Check out these 23 tools that are changing the way students learn in college. From interactive apps to virtual classrooms, they're making learning more fun, engaging, and effective. 

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Ed tech tools are revolutionizing the way students learn in both classrooms and online environments. By integrating ed tech into educational settings, teachers can more effectively capture students' attention, foster collaboration, and improve overall learning outcomes. Whether through virtual classrooms, collaborative learning apps, or AI-driven tutoring systems, ed tech empowers educators to tailor their approaches to meet diverse student needs.

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In this post, we’ll explore a curated list of powerful ed tech tools, each offering unique benefits to enhance both teaching and learning.

Top 23 Ed Tech Tools Revolutionizing Higher Education: 

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Kahoot

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Kahoot stands out for its ability to create engaging quizzes and polls, making learning both fun and interactive. Its game-like environment motivates students to participate actively, whether in live sessions or at their own pace. The competitive and playful nature of Kahoot helps boost student engagement, making it a powerful tool for teachers to assess understanding in real-time. It’s especially effective for formative assessments, icebreakers, and quickly gauging student comprehension, all while keeping the atmosphere light and enjoyable. With Kahoot, educators can design quizzes that cater to various learning styles, making it an ideal tool for hybrid classrooms where engaging both in-person and remote students is key.

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‍Canva

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Canva is a user-friendly online design platform that empowers individuals and businesses to create stunning visuals with ease. Whether you're a teacher looking to enhance your lesson plans, a student working on a group project, or a professional seeking to elevate your brand, Canva offers a plethora of benefits. With its vast library of templates, images, and fonts, you can quickly and effortlessly design presentations, infographics, posters, social media graphics, and more. Canva's AI-powered tools are poised to significantly impact the educational landscape. Their Magic Studio allows for educators and students alike to fully unleash their creativity with writing copy and designing images. 

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Nearpod

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‍Nearpod offers a dynamic learning experience for both teachers and students in higher education. Educators can create interactive lessons with quizzes, polls, and embedded videos, fostering active student participation and providing real-time feedback. By embedding assessments directly into lessons, Nearpod allows for seamless tracking of student progress, saving time and improving learning outcomes. Students benefit from engaging content, personalized learning paths, and opportunities to collaborate with peers, whether in the classroom or in online environments.

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Padlet

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Padlet is a versatile online platform that serves as a digital bulletin board, allowing users to post and share various types of content. Teachers and students can use Padlet to brainstorm ideas, collaborate on projects, and engage in discussions. By posting text, images, videos, and links in a shared space, Padlet creates a dynamic and interactive environment. In educational settings, Padlet can be used for brainstorming, project collaboration, class discussions, and virtual classrooms. Its flexibility and ease of use make it a valuable resource for both teachers and students, promoting collaboration, creativity, and effective communication.

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Pear Deck

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Pear Deck integrates seamlessly with Google Slides to transform traditional presentations into interactive lessons. By adding interactive questions, polls, and quizzes directly into slides, educators can engage students more dynamically during the lesson. Pear Deck allows teachers to gather real-time insights as students respond, enabling instant feedback and assessment of student understanding. This real-time interaction makes it easy to identify who might need additional help or clarification. Overall, Pear Deck adds value by turning passive slide presentations into engaging, interactive learning experiences that promote active participation from all students.

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EDpuzzle

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EDpuzzle empowers teachers to take existing videos—whether from YouTube, Khan Academy, or their uploads—and embed quizzes, comprehension questions, or notes directly into the video. This interactive approach allows students to engage more deeply with the content as they watch. Teachers can track who has viewed the video and monitor how well students understood the material through their responses to the embedded questions. EDpuzzle is particularly valuable in flipped classroom models, where students learn at their own pace outside of the classroom, enabling teachers to focus on deeper learning and discussion during class time.

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Microsoft Education

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Microsoft Education can be a powerful asset for both faculty and students. Faculty can utilize tools like Microsoft Teams to create virtual classrooms, share resources, and facilitate group projects. The Office 365 suite, including Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, is essential for creating and collaborating on academic papers, presentations, and research. Additionally, Microsoft Azure can be used for data analysis and cloud computing, supporting research and advanced learning. For students, Microsoft Education provides a familiar and accessible platform for learning and collaboration. They can use OneNote for note-taking and organization, OneDrive for cloud storage, and Microsoft 365 apps for completing assignments.

