Communication  Tools
Presentation
  • Google Slides - Create presentations online, collaborate and share with others.
  • Prezi - Create visually stunning presentations with motion! Collaborate with others, present from any device, and so much more.
  • ThingLink (limited free options) - Create interactive images and videos that engage your audience.
Backchannel
  • Backchannel Chat - A classroom discussion tool designed to support teachers. You can use it for discussions or to informally assess students' knowledge. Teachers control the discussion and the flow of the discussion.
  • Chatzy - Set up a virtual chat room with many options, invite students with email or provide a link to the chat site; can be password-protected.
  • Edmodo - Use the threaded discussion feature in Edmodo to begin a backchannel discussion.
  • Google Groups - Create a group and begin a discussion thread. You can access your group from anywhere using your mobile device with the Google Group optimized website.
  • Piazza - Students and teachers can post both comments and questions. Questions can be answered by both students and teachers. Platform most used in college setting.
  • YoTeach by PALMS - Backchannel chat that is an alternative to TodaysMeet. Allows students to join a chat via a URL and can contribute text or even share drawings via a scratchboard. Chat administrators can set privacy settings and moderate users. For more info check out the PALMS project site.
​Note - A backchannel might be created in any collaborative document such as a Google Doc. Students might vary the color of text they use to designate their posts. You might start the chat as a bulleted list. In addition, a virtual cork board, collaborative whiteboard, collaborative concept map, blot, wiki, or learning management system discussion thread could be used as a backchannel.
Teacher
​/ Parent 
  • ​Remind - Send quick simple messages to any device. Schedule reminders, send text messages, and more without sharing any personal information.
  • SeeSaw - Share student work, school notes, celebrate class accomplishments, and more. Sharing can be public or private and includes a class blog (optional). Parents can comment with text or audio to show support and encouragement to their student.
Web Page Creation
  • Google Sites (free) - With Google sites you can create a website from scratch or use a template to establish the layout, color and navigation features. Add content to the website in the same way you would when creating a document with text, images and videos. Published websites can be public or kept private.
  • Weebly - Choose from a wide variety of template themes with different layout options to create your website structure. Organize the navigation bar to meet your needs by identifying pages as main categories, sub-categories or exclude pages from the website navigation bar. Add content to webpages through drag and drop tools.
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Tech Tool Category Quick LInks