachers, Jasmin Saab & Vanina Sandel

Founded in 2012, Wonder Workshop is the market-leading platform for children to learn computer science and robotics beginning at elementary school age. The company's first-generation robots, Dash and Dot, are widely recognized in education and have won many major industry awards.

“Dash's Neighborhood is a fun and engaging way for students to continue coding their favourite robot virtually! I have loved utilizing Wonder Workshop robots in my classroom, and Dash's Neighborhood takes everything to the next level! Coding dash virtually, came at the perfect time because I was able to continue working with my student’s coding abilities during distance learning without missing a beat! I loved how students were able to complete coding challenges at their own pace, and they were able to get more one-on-one instruction. Students love Dash's Neighborhood because they are able to experiment with their codes and there aren't time restrictions like there normally would be in the classroom. I recommend the integrated virtual puzzles that are included for anyone who would like to learn the basics of computer programming!”  - Jasmin Saab, 4th grade teacher from South Carolina

"As a STEAM Coordinator who teaches students from K-8th grade, I look for products that show certain requisites such as;
-Products can “grow with” the students and students can “grow with” the products
-Products are aligned with certain required standards
-Products are reasonable priced
Wonder Workshop products help students from Kindergarten all the way to 8th grade to understand the basic concepts of Computer Science better in a dynamic and fun way. Different disciplines like engineering and math are integrated with simple and complex coding in order to solve different puzzles and problems. Moreover, students are challenged to think outside the box in order to conquer different missions.. From Dot and Dash for the younger students to Cue for middle school students, the robots share with the students their educational journey. To conclude, the addition of Dash Neighborhood elevates Wonder Workshop to a higher level by providing a platform where more students under different circumstances can have access to Robotics"           - Vanina Sandel - K-8 Steam Coordinator at the Yavneh Day School 

11. GoBoard

As recommended by Lauren Keys of Math Nation

GoBoard is a free online tool that combines video chatting and a interactive canvas. Students can simply create a GoBoard on the site, share the link with a friend and start learning. GoBoard was designed to help students collaborate one-on-one, on virtually any topic. All in browser with nothing to download

"With no software to download, anyone can start and launch a session in less than 60 seconds. The pro version offers additional features such as unlimited session length and additional participants as well as recording and other compliance needs” - Lauren Keys

12. Classtools.net

As recommended by Leon Hady, Leon is a former Headteacher and now trains thousands of teachers online at Guideteachertraining.com

“As silly as it sounds, one of my favourite pieces for in class Edtech is Classtools.net. It is surely one of the oldest and most primitive tools out there, but it’s like a Swiss Army knife for engagement.
It is hugely popular in other countries but didn’t catch on as much in the UK. This is a shame as it has wonderful ‘use-in-class-tools, like a crossword generator, musical countdown timer, random name picker -, so many little gadgets that can make the mundane in-class activity that much faster and more interesting.
I know it’d be far more fun to mention the new-fangled, fancy bits of tech - but classtools.net is as easy to use as it is hideous to look at. However as a gentle engagement or starter and plenary tool, there is nothing that beats it for simplicity and range.” Leon Hady 

13. AdmitHub - Free, Expert College Admissions Advice

University Ventures, and Daniel Christian.

Focussing on a different area of EdTech, AdmitHub provides an easily accessible source of expert advice about US college applications - in the form of a friendly online chatbot!

AdmitHub’s mission is to provide all students with free, expert guidance along the path from high school, to and through college. Through SMS text and integration with Facebook Messenger, AdmitHub’s chatbot Oli mixes artificial intelligence with human guidance coaches from individual schools.

Once a student’s goals are assessed, they have 24/7 access to a personal ‘virtual campus guide’ to help them through application and enrolment processes and embodying each school's’ ‘unique spirit’ and personality.

AdmitHub are currently ahead of the game and applicable to US students only, but the rise of chatbot tech means we should soon start seeing many more innovative bots within the education sector.

14. Remind - School Communication Shouldn’t Be So Hard

Alex Corbitt and Andoni Sanz.

Remind is a classroom messaging app that helps teachers, students, and parents communicate quickly and efficiently. By connecting school communities, Remind makes it easy for everyone to succeed together. Based in San Francisco, Remind is used by more than 20 million people in 90% of school districts in the United States.

Whilst many organisations are starting to embrace technology to communicate with school stakeholders, messages typically end up being split across an array of channels. Facebook messages, WhatsApp groups, individual text messages or emails - the list goes on.