Poll Everywhere

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Poll Everywhere offers a versatile platform for conducting live polls and Q&A sessions, transforming lectures into interactive experiences. By allowing participants to respond to questions or statements in real time using their smartphones or computers, Poll Everywhere fosters engagement and helps gauge understanding. In large classrooms or webinars where individual engagement can be challenging, Poll Everywhere provides a valuable tool for gathering feedback and creating a more dynamic learning environment. Additionally, its ability to collect feedback in during presentations or lessons enables instructors to adapt their content and address questions promptly.

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Book Creator

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Book Creator is a versatile tool that educators can use to enhance their teaching practices. It allows teachers to create personalized and differentiated learning experiences, facilitate project-based learning, assess student understanding, and promote collaboration. The platform fosters creativity and engagement by allowing students to express themselves through storytelling and multimedia elements. Additionally, Book Creator helps students develop essential digital literacy skills, such as using technology to create and share content.

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Google Classroom

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Google Classroom streamlines the educational process by providing a centralized platform for assigning, collecting, and grading student work. Teachers can easily distribute assignments, provide feedback, and track student progress. The platform seamlessly integrates with other Google tools like Docs, Slides, and Drive, allowing students to create and submit their work directly within the classroom environment. Google Classroom's user-friendly interface and robust features make it an ideal tool for facilitating online and hybrid learning environments, fostering effective communication and collaboration between teachers and students.

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Grammarly

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Grammarly is a valuable tool for students and teachers seeking to improve their writing skills. By analyzing grammar, punctuation, and style, Grammarly provides real-time feedback on written work, helping users identify and correct errors. This makes it an invaluable resource for essays, research papers, emails, and even social media posts. By offering instant suggestions and explanations, Grammarly boosts student confidence and empowers them to become more effective communicators.

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Quizlet

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Quizlet is a versatile platform for creating and studying digital flashcards. Users can easily organize information into cards with questions on one side and answers on the other, facilitating efficient self-paced learning. Quizlet offers a variety of interactive study modes, including games and quizzes, to make the learning process more engaging and effective. Additionally, the platform encourages collaboration by allowing users to share flashcards and study sets with others, fostering a community of learners and promoting peer-to-peer learning.

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ClassDojo

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ClassDojo is a communication platform that helps build strong learning communities, making it a valuable tool for higher education settings such as seminars, cohort-based programs, or first-year experiences. By fostering collaboration and offering real-time feedback, ClassDojo encourages student engagement and strengthens connections between faculty and students. The platform's tools for positive reinforcement and progress tracking can support personalized learning pathways, helping educators keep students motivated and actively engaged in their academic journey.

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Google Docs

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Google Docs is a cloud-based word processor that enables real-time collaboration, making it an essential tool for higher education environments. Faculty and students can collaborate on research projects, co-author papers, or engage in peer review, with the ability to provide instant feedback. Google Docs also integrates seamlessly with institutional systems like Learning Management Systems (LMS), streamlining document sharing for assignments and group projects. Its automatic saving feature ensures that no work is lost, allowing for continuous collaboration and revision across teams, departments, or student cohorts. Working alongside other Google programs, higher education institutions can create more effective, efficient, and equitable learning environments for all students.

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Headspace

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Headspace is a popular app that offers guided meditation and mindfulness exercises to help individuals reduce stress and improve focus. By providing a structured approach to meditation, Headspace guides users through various techniques to cultivate mindfulness and calm the mind. This can be particularly beneficial for students dealing with anxiety or stress, as it offers tools to manage negative emotions and promote mental well-being.

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Khan Academy

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Khan Academy offers free, high-quality lessons and exercises across a wide range of subjects, from mathematics and science to the humanities. In higher education, it serves as a valuable supplemental resource for students needing extra help with foundational concepts or looking to deepen their knowledge beyond the classroom. Faculty can recommend Khan Academy as a self-paced study tool to support remediation, reinforce course materials, or offer students additional practice. With its personalized learning paths, Khan Academy helps bridge knowledge gaps, empowering students to succeed in their courses at their own pace.

