EdTech Tools

Here are four more edtech tools and services that caught my attention at the LAUNCH Education & Kids Conference.

Tools for Learners

StudyEgg

EdTech Tools - StudyEggStudyEgg is a new tool that can be used to augment already existing educational content on the Internet by adding new learning features. With StudyEgg teachers can create quizzes based on YouTube videos like Khan Academy or any other freely available lesson/material.
The student starts watching the video, the teacher can choose to stop the video at a certain time to show a multiple choice test to verify if the student actually learned something.
Each question has a timer counting down. If the student does not get the right answer, they can click on the “Teach Me” button and the video will jump to the section where the answer is given.

On the teacher’s side, you get, of course, detailed reports on the student’s performance and one click lesson assignment.

 

instaEDU

EdTech Tools - instaEDULike the name suggests instaEDU offers instant help for students who are stuck in their studies or preparation for an exam. Instead of panicking they can simply connect to instaEDU and find a host of qualified help from experts and students from top-tier universities.

The first ten minutes are free, so the student can test the service and find the right tutor. From then on the pricing is 50¢/minute with a minimum session length of five minutes. This is pretty competitive compared to other tutoring services.

The tutoring happens on a one-one-one basis via webcam in a virtual classroom environment. Tutors connect their Facebook or Gchat ID to instaEDU to receive instant requests from students.

 

Tools for Teachers

GradeCam

EdTech Tools - GradeCamGradeCam is one of my personal favorites from the event as it not only fixes an everyday problem in the classroom with one clever app, but also adds a whole new layer of information for the teacher.

GradeCam enables teachers to grade assignments instantly with any document camera or webcam, no special tools needed. The data is then displayed, showing the teacher if all students understood the concept taught in class. Based on returned data the teacher can see if it is better to go over the concept again or if it is OK to move on with the next subject.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4O4xGs3ptk

Tests can be created on the go to check what students have learned instead of testing them days or weeks later. GradeCam then lets users import the data easily into the gradebook service, sparing the teacher the long hours of manual work. There is also an iPad app in the making.

 

Always Prepped

EdTech Tools - Always PreppedThis startup probably received the most diverse feedback. While most of the judges on the LAUNCH panel felt that Always Prepped was too far ahead of the curve, teachers and administrators in the audience as well as on Twitter loved the product.

Always Prepped works on two different levels. On the one hand, it combines different educational resources and services like Khan Academy, Edmodo or Study Island and puts all the learning related data of the students into one unified dashboard.

For me, and I think for all the teachers and administrators alike, the most intriguing feature of Always Prepped is that the system is also able to add non-educational data such as social data to the dashboard. For example, if the teacher knows that the parents of a particular student are getting divorced or that a grandparent has died, the teacher is able to add this information to the data set and can see immediately whether the performance in class might somewhat be related to the happenings in the student’s personal life.

The same is true for education related data. One example in the presentation was of a student who performed great in math tasks as long as they were not written. Through cross checking, the teacher found out that the student apparently had problems with reading, which had then effected his performance in math when being faced with a written problem.

 

Which of these four EdTech tools do you see adding the most value to the classroom? And what other tools have got your attention recently? Drop a comment and let us know!

 

Feature image courtesy of Flickr, zzpza

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