Remind removes the tedious process of remembering which message came from which person on which platform. Contacts can reach each other directly, schedule reminders, include attachments and see read-receipts - all with translation in 70 languages!

Remind is a great example of an alternative application of technology to support the wider community involved with schooling and education.

"My coworkers and I use remind to keep students and families updated about upcoming projects, events, and assessments. Our parent outreach is better than ever before and our students have demonstrated significant academic gains as a result." - Alex Corbitt

15. Go Noodle - Get Kids Moving

North Tyneside Learning Trust, and Nicholas Clayton.

Go Noodle gamifies movement and exercise, getting kids out of their seats and allowing them to be energetic, playful and and active - with a touch of silliness mixed in just for good measure.

The platform features hundreds of pre-recorded, custom-created videos designed to get kids moving. There’s also a handful of videos specifically made to start introducing children to concepts of mindfulness, including breathing and meditation.

The awesome thing about Go Noodle is how it can be used everywhere. Teachers can use it as an intro exercise to a lesson, a break in the middle of a long class or even as a piece of homework for children to do alongside their siblings or parents at home.

“GoNoodle has inspired many of our schools to promote physical activity in schools using their brilliant videos. We actually had a Mass GoNoodle in July last year where 800 children came together to get active as one big group.” - Laura Dickinson

16. Matific - Maths Games and Worksheets For Kids

Cool Cat Teacher, and Danielle Bartram of Miss B’s Resources.

Matific is an award-winning primary maths resource which uses common objects in ordinary settings that children can connect to for a deep understanding of maths. Matific episodes were designed to support each other to allow children to master core maths concepts. Encouraging children to experiment and play to foster understanding, Matific provides engagement across all year groups. With long term use, children can reconnect with core maths concepts that increase in difficulty and reinforce previously learned skills.

Matific is aligned to the UK Primary Maths curriculum and popular textbooks such as Maths-No Problem. It promotes inclusive learning through its platform with the ability to choose the language student's view the activities in - fantastic for EAL students and the visual presence in the activities cater well to special needs students.”

Matific provides a library of amazing resources for teaching maths to children age 4 - 11. Resources are split across bite-sized, immersive and interactive applications designed for mobiles and tablets.

Their resources are based entirely on the UK mathematics curriculum, making the apps a perfect companion to standard maths textbooks and activities, or to be used as a standalone pillar around which to plan a lesson. A recent research paper by Dr. Catherine Attard "Research Evaluation of Matific Mathematics Learning Resources" found Matific positively impacted on primary students learning.

“Matific is awesome. One particularly amazing thing to me is the ability for Matific to deliver instruction and parent information in a child's native language. That way you can focus purely on the math.” - Vicki Davis

17. ThingLink - Annotate Images and Videos

Seymour Educate, and Nikolaos Chatzopoulos of Tech Trends for Teachers.

Amongst the various interactive annotation applications available, ThingLink stands apart. Not only can ThingLink be used to edit, annotate and teach with images and videos in real-time, it also supports 360 degree video and VR/AR content.

Thinglink allows over 70 different tags to be used within content, such as links, videos, maps, images, social media and more. It’s intuitive interface allows users to create interactive content in just three steps and using an embeddable sharing link, it’s easy to distribute the content to your students wherever they are and whatever device they’re using. It even integrates natively with Facebook!

With it becoming increasingly more easy to create 360 and VR content using everyday tools like our smartphones, there are very few barriers to entry to begin trialling tools like Thinglink in your lessons.

"Through our goal of creating more digital projects, we discovered ThingLink. ThingLink has allow our students to take the traditional "create a poster" project to a whole new level." - Brian Seymour

18. Flash Academy

FlashAcademy® is a language-learning platform teaching English curriculum content from 45 home languages to support pupils with English as an Additional Language. Accessible on smartphones, tablet, and PC, the platform delivers learning via lessons, games, and enables teachers to remotely assign work and track progress. FlashAcademy® is a core part of the curriculum at Anderton Park Primary School, and hundreds of more schools, to accelerate learning and help close the gap. Thanks to its accessibility and independent learning style, pupils can continue to advance their English language skills at home during these challenging times. Claire Evans, Deputy Head, commented:

“Attainment for pupils with EAL has doubled since using the FlashAcademy® which is remarkable. Pupils love it and having their own app makes them feel really special.”

“We sent all of our 500 children home with their logins for FlashAcademy® and can see from our dashboard that they are logging on regularly which is great; completing lessons, playing the games and using the resources just like they would in school. Based on our data of how much progress children who use the platform make, we know this can only help them - knowing they are having fun but rapidly improving their English language skills at the same time.”

