The number of homeschooling families is growing in every state in the country. The latest statistics show that, just over the last year, the number of families that are teaching their kids at home has grown by over 60,000.
Some parents decide to homeschool because they believe that they can offer their children a better education. Others do so for social or religious reasons. There’s no doubt that it’s easier to homeschool today than ever before in history.
List Of Top EdTech Tools for Homeschooling Families
The amount of information available, both material for the students and pedagogical information for the parents, ensures that it won’t be necessary to resort to online table games in order to make learning fun.
There are many different types of EdTech tools including recording tools, blog and journaling tools, project-based learning tools, decoding tools, social posters and bulletin boards and others.
Some of the best EdTech tools for homeschooling parents in 2019 include:
TextingStory
TextingStory.com provides students with an interactive and engaging way to dramatize history, social studies, literature or a number of other subjects via the popular 21st century communication tool – texting. Using the Textingstory app which is available on Google Play or iTunes the student can share their understanding of a text that they have studied by revising the information and writing it as a text in their own words.
To use Textingstory for education, have the student recreate information as a text conversation in the Texting Story app. The student can then create a video from the story and that video can be shared.
Google Expeditions
Google has expanded its maps and street views into an opportunity to set out on a virtual reality tour of the world. This tool offers an excellent way to bring world history, art, science, geography and other traditional lessons to life.
Using mobile devices and Virtual Reality (VR) viewers, the student can explore a museum or an art gallery, swim underwater with the sharks or navigate outer space, all from his desk.
Additional Augmented Reality (AR) tours allow the student to walk around 3D objects as if the objects were physically in the room, all the while sitting at his desk.
YouIDraw
YouIDraw is a powerful vector graphic that is appropriate for beginning artists and experienced designers alike. Everything needed to express a concept or idea in one’s unique style is available via this design solution.
There’s an online Logo Maker for creating high quality graphic logos plus logos and styles for creating headings, icons, web site elements, html5 logos, buttons and elements and more. The Paint tool adds new opportunities for personalizing work with customizable brushes and paper textures.
A great way for a student to create a visualization of information that s/he has learned.
Quizlet
Teachers have been using games and other types of interactive competitive activities for years to teach and reinforce material learned. Quizlet is a simple but effective tool that allows students of any age to review data in an engaging and entertainment manner.
The facilitator creates a quiz about the material – a quizlet can be used to teach any subject from math and science to English, history, foreign language and social studies. The facilitator designs a quiz or assigns the students to create their own quiz.
Parents can archive their quizzes to give access to other learners. At the same time, parents can check out quizzes that have been created in the past by other teachers or parents and then use them – for free.
It’s easier to learn and retain information when the learning is done through games. The learning atmosphere becomes more inviting and allows students to work independently, in groups or in pairs to determine the solution to the questions. Quizzes can also be created that have students competing against each other as they work through any task.
ProWritingAid
ProWritingAid is a comprehensive writing tool that makes it easy for students to improve their writing skills. After the student writes a passage, the tool checks for passive voice, overused words, overuse of clichés, sentence variety and incorrect grammar.
Students can compose their selection within the tool, upload a document into the template or copy and paste from another document. Upon submitting the text the student will receive a summary report that provides an overview of the piece’s strengths and weaknesses.
Within the summary report are suggestions for changes, an overview of the piece’s general readability, data on overuse of adverbs, ideas for cutting down run-on sentences and more. Students receive personalized instruction with concrete, useable suggestions.
Wizer
“Thanks for that worksheet” said no student ever. Worksheets are a fall-back for teachers around the world but they’re boring, uninspiring and rarely fulfill the task for which they’re meant – to help students review information. Traditional worksheets are designed in a way that prompts students to answer questions based on material that they have, supposedly, learned.
Worksheets are static and, almost always, boring. Fast learners finish quickly, leaving them time to get into trouble while the slower students plod through the sheet.
Now you can give learners a worksheet that lets them learn while they work, express themselves in a variety of ways, work at their own pace and have fun.
Wizer is an online worksheet that allows the facilitator to create a digital worksheet that includes images, videos, games and other interactive challenges. Even as the student works through the sheet, s/he continues to acquire new information.
Task options include open-ended questions, multiple choice questions, watch a video, drawing activities, matching activities, fill in an image, fill in the blanks, complete a table, sorting tasks, read a text and follow a link.
The student sends the worksheet to the parent/teacher via the system’s online sharing platform. Then, the facilitator is able to view and assess the work, review the information input and provide written and/or recorded feedback. Other than the open-ended questions, all of the activities have a built-in auto-check option.
