15 Educational Tools Teachers Can Use

Updated October 2024

Summary:

• Educational apps and software platforms like Google Classroom, Kahoot! and Quizlet make it easy to deliver lessons, monitor student progress, and engage your classroom. They improve learning outcomes and lower teacher’s stress.
• Tools that let you create and share quizzes, videos, and other fun multimedia content make learning more dynamic and enjoyable. They also help teachers reach students with diverse learning needs more effectively.
• While the tools you’ll find on this list can help make lesson planning and classroom activities easier to map out, fundraising for your classroom’s needs is also important.
• FutureFund provides access to simple tools that make it easier for educators to finance learning materials, field trips, and other educational expenses.

While FutureFund offers a full collection of free fundraising features for teachers, it isn’t the only useful software for educators. From Google Classroom to ScreenPal, the most popular programs and platforms make presenting information and streamlining essential learning activities a breeze.

With so many great tools available, it can be tough to nail down which tools are the best fit for your students and teaching goals. At FutureFund, we’ve put together a list that’s chalk-full of educational tools for teachers so you can start exploring the options right now.

Google Classroom

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Google Classroom is a free, web-based platform that allows teachers to create, distribute, and grade assignments. It’s specifically designed to seamlessly integrate with other Google products, including Drive, Docs, Slides, and Sheets.

Google Classroom’s Key Features:

• Differentiated Learning: Adjust, modify, and tweak lessons for different learners based on their needs.
• Sync Gradebooks: Import and export gradebooks from PowerSchool, Infinite Campus, Skyward SMS, Skyward Qmlativ, and Follett Aspen.
• Check for Plagiarism: Verify that students are writing original work that isn’t plagiarised from an existing source.
• Streamline Learning: Monitor, track, and check assignments and progress at any point right within Classroom.

With Google Classroom, everything you need is in one place. Because files sync over the internet, it’s easy to collaborate with your students and their parents from anywhere.

Kahoot!

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Kahoot! is a game-based learning platform designed to help teachers create interactive quizzes and learning games. Its engaging format also draws students in, making it a real game-changer for the classroom.

Kahoot!’s Key Features:

• Interactive Quizzes: Kahoot! makes learning more interactive by making quizzes and learning games more dynamic and exciting.
• Supports Diverse Learning: Kahoot! specifically caters a wide range of learning styles by incorporating visual, audio, and kinesthetic elements.
• Real-Time Insights: With Kahoot!, you can assess a student’s’ understanding of any material in minutes.

Kahoot! is an excellent example of how educational tools can enhance student engagement and ensure that no learner is ever left behind. Use it to give students the push they need to perform better across a wide range of subjects and grade levels.

Quizlet

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Quizlet is a user-friendly study tool that gives you the power to create digital flashcards and study sets for almost any subject. The platform supports multiple study modes, like games, quizzes, and matching activities, which can help teachers customize study materials.

Quizlet’s Key Features:

• Customizable Study Sets: Customize any study set at any time for any reason, and update it any time.
• Magic Notes: Quizlet’s Magic Notes feature turns class notes into study materials in seconds.
• Q-Chat: Students can have interactive conversations with an AI tutor who specializes in breaking down complex topics.
• Gamified Learning: Features like vocabulary-building and quiz show games make learning more exciting.

Quizlet’s is specifically designed to help students and teachers thrive in the classroom by encouraging interaction. Use it to help your most diverse learners stay more focused.

Canvas

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Canvas, a flexible learning management system (LMS) created by Instructure, has a lofty but important goal: making learning and teaching better for everyone, all the way from K-12 students right up to Higher Ed.

Canvas’s Key Features:

• Centralized Learning: Use canvas to manage course materials, assignments, quizzes, grades, and discussions all from one platform.
• Flexibility: Canvas supports fully online courses, blended learning, flipped learning, and face-to-face courses.
• Analytics: AI-driven analytics make it easier to track student progress and identify areas for improvement.

Plus, Canvas’s Free-for-Teacher account is available to parents, teachers, and students at absolutely no cost. While some features are limited, you still get access to content creation and personalized learning tools.

Padlet

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Padlet is a digital bulletin board that lets users create and organize videos, images, documents, and other forms of content. It’s primed with ideal features to help create community and draw diverse learners in.