FlashAcademy® are currently offering free trials to help schools explore how it can support them to deliver a targeted ‘catch-up’ intervention for pupils with EAL."

Follow them on twitter at @FlashAcademyHQ 

19. Book Creator - The Simple Way To Create Beautiful eBooks

Beth Holland, and Michael Cohen of The Tech Rabbi.

Book Creator is a simple app for making ebooks on the iPad (and soon to be cross-platform). Red Jumper is the team behind Book Creator. Established in 2011, their mission is to empower the next generation of content creators and improve their educational outcomes.

Teachers and educators have the opportunity with Book Creator to develop interactive and evolving teaching resources that can easily be shared with or collaborated on by students. As an e-resource, it’s really easy to keep resources up to date for each year group and make edits on the fly during lessons.

Book Creator is also a great tool for students to explore their creative side and produce a tangible piece of content through their learning. Potential applications might include creating a portfolio of learning after each lesson, or a homework assignment to create an interactive story or comic book.

After creation, resources can then be shared online with anyone worldwide. Your students could support the learning of students on the other side of the world, or maybe even collaborate with them on a new project!

"Book Creator gives teachers and students a flexible multimedia creation platform with unlimited potential.” - Beth Holland

“BookCreator’s ease of use is perfect for young children to apply their speaking, listening, reading & writing skills.” - Amy Kingsley

Adam Chase

20. Wakelet - The Best Way To Share And Collect Content

Wakelet is a free to use content curation platform that allows you to save and organise all kinds of online content into visual, engaging collections. For example, you can simply copy and paste the address of a Youtube video into a Wakelet collection, and it will embed - allowing viewers to watch it without leaving the site. The same applies to social media posts, podcasts, music, and much more. You can also add articles, online documents, and upload your own content like text, PDFs, images, and even Flipgrid videos. Wakelet has a long list of integrations, layouts and options that allow you to share content and tell stories exactly how you want.

You can also use Wakelet's collaboration feature to create memorable and meaningful learning experiences for your classes. Students can both access and contribute to collections across devices without even needing to sign up!

Educators across the world are using Wakelet to create and share resources, lesson plans, presentations, newsletters, digital storytelling assignments, online portfolios, journals and much more.

Head to learn.wakelet.com to discover how you can get the most out of online content, and enhance learning experiences across the board!"

“I find Wakelet has multipurpose use for education: organizing course materials in one place, recapping Twitter chats, ePortfolios and more. The ease of use is key; you'll be up and running with a new Wakelet account in no time. Finally, the Wakelet support team has been super accessible and supportive. I appreciate and value that." - Kim Fox, Professor at American University of Cairo

21. Times Table Rockstars - Sequenced Programmes to Help Kids Learn Times Tables

Bruno Reddy, and Danielle Bartram of Miss B’s Resources.

"Times Table Rock stars is an online learning platform, engaging primary and secondary school students in daily times tables practice. Its adaptive question generator is cleverly sequenced to provide measurable improvements in times tables recall speeds, increasing confidence and enjoyment in maths. 

The animated theme and motivational reward system have captivated pupils, teachers and families alike, resulting in widespread success across the UK. Children can practice by themselves, compete against other students and complete homework assignments tailored to their ability, online or using the mobile application. 

“Times Table Rockstars is an amazing site for to practise their times table recall skills in both a fun and engaging way. TTRockstars has motivated our students to become proactive in improving their times table recall skills whilst in the pursuit of the 'rock hero' status.” - Danielle Bartram.

22. Explain Everything - Collaborative, Interactive Whiteboard App

Beth Holland, and Michael Cohen of The Tech Rabbi.

For a number of years, Bartosz Gonczarek (CEO) and Piotr Sliwinski (CTO) had a hobby of making funny podcasts. They thought about filming them but the budget to make real movies with their ideas (space aliens, large explosions, monsters destroying whole city quarters) would have been too costly. The only plausible way to capture their ideas was to make simple cartoons.

The concept for an app to create these cartoons appeared in Piotr’s head in 2008 when a colleague showed him an animation that he had made. After a week, Piotr had a working proof of concept. It was a simple app for the Mac that displayed a funny face that could be moved around a checkered window, while its movement was recorded. Fast forward and on August 19, 2011, Explain Everything made its debut on the iPad App Store.

