10 User-Friendly Tools That Low Tech and No Tech Teachers Can Use
In this tech-driven era, teachers are expected to learn and keep up with the latest technology to integrate into the classroom. But not all teachers are tech-savvy. Somewhere, low tech and no tech teachers are struggling to find digital resources that they can use without breaking a sweat.
Technological advances have helped teachers worldwide to access information, improve communication, enhance learning, and provide collaborative learning opportunities.
Over the past few years, students and administrators have been expecting educators to incorporate technology into their teaching.
While most students today are digital natives—comfortable and well-knowledgeable about technology—they still rely on teachers to learn through digital means.
These reasons put pressure on teachers to become experts in digital technology. And this can prove challenging, primarily to low tech and no tech teachers who were used in traditional teaching for many years.
So, we’ve gathered ten user-friendly teacher-approved tools on the internet. These tools are straightforward and easy to use, with features that low tech and no tech educators can learn quickly.
Take note, some of these tools are free, and the others are relatively inexpensive.
Table of Contents
User-Friendly Tools for Low Tech and No Tech Teachers
FlipGrid
FlipGrid is 100% free for all teachers, learners, and families. It’s an excellent platform that invites and empowers students to voice their thoughts, ideas, and answers.
Teachers can post a question to students on how they completed a particular task. This allows students to share their process through short videos, which they can edit and customize to make it fun. It also gives them the chance to teach others.
FlipGrid also has a great feature that lets teachers post their FlipGrids with the community, so other teachers can reuse the questions and edit them.
According to Forbes, as of June 2019, there were about one in three U.S. teachers who used FlipGrid.
Google Docs
Google Docs is one of the most versatile digital tools for all teachers, yes, including those who are low tech and no tech. Its prominent feature is that it allows teachers to create a collaborative classroom.
What’s more, Google Doc allows you to add education add-ons, which are mostly free. For example, Easybib Bibliography Creator is an add-on that assists teachers and students in creating and managing the bibliography for academic write-ups.
Easy Accents is another helpful add-on tool. It lets users put accents properly into documents with ease. This add-on makes sure that you can create worksheets with correct spelling.
With Google Docs, you can create documents, spreadsheets, and slides for free.
Kahoot
Kahoot is another user-friendly tool. It’s easy to set up, making it perfect for low tech and no tech teachers. This game-based learning platform lets you create fun learning activities and games.
Setting up a game takes only minutes. You can create a learning game or trivia quiz based on any topic. Then, you can host a live game or share your game with remote players.
Just recently, Kahoot launched a website where educators can find and share learning content—Kahoot Academy. It will serve as an educational platform, community, and marketplace, primarily for teachers.
According to Kahoot’s official website, more than 50% of U.S. teachers use their platform, and the users are located in more than 200 countries!
Edmodo
Distance learning has become the new normal, especially now that schools are closed for an indefinite period. However, low tech and no tech teachers still scramble over how they can deliver their teachings online.
Edmodo is a user-friendly tool for teachers, designed to help educators manage their digital classrooms effortlessly. With Edmodo, they can give assignments, quizzes, manage calendar events, create learning groups, and embed videos that students can use.
In short, Edmodo brings all your classroom tools in one place.
InsertLearning
How about transforming a web page into instructional content? With InsertLearning, you can insert questions and media onto a web page to help all your students better understand the material.
This is a great tool not only for teachers but for students as well. InsertLearning allows learners to add annotations on any web page and share what they think is important.
InsertLearning is a straightforward extension tool that you can add to Chrome. Not to mention, it’s free! Go to their official website, then click the “Add to Chrome” button in the upper right corner.
YouTube
YouTube isn’t only for streaming music videos and watching cat videos anymore. Educators around the world use YouTube for educational purposes.
YouTube Learning is a destination created for educators and learners. It offers an extensive collection of quality learning content.
Browse thousands of videos on YouTube Learning that you can use in your classroom. It could be any related videos that can help your students understand the topics better.
From history, astronomy, physics, mathematics, to arts, you won’t fall short of videos to use in YouTube Learning.
Evernote
Note-taking has never been easier with Evernote. It’s an excellent tool for taking notes, organizing, task management, and archiving.
For many teachers, nothing beats writing using pen and paper. And while that remains true, we can’t deny that taking notes digitally offers several benefits.
For one, everything you write on Evernote will be saved on the cloud. You can access them anytime, anywhere, and on any device. There’s no way of spilling coffee onto your notes, leaving them at home, or getting them scratched by your cat.
However, for low tech and no tech teachers, the challenge could be the time they would consume typing their notes.
If that’s your case, you can improve your typing skills by practicing. All Digital School has a comprehensive list of resources that can help you improve your typing skills.
[Related: Top 12 Best Reminder And Planner Apps For Students]
LingoHut
LingoHut is a perfect language tool for low tech and no tech educators. The design of this platform makes it easy to navigate and use.
Teachers can use this web-based language learning platform to encourage students to learn and practice their foreign language skills.
Today, LingoHut houses 50 languages, including Spanish, Albanian, Danish, Bulgarian, Chinese, Czech, Estonian, Finnish, German, Tagalog, and Japanese, to name a few.
From basic greetings to the most complicated sentences, LingoHut helps users express foreign languages properly. Users can hear how each word should be pronounced and mimic them.
[Related: Top 13 Apps To Learn The Spanish Language]
Zoom
Remote teaching is still relatively new for many teachers. And for low tech and no tech educators, it is something that they are yet to explore.
One of the most prominent online video conferencing tools that educators use is Zoom. It’s easy to use and navigate. Although, admittedly, teachers who are not familiar with technology might need help in setting up and learning the features.
Guaranteed, when you get the hang of it, setting up a Zoom meeting is not as complicated as you might think.
Zoom has many useful features, and here are some of what we like most:
- You can mute all participants (i.e., students) while you’re giving a lecture, so there won’t be any noise that can distract you and other students.
- Share screen is a useful tool if you want to show your students your desktop (i.e., a presentation or video).
- The whiteboard feature lets you doodle, draw, or illustrate your lesson, and everyone can see them as if you are writing on an actual whiteboard.
- The Chat feature allows students to ask questions and engage with you or other students.
You can download Zoom on your computer and smartphone devices.
Quizlet
Low tech and no tech teachers will definitely love Quizlet. It is an online study application that lets students study information through learning tools and games. With Quizlet, you can create flashcards that you can share with your students.
Not only can you make flashcards, but you can also organize a class with your students.
Encourage your students to use Quizlet on their own time. Motivate them to make flashcard decks to share with the class.
You can use Quizlet to create detailed diagrams or add images to support trivia and facts. Plus, you can even attach a live audio recording to flashcards (best for foreign language teachers).
Conclusion
Integrating digital technology into the classroom is a real challenge for teachers. Administrators and students expect them to be digital experts. In reality, however, many teachers struggle with using modern technology.
On a brighter side, low tech and no tech educators can use the user-friendly tools we have listed above. They are relatively easy to utilize and navigate.
Related Questions
What are the benefits of low and no tech teaching?
Teachers are more likely to introduce hands-on activities that encourage students to participate along with their friends. These activities can stimulate many aspects of the students’ brains, including creativity, problem-solving, logical thinking, communication, and social skills.
What are the challenges of integrating technology into the classroom?
Students may get easily distracted by other things that they can find online, such as games and videos irrelevant to the lesson. In distance learning, the teachers may not immediately notice whether students are engaged or not.
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Do you have any more user-friendly tools you want to recommend for low tech and no teach teachers? Let us know in the comments below!