Padlet’s Key Features:

•  Brainstorming: Let students contribute ideas in real-time. Then, use Padlet to gather everyone’s thoughts in one place.
• Class Discussions: Create student messaging boards or class discussion forums and let students post questions, help one another, and work together.
• Collaborative Projects: Give students the power to work together and collaborate on shared resources or group assignments by posting content to their board.
• Digital Portfolios: Digital portfolio features help students create a living road that tracks their learning journey. Or, have them create mood boards full of goals.

The fact that Padlet is so flexible makes it an ideal tool for classrooms. Use it to inspire creativity, engage students, or just keep the conversations flowing.

Seesaw

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Seesaw is a digital portfolio and learning management tool that helps students showcase their work and receive feedback on it, either from their peers, their parents, or their teachers. It’s specifically designed to foster a more interactive, peer-to-peer learning experience for elementary school students and their teachers. 

Seesaw’s Key Features:

• Student Portfolios: Students can upload photos, videos, drawings, and other content to a personalized digital portfolio.
• Interactive Feedback: Teachers can leave personalized comments or messages of support to help students learn and grow—or just celebrate their success.
• Parental Access: Parents can view their child’s submissions and review feedback from teachers, making them a part of the journey.
• Creative Assignments: Teachers can assign tasks that encourage students to draw, create videos, or record audio that demonstrate their understanding.

Seesaw is all about encouraging safe, protected two-way communication and feedback that helps students meet their goals. Give it a shot!

Renaissance Next

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Renaissance Next is relatively new, but focuses almost entirely on teachers, students, the learning experience, and the data it creates. It’s packed with helpful tools that can make a teacher’s busy job less stressful and easier to manage.

Renaissance Next’ s Key Features:

• Streamline Work: Access all of Renaissance’s tools from one main hub.
• Analytics: See exactly how every student is performing anytime.
• Suggestions: Get in-the-moment recommendations on instruction strategies.
• Content: Browse Renaissance’s large library of pre-K‒12 instructional resources.
• Nearpod: Seamlessly integrate with Nearpod and Renaissance’s other products.

The software’s ability to make data and metrics more useful without adding to a teacher’s workload is a game-changer, too.

ClassDojo

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ClassDojo is a classroom management tool that helps teachers create more positive learning experiences by rewarding positive behavior and reinforcing student expectations. It also supports communication with parents through two-way messaging.

ClassDojo’s Key Features:

• Track Student Behavior: Record student behavior issues on the app. Celebrate the positive or remind students what’s expected of them when they need a little push.
• Create Community: Share student achievements, important moments in the classroom, and updates with everyone involved.
• Keep Parents in the Loop: Message parents directly to discuss behavior challenges or to celebrate their child’s achievements and milestones.

ClassDojo also has built-in features for messaging parents and students about upcoming classroom activities, field trips, keeping everyone organized.

Pear Deck

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Pear Deck is a presentation tool that lets teachers create interactive, student-centered lessons with the help of AI. It also provides real-time insight into what your students are learning—and what they’re struggling with.

Pear Deck’s Key Features:

• Custom Materials: Turn notes, handouts, presentation slides and other multimedia files into interactive lessons in a snap.
• High-Quality Content: Access 1,000+ math and ELA lessons from within Pear Desk’s Content Orchard.
• Diverse Learning Features: Help students with learning disabilities and other diverse learners feel more included with tailored instruction.

Pear Deck makes learning feel more like a game, even when students are practicing their math skills or studying how to conjugate English verbs. Use it to keep kids engaged!

Socrative

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Socrative is a web-based platform that lets teachers create quizzes, polls, and exit tickets that help gauge a student’s actual level of understanding. Real-time access to data allows you to validate the methods you use to teach, or change them, on the spot.

Socrative’s Key Features:

• Quizzes: Draw up quizzes to assess students on the spot, using multiple choice, true/false, or short answer formats. Monitor results as they come in.
• Quick Questions: Were your students paying attention just now? Find out with the help of Socrative’s “quick question” feature.
• Polling: Live polls help you gather feedback from students, making them feel more integrated with the classroom community.
• Exit Tickets: Use exit tickets to identify who already has a part of the curriculum down pat, and who still needs help.

Socrative’s whole philosophy lies in making learning fun while also maintaining easy access to much-needed data, like test scores and assessments. Use it to keep track and help students grow.

Canva for Education

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Canva for Education is a graphic design platform that gives students and teachers access to powerful tools for creating engaging visuals, presentations, and educational materials. It’s not only fun to use, but can also help students stay focused and express themselves creatively.