Explain Everything is an easy-to-use design, screencasting, and interactive whiteboard app with real-time collaboration that lets you animate, record, annotate, collaborate, and explore ideas, knowledge and understanding. Explain Everything provides teachers and students an opportunity to share thinking, reflect upon knowledge building, and assess both products and processes of learning.

23. Quizizz - Fun Multiplayer Classroom Quizzes

CUE, and Bethany Petty of Teaching With Technology.

Quizizz allows you to find amazing quizzes made by other teachers, or create your own quizzes and share them with the world. Start a "Live" game in class, or assign Quizizz as a fun "Homework" task. Teachers can control the competition by toggling the leaderboard, timer and other settings. Thanks to Quizizz being available on all devices, students play together, but each at their own pace. Gamification elements like avatars, leaderboard and funny memes add to the fun! Review your work in the end and use Quizizz’ detailed class and student-level reports to understand where your students need help.

“Quizizz is a game changer in formative assessment because it's easy for teachers to adopt. It has just the right visual layout for entertaining kids and getting teachers the actionable data they crave. As a plus, there's no "app" to download - Quizizz works on great on any device!” - Jon Corippo

The Best of the Rest

Each of the following EdTech companies received a single nomination from our education experts, but all of them deserve a mention for being fantastic tools to support teaching, learning and education!

24. Education City - Kids Educational Games and Teacher Resources

Sophie’s Nursery.

EducationCity is one of the leading online teaching, learning and assessment resources. It was established in 1999 and now has subscribers in over 70 countries worldwide.

Ideal for children aged between 3-12 years old and children with SEN of all ages, EducationCity’s engaging and interactive educational resources cover English, Mathematics, Science, Computing, French, Spanish and English as an additional language. Offering a variety of content types, it lends itself to group and whole-class instruction as well as personalised learning.

It can be used anytime and anywhere on various devices, including interactive whiteboards, laptops and mobile devices, and also includes many time-saving features for the teacher. As a curriculum-based resource, EducationCity is mapped to UK and worldwide curricula.

25. Flipgrid - Video for Student Engagement and Formative Assessment

Alec Couros.

Flipgrid is video platform used in over 50,000 classrooms to empower student voice and ignite discussion. In Flipgrid, teachers post discussion topics to which students respond via video, creating a social learning environment that provides every student an equal voice and increases engagement.

With the advent and increasing popularity of short video based communication a la Snapchat, Instagram Stories and more, allowing students to communicate and learn through a medium they are familiar with can improve engagement and knowledge retention.

Created ‘grids’ can also be embedded or connected with a variety of other platforms such as Blackboard, Wordpress, Moodle and more.

26. Padlet - The Easiest Way to Create and Collaborate

Teaching With Technology.

Padlet is like paper for your screen. Start with an empty page and then put anything you like on it. Upload a video, record an interview, snap a selfie, add text or upload some documents, and watch your padlet come to life. Invite as many people as you like and watch the page update in real time with the contributions of others. Used by teachers, students, professionals, and individuals of all ages, all around the world, Padlet is the easiest way to create and collaborate wherever you are.

Padlets easy, intuitive interface makes it a breeze to quickly create a new document. You could hold a live collaboration lesson where students can all share and add content to your sheet at the same time, or set a task to create a summer holiday scrapbook before school returns in September.

27. Microduino - DIY Electronics for Makers of All Ages

Tech Trends 4 Teachers.

Microduino designs and manufacturers digital electronic building blocks which are connectable to a large selection of digital input and digital/analog output devices. Compatible with Arduino, the Microduino Series blocks are packaged in multi-piece kits that allow users to build, animate and control objects that they construct. Kits also include interactive components that sense physical attributes and output devices. In its most popular form, mCookies are stackable, magnetically and electronically connectable and colour-coded to easily identify the functional family type.

mCookies are physically compatible with LEGO blocks. Connected in stacks, mCookies are available into the consumer, maker space and educational markets as components and/or in convenient kits such as the Microduino ‘Itty Bitty City’.

Microduino recent awards include Time Magazine named Microduino 1 of the top 5 STEM education kits to teach kids engineering and coding, Gold winners of the 2016 IDEA awards by the IDSA. Microduino modules are on permanent display at the Henry Ford museum of Innovation, One of the ‘Five Best Things’ from the World Maker Faire.

“Microduino is the perfect tool for STEM/STEAM education” - Nikolaos Chatzopoulos

28. TouchCast - Leading the Smart Video Revolution

Brad Gustafson.

At the core of TouchCast are Smart Videos. What makes video smart? Tools to create and stream video that are blissfully simple to use. The means for any file to be shared inside video. Interactive elements that make them more engaging. The ability to collaborate with your team anywhere in the world.