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Screencastify

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Screencastify is a powerful tool that enables teachers and students to record their screens for a variety of purposes, including tutorials, lessons, and presentations. In higher education, Screencastify is particularly useful for creating flipped classroom lessons, where teachers pre-record lectures or demonstrations for students to view at their own pace. The platform's intuitive interface and user-friendly features make it easy for educators to create high-quality instructional videos without extensive technical knowledge. By leveraging Screencastify, teachers can provide students with flexible learning opportunities and enhance their understanding of complex concepts.

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Socrative

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Socrative is a versatile platform that allows teachers to create quizzes and polls that students can answer in real-time using their smartphones or computers. By providing immediate feedback on student responses, Socrative enables teachers to gauge understanding and adjust their instruction accordingly. The platform's user-friendly interface and simple setup make it easy for both teachers and students to use, ensuring a smooth and efficient learning experience.

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Storybird

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Storybird is a creative writing platform that inspires students to write stories using visually engaging prompts and artwork. By providing a stimulating starting point, Storybird sparks imagination and encourages students to develop their storytelling skills. In language arts classes, Storybird can be used to enhance creativity and foster a love of writing. Additionally, the platform is well-suited for group projects, where students can collaborate on creating a shared narrative and learn from each other's perspectives.

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Wakelet Limited

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Wakelet is a versatile platform that empowers users to curate and organize web content, videos, and other resources into visually appealing collections. By providing a space to collect and showcase relevant materials, Wakelet is an ideal tool for creating digital portfolios that showcase students' work and learning progress. Additionally, the platform's collaborative features make it suitable for group research projects and collaborative learning, allowing students to work together and share their findings.

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Zoom

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Zoom emerged as an indispensable tool during the pandemic, facilitating online classes and virtual meetings on a global scale. The platform's user-friendly interface and reliable connection made it a popular choice for remote learning and collaboration. Zoom's breakout room feature, which allows participants to divide into smaller groups, proved invaluable for facilitating discussions and teamwork. Additionally, the platform's built-in screen sharing and digital whiteboard tools enhanced the learning experience by enabling teachers to share presentations and collaborate with students in real-time.

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Adobe Captivate

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Adobe Captivate is a powerful tool for educators seeking to create engaging and interactive learning experiences. It allows users to design interactive modules, simulations, and presentations, incorporating multimedia elements such as videos, audio, and images. For more advanced users, Captivate offers extensive customization options for creating in-depth training materials or multimedia lessons. Additionally, the platform's ability to create content that adapts to different devices, like tablets and smartphones, ensures a seamless learning experience across various platforms.

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Blooket

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Blooket is an interactive learning platform that engages students through a variety of game modes, similar to Kahoot. By incorporating elements of competition and fun, Blooket motivates students to participate and actively engage with the material. Teachers can easily create custom question sets or choose from pre-made ones shared by the community, tailoring the content to their specific needs. Blooket's gamified approach makes learning more enjoyable and effective, while also providing teachers with valuable insights into student understanding.

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The edtech tools discussed in this summary offer great benefits for both teachers and students. By providing interactive and engaging learning experiences, these tools can enhance student engagement, foster creativity, and improve learning outcomes. Teachers can leverage these tools to create personalized learning environments, differentiate instruction, and assess student understanding effectively. Go ahead! Try one out in your own teaching and learning practices. As technology continues to evolve, the future of edtech holds great promise for shaping more personalized and effective learning experiences, and empowering students to reach their full potential.

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FAQ: 

How do edtech tools improve student engagement?

Edtech tools improve student engagement by providing interactive and engaging learning experiences.

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Can edtech tools support students with learning disabilities?

Yes, edtech tools can support students with learning disabilities by offering personalized learning experiences and accommodations.

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How secure are edtech tools for student data?

The security of ed tech tools for student data varies, but reputable providers often implement robust security measures to protect sensitive information.