Canva’s Key Features:

• Visual Learning Materials: Create attractive visuals like posters, infographics, and worksheets to support your lessons.
• Student Creativity: Encourage students to create their own slides, presentations, reports, or digital posters while learning design skills.
• Interactive Lesson Plans: Develop visually appealing lesson plans and classroom activities that ward off boredom and keep students engaged.
• Collaborative Projects: Get students working together on group design projects where they can all contribute at once.
• Templates for Ease: Use simple pre-made templates to save time without sacrificing the need for professional-looking designs.

Canva is also a great tool for fundraisers, which is why the team at FutureFund created these five free raffle ticket templates for teachers. Use them as-is, or customize them instead!

Edpuzzle

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Edpuzzle is an online platform that helps teachers create highly interactive video lessons. It’s easy to add questions, voiceovers, and notes to videos, giving your students more and better ways to engage with your content. That’s a great way to support diverse learners.

Edpuzzle’s Key Features:

• Teacher Voiceovers: Guide students through content, prepare them for activities or provide feedback on their submissions in the app.
• Curriculum Library: Browse Edpuzzle’s library of videos—what you need may already be available.
• Student-Created Content: Put students in the driver’s seat for a change by having them create a lesson in Edpuzzle.
• Focused Teaching: Create micro-lessons to promote better understanding of a topic or area of conversation.

Edpuzzle is also known for being user-friendly, which makes it more likely that students and teachers will want to use it. Even younger students can figure out its unique drag-and-drop interface with a little help.

Schoology

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Schoology by Powerschool is technically a learning management system (LMS) that supports both online learning and classroom management. But that’s far from its only benefit—this tool also gives you the power to create, manage, and share content seamlessly.

Schoology’s Key Features:

• Content Management: Create and organize lessons, quizzes, assignments, and virtually any other content right within the app.
• Interactive Discussions: Get students, teachers, and parents talking with discussion boards and forums.
• Assessment Tools: Use built-in quizzes to measure each student’s progress and provide feedback on what they should focus on next.
• Parent Access: Involve parents in their child’s learning by granting them access to view assignments, grades, and class activities.

Schoology helps streamline the learning experience. When it’s easier to manage content, engage students, and keep parents informed, classrooms run more smoothly.

Nearpod

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The interactive lesson platform Nearpod gives teachers the ability to create engaging, multimedia-rich lessons in as little as a few minutes. Incorporate virtual reality, create quizzes and polls, and host collaborative activities to support your lesson plans!

Nearpod’s Key Features:

• Keep Learners Focused: Inspire students to take an active part in the learning process—and keep them focused as they grow their knowledge.
• Create Richer Content: Use real‑time insights, formative assessments and standards‑aligned resources to make lessons more rich in data.
• Encourage Participation: Students can interact, comment, and share their thoughts on content, making them more likely to participate in lessons.
• Identify Gaps: Dashboards and reports help teachers spot gaps before students fall through the cracks.

Nearpod is an effective tool for making your classroom’s learning experiences more immersive and engaging. When students are interested, they’re more likely to retain info.

ScreenPal

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ScreenPal (formerly Screencast-O-Matic) is a screen recording and video editing tool that allows teachers to create instructional videos, tutorials, and presentations. Use ScreenPal to record your screen, add voiceovers, or edit existing video right within the app.

ScreenPal’s Key Features:

• Easy Setup: Get started with ScreenPal for free so you can test teacher-friendly features before your school commits.
• Blended Learning: Use ScreenPal to create teacher-led instructional videos, guides, and interactive content for blended or flipped learning environments.
• Custom Quizzes: Test your student’s knowledge with custom video quizzes on virtually any topic or subject in your curriculum.

ScreenPal’s video editor is also highly intuitive, making it easy for teachers to learn even if they aren’t technically inclined. That’s also why it’s so great for students!

Raise money for these tools with our free fundraising platform

Educational tools can help teachers, students, and schools create learning environments that are more fun and more effective. While it can take a bit of thoughtful planning and collaboration with colleagues, students, and parents to choose the right one, the end result is very often worth the work.

FutureFund is designed to help educators raise money for the tools on this list and other essential expenses. It’s totally free for schools to use and the facility always keeps 100% of the money—no hidden fees. Book a demo of the platform here to learn how we can help your students thrive.