With TouchCast Studio, you have a full-blown TV studio at your fingertips. Use the green-screen feature to place yourself against a background or inside content. Or step inside a virtual set. Read from a scrolling script. Add titles. Annotate. Record your video, edit it, and share securely. Live stream it privately to a small group, the whole company, or publicly to the entire world.

This is smart video creation, where broadcasting is easy.

"We use TouchCast to supercharge school communications and unleash student creativity. TouchCast is like having a free professional recording studio in your classroom." - Brad Gustafson

29. Puzzlets - Make Game Time, Brain Time

Seymour Educate.

Puzzlets is a hardware accessory for your tablet or computer used to play Puzzlets-specific games. Each game focuses on a traditionally “tough” STEAM subject, such as: coding, math, and colour theory. Each game comes with its themed set of physical Puzzlets tiles.

Puzzlets apps use these toy puzzle pieces to control video games for K-2 (ages 6+). This hands-on learning game philosophy starts with fun first and offers endless possibilities to the educational market. Cork the Volcano, the first game for Puzzlets, enriches logic, sequencing, fine-motor skills through physical interaction and gameplay. New Puzzlets games on the topics of Math and Art, releasing Summer 2017, will expand the platform and learning.

30. Ebookadabra - 100’s of Children's Books in One App

Sophie’s Nursery.

Ebookadabra is the ‘Netflix’ of kids picture books. Aimed at children aged 3-7, it offers a huge library of picture books from well-known publishers, educational games and rewards - all within an environment that is safe and fun.

For a single monthly subscription that covers the whole family, parents and up to four kids can join in the fun – with everyone being able to access Ebookadabra simultaneously on an unlimited number of devices. Families can message each other, post reviews and record audio books.

The Ebookadabra library is constantly growing and new stickers, games, avatars and emoji are added regularly to maintain a fresh and engaging world of reading.

31. Smart Feed - Quality Movies and TV Shows for Kids

Daisy Dyer Duerr.

SmartFeed is the parents' trusted platform to curate, deliver, manage and connect to their kids' digital media – across all content and devices. Media is increasingly everywhere, especially in front of our children. Kids find and consume it easily, just like junk food. SmartFeed aims to change the paradigm: rather than just filtering out the junk, this tool helps parents feed their kids positive, engaging, healthy content instead.

It’s also an incredibly useful tool within schools that provide digital devices to students to use during lessons, ensuring attention is focussed on their learning goals and not on ‘junk media’. Additionally, the Smart Feed screening and filtering process mean teachers and educators can be safe in the knowledge that any external media used in their lessons has already been flagged as appropriate for their students age group.

32. TinyTap - Create Games and Learn from Others

30 Goals Challenge for Teachers.

TinyTap is a marketplace of interactive educational games created by teachers. TinyTap empowers students to learn through play, with over 100,000 learning activities from a worldwide community of educators. Master concepts through curated courses and measurable lessons, that you can play on your mobile device or computer. Create interactive presentations for school work, or detailed study guides for tests and quizzes with TinyTap's easy-to-use creation tool. Special needs teachers and caretakers can utilise this simple and powerful platform to come up with new ways to help those in need and personalise activities to fit each person individually.

The TinyTap team also believe that there is no better way to learn than by teaching - which is why they created the TinyTap Market. The TinyTap Market is an online community of millions of kids, teachers and parents that create and share their fun educational games everyday. Created games can be published  on the TinyTap Market, giving creators the option to sell their games - whether created by an author, illustrator, educator or just someone full of imagination.

“TinyTap is a wonderful app to encourage children to create interactive games and presentations for others with their own images, sound effects, and much more.” - Shelly Terrell

33. EDPuzzle - The Easiest Way to Engage Your Students With Videos

Teaching With Technology.

Edpuzzle allows teachers to easily customize a video by adding questions and audio throughout the video to have more engaging video-lessons. Helping to dispel the classic problem of students dozing off during longer videos, Edpuzzle allows you to add natural stopping points throughout the video. Add pauses at the end of each key video segment to trigger questioning and discussion amongst the class - all while making sure they’re still paying attention!

Edpuzzle also allows teachers to encourage self-paced learning by adding their own voice recording on top of the existing video. This means students can watch or review videos individually depending on their level of progress, helping to remove the chance of them becoming bored due to learning something they have already mastered.

34. UpGrad - Online Education Programmes for Professionals

Lightbox VC.

