TOO COOL (PERFECT FOR SCHOOL): We've got our favorite edtech teacher and administrator tools for the week right here, as highlighted in our Instruct newsletter. By the way--got a favorite S’Cool Tool you like to use? We would love to hear and share your recommendations! If you’ve got a tool that makes you or your students sing from the proverbial mountaintops, fill out this form to let us know. It might just get featured!
Free! For all you math and computer science teachers, it’s never too early to start planning for CompSci week (Dec. 7-13). Here’s a new tool to celebrate with--UC Davis just released C-STEM Studio, a free site that provides STEM teacher guides, textbooks and even a virtual robot simulator. The tool is available for devices with Windows XP and above or Mac OS and above, and can be used to teach students C and C++ coding languages.
Freemium: Zing! No, that’s not the sound of someone throwing out a quip or quick joke. That’s the name of a hub for thousands of free K-8 e-books, with a mix of fiction and nonfiction. Geared towards students, the site includes free student progress monitoring and reporting tools. For an extra $10/year, teachers can also get a communication tool for messaging students, adding teaching points to texts, and more.
License: Turn your website into a classroom. Make your expertise into a course. Worldclass allows you to create and share or sell courses through its app. The program offers a course editor that functions on mobile devices and the web. You can also add a widget to your site that will lead users to your classes based on your content.
$129.99: The EdSurge team has a bunch of nerds, and as such, we’ve been playing with Sphero’s SPRK robot for the last few days. (Obama’s been getting excited about Sphero, too.) This robotic ball tool offers students and teachers a way to learn to how to program with an app and see their instructions manifest through this movable toy. Download the app onto any iOS or Android device, connect to the ball through bluetooth, and you’re ready to program.