UpGrad was founded with an aim to empower working professionals and individuals to reach their full professional potential by providing them with high quality industry-relevant online programs in upcoming technological areas, which have high demand and increasing job opportunities.

So far, UpGrad has successfully launched programs in new age verticals like Product and Innovation, Entrepreneurship, Digital (including areas in Marketing), and Data Analytics. Merging the latest technology, pedagogy and services, UpGrad offers an impactful and engaging learning experience for the digital world.

In its first year, UpGrad's Start Up India Learning Program has become the single largest online program in India, by enrolment. In addition, UpGrad's Data Analytics PG Diploma Program has become the single largest online program in India, by revenue. With a strong community of 50,000+ students, UpGrad is redefining online education in India, both in terms of enrolment/retention achievements as well as perception.

35. Loop - Student Feedback Made Easy

Loop allows teachers to collect structured feedback from their students about their learning experience and wellbeing. Providing a private, digital setting gives students more confidence to speak out about things that might be holding back their learning.

Teachers can enable anonymous responses, schedule questions, reply to feedback one on one or to groups of students with similar feedback, track changes over time, send announcements, and more. Loop is web and app based, and integrates with Google Classroom.

Loop provides multiple benefits for students and teachers, including giving students a greater voice in their education, especially those who are shy, or fear speaking out in front of their peers. Teachers can more easily spot and support struggling students and gain insight into what is or isn't working in the classroom for a particular cohort of students.

Loop provides a mechanism for professional development as teachers can refine their teaching style. Replacing student surveys, which can be slow and the results of which typically can only applied once students have finished a semester or learning module. This makes feedback more actionable than traditional student surveys using Google Forms or similar.

36. Quizlet - Improve your grades by studying with flashcards and games

Teaching With Technology.

Quizlet aims to harness the world’s knowledge to allow anyone to unlock their learning potential. They do this by making it simple for students and teachers to create and share online learning materials, currently used by more than 20 million students and teachers each month.

Quizlet offers tools for students to make flashcards, practice spelling, play learning games, test their knowledge, collaborate with other students and more, providing engaging, customizable activities with contributions from people everywhere.

37. Tinybop - Toys for tomorrow

As nominated by Terry Heick, Director at Teach Thought.

Tinybop builds elegant, educational apps to spark the curiosity, creativity, and kindness of kids around the world. Tinybop apps inspire kids to learn, create, and grow by diving into big ideas, testing how things work, and making connections about the world they live in. Tinybop’s flagship app The Human Body, has reached the #1 spot on the App Store’s education charts in 143 countries, and has been downloaded by more than six million families across the globe. Other Tinybop apps have won multiple awards from Children’s Technology Review, KAPi, Parent’s Choice, and AASL.

Tinybop builds elegant, educational apps to spark the curiosity, creativity, and kindness of kids around the world. Tinybop apps inspire kids to learn, create, and grow by diving into big ideas, testing how things work, and making connections about the world they live in. Tinybop's flagship app The Human Body, has reached the #1 spot on the App Store's education charts in 143 countries, and has been downloaded by more than six million families across the globe. Other Tinybop apps have won multiple awards from Children's Technology Review, KAPi, Parent's Choice, and AASL. Tinybop has recently brought their award-winning collection to the web through their new platform Tinybop Schools.

38. CommonLit - Free literacy resources and progress tracking tools

CUE.

Founded by former teachers, CommonLit is a nonprofit EdTech organisation that operates an award-winning reading and writing platform. With CommonLit, teachers can create a free account to gain access to a host of standards-aligned, levelled, digital library of short texts including news articles, poems, historical documents and more. Their formative assessment tools help teachers target instruction and support struggling readers. 

39. Living Tree - The private social network for your school community

Kleinspiration.

LivingTree is your district's own private, social network for family engagement. It replaces public social media, websites, emails, blogs, single purpose apps, paper flyers, etc. LivingTree simplifies engagement for both families and teachers. Each classroom and school has a private network which nests into the broader district network. Within your network, you have all the engagement features you need in one easy to use app (web or mobile) and even two-way translation to 100+ languages. LivingTree was recognised at the 2016 Stevie Gold Award winner for Community Involvement Program of the Year and 2016 Stevie Silver Award winner for Smartphone App of the Year.

40. Diagnostic Questions - Better results, more confidence, less time.

Bruno Reddy.

Diagnostic Questions is a world leading assessment tool that provides detailed insights into student understanding in a fraction of the time, simultaneously reducing your workload and improving student results and confidence.

In just three steps, assign a year’s worth of assessments to your students created exclusively by AQA, OCR and EdExcel. Create your own quizzes and assessments or choose from the thousands created by teachers, awarding bodies and publishers.

41. Bloomz - One app for all your parent communications

Cool Cat Teacher.

Bloomz is the mobile and web app that allows teachers to share instant messages, announcements, photos, calendars, volunteer and conference sign-ups, student portfolios and more through one easy-to-use interface. Teachers can control who can reach them and when without shutting down the communication pipeline, and with the recent addition of Robocalling, Bloomz is truly a comprehensive solution to school-wide communication.

Free to use for parents and teachers, Bloomz creates a private and secure environment for their community to thrive in. Online portfolios mean that assignments don’t get lost, and make distance learning painless. With the ability to translate more than 100 languages, Bloomz makes sure that even language barriers can’t get in the way of school communication.

Administrators use the app to track parental involvement through engagement reports, gain visibility into classroom communications, and target specific audiences for announcements by sending information to individuals, specific classrooms, or the whole school or district.

“Bloomz is my parent connection tool. It is so awesome that grandparents and students are now wanting to join. The biggest advantage is that it’s available as either an app or email and parents can set it up in the way they like best. Parents love it!” - Vicki Davis

42. My Simple Show - Create your own explainer video in minutes

Cool Cat Teacher.

The My Simple Show video maker tool allows users to create professional educational explainer videos in minutes. The tool is a great resource to be used inside or outside the classroom, both for teachers and students. To create a video, users simply choose a storyline and write the script, copy the script from a document, or upload a PowerPoint, and My Simple Show will create the video for you, with graphics and voiceover.

My Simple Show is so easy to use and intuitive to learn that it make a great tool for setting homework or assignments. Get students to create animated presentations or explanations of key topics to cement their understanding and allow them to demonstrate their knowledge.

43. Ozobot - Smart toy robots to learn and play

Seymour Educate.

Ozobot launched in fall 2014 with the vision to create an innovative way to play, learn and socially interact in an ever-expanding digital world. Through game applications and creative curriculums, Ozobot introduces interactive robots by blending entertainment and education in the family room as well as the classroom. Their mission is to provide learners as well as gamers of all ages a new option to play, learn and interact as well as inspire them to make the jump from using technology to actively shaping and creating it.

"As we have a K-12 computer science pathway we were looking for CS toys to use at our younger grade levels, and of course students love robots! Ozobot is a fantastic tool for teaching coding as the robot and programs are scaffolded allowing us to use Ozobots at numerous grade and skill levels." - Brian Seymour

44. Airhead - The open cloud desktop for teaching and learning

Learnocracy.

Winner of the prestigious ‘Innovation in ICT’ award at Bett 2015, Airhead is simply the best cloud desktop for schools, colleges and universities. With Airhead you'll save time, make the cloud more easily accessible and support communication and sharing. Airhead’s integration with Microsoft Office 365 and Google G Suite means you'll also be able to improve collaboration and productivity across one or many establishments. In short, you'll supercharge your journey to the cloud. Airhead is the glue that turns the Web into a meaningful educational service that delivers on the promise of anytime, anywhere, any device learning.

45. Tiggly - Interactive toys and iPad learning apps for kids

Seymour Educate.

Tiggly believes in the power of connected play - the magic that happens when you bring the best of physical play into digital apps. They design fun hands-on toys that interact with engaging learning apps on tablets! Tiggly has three learning systems, Tiggly Words, Tiggly Math, and Tiggly Shapes, and has been featured on TIME, Forbes, BBC, CNBC, Huffington Post and many others.

"Tiggly has been a great addition to our kindergarten classes in allowing students to interact and learn their numbers and letters on the iPad. Students like using the large letters and numbers and seeing the different apps work as they select the correct letters or numbers." - Brian Seymour

46. Canva - Empowering the world to design

I Heart Edu.

Canva makes it amazingly simple for everyone to create professional quality graphic designs. Its online design platform brings together a simple drag-and-drop design tool and a library of more than one million photographs, graphics and fonts, allowing anyone to take an idea and present it beautifully in print or online.

Canva can be used to design almost anything: presentations, posters, blog content, cards, online marketing materials, invitations, flyers and so much more. Since launching, Canva has grown to more than 10 million users in 179 countries around the world. It is now available in 25 different languages, and recently launched on iPhone and iPad.

Because it’s so easy to pick up and use, Canva is a brilliant tool for creating educational content. Potential applications include using Canva to create resources for the classroom, or asking students to collaborate on projects like digital posters or infographics.

47. Lithan - On Demand Learning and Mentoring

Red Dot Ventures.

Lithan’s mission is to redefine adult education through learning innovation. They provide lifelong career progression and learning to individuals and provide training solutions for enterprises.

Through virtual and blended delivery in the classroom, at the workplace, at home, and even overseas, Lithan allows non-invasive learning without geographic boundaries. Using innovative technology, Just-in-time learning delivery allows individuals and enterprise learners to study at their own pace, anytime and anywhere while still experiencing close mentorship and support.

By providing easy to access learning solution, Lithan is supporting adult learners to skill-up competencies and develop their talents to be future ready within the working environment.

48. Kami - Online PDF and Document Viewer, and Annotation Tool

I Heart Edu.

Kami is an educational technology application that provides educators and students tools to view and edit documents and PDF files.

Kami offers easy-to-use and valuable tools to millions of educators and students needing a document and PDF solution. Kami also enables the increasing number of American K-12 schools to edit and collaborate on worksheets and interact with publisher-supplied PDF files.

Kami is a proud Google Partner, a 2012 The University of Auckland Velocity 100K Challenge finalist, and the 2015 New Zealand Innovation Award winner.

49. Peardeck - Powerful Learning Moments for Every Learner, Every Day

Connect Safely.

Pear Deck was founded by educators on a mission to help teachers create powerful learning moments for every student, every day. Pear Deck’s intuitive solutions guide teachers towards best practices in the classroom and are used in flexible learning environments around the world to connect with learners of every age and ability. With Pear Deck, educators can easily assess student understanding in real-time, while facilitating student equity and creativity.

Educators using Google Apps for Education or Microsoft Office 365 apps like PowerPoint Online and Teams can easily add formative assessments and interactive questions to their classroom experience with Pear Deck. Pear Deck's powerful Teacher Dashboard and Student-Paced Mode make it a must-have tool in flexible learning environments. New product enhancements include Add Audio, which allows educators using Pear Deck for Google Slides to record or upload audio files to each slide; and Teacher Feedback, which enables teachers to give students feedback on individual responses, prompting understanding, driving metacognition, and promoting a growth mindset in students.

50. SiLAS Solutions - Avatar animation software for social skills

The Teched Up Teacher.

SiLAS is a browser-based web app that allows students to act out social scenes using video game pads and microphones to control their 3D avatars. SiLAS records the interaction in real-time, then produces a studio-quality animation that teachers and students can re-watch, critique, and assess. Student-performance data is tracked and animations are saved in guardian accounts allowing for crucial carryover year-to-year and outside the classroom. Kids can also create and watch interactions in full virtual reality.

The instructor selects the setting location for where the students will interact. Does the student need help initiating conversation in the cafeteria? The students can now practice the situation in the virtual cafeteria setting before going to eat their actual lunch. SiLAS is a great tool for helping kids who have social anxiety or interaction difficulties and for educating those with SEN about different social situations.

51. Showbie - The heart of your paperless classroom

Connect Safely.

Showbie combines all of the essential tools for assignments, feedback, and communication in one easy-to-use platform.

Showbie’s features were designed with teachers and students in mind. Unlike other learning management systems that require extensive training and time to implement, teachers can start using Showbie’s powerful platform within minutes. Teachers who use Showbie love how it transforms their classrooms into engaging, collaborative, and organized learning environments. Showbie’s suite of tools make it easy to give rich, differentiated feedback to students, so everyone gets the help they need to succeed. Showbie allows students to share files and ideas with each other, ensuring everyone is on the same page and encouraging collaboration.

Showbie lets teachers work with their peers and easily engage with families. Teachers can set up groups to work directly with colleagues, share best practices, or discuss the needs of particular students. Parents can easily be part of the conversation too; teachers can set up groups just for families where they can post class updates and even permission slips. 

52. Black Bullion - Opening the doors to financial education

Vivi Friedgut.

The lack of a financial education can have a crippling effect on students’ wellbeing. Through empowering students to take control of their financial future, BlackBullion positively impact on the student experience as well as retention, lifelong attainment and employability.

The platform educates users through easy to understand native content and interactive modules that engage but never patronise. Users can then access intelligent insights through smart analytics and reporting for minimum hassle and maximum efficiency, empowering learners to achieve lifelong learning and personal development. As Blackbullion put it, it’s more like a chat with a knowledgeable friend than a lecture from a bank manager!

53. Quizalize - The Easy Way to Differentiate Your Teaching.