What Tools Are Needed to Teach Online
Jun 15, 2022
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What Tools Are Needed to Teach Online
Long-distance learning became the only way to teach or learn during pandemic lockdowns, which forced millions into the virtual classroom. This transition to virtual teaching was not without its challenges. Many students and teachers lacked the infrastructure to successfully switch to the realm of online teaching. However, both students and teachers quickly found out which tools, programs, and software were the most valuable in easing the transition to virtual teaching.
PDF Editors
PDF editors are one way for students and teachers to interact without having to be in a classroom and without having to print hard copy pages. A PDF editor is one way for students and teachers to gather and share information for a class lesson or presentation, while also being suitable for creating new documents to share with a virtual classroom.
A PDF editor like Lumin PDF can sync with a class Google Drive or Dropbox account so anyone with access to the drive can see the document. All potential changes are saved automatically and users can collaborate in real-time on the same document by adding comments, annotations, thoughts, and suggestions through the app.
Online Communication Tools
Communication tools are a given in the pandemic-era of remote learning since in-person communication and socialization are not possible. Many different messaging and video-conferencing apps existed before the pandemic but they found new life again as there was an unprecedented demand for virtual communication tools.
The most popular of these tools include apps like Skype and Zoom, which became the primary method by which people interacted during the pandemic. Other platforms like Google Meet also helped fill the need for teachers and students to communicate virtually. The effectiveness of these tools depended on the teacher’s use of them and the quality of the internet connection of the various students.
Social Media Channels
Although social media is often maligned in educational circles as a distraction, during the pandemic many administrators and teachers discovered how it could help keep students engaged. Sending out class tweets or letting students vote on a class poll via Twitter was also a way for students to use social media while also participating in class events.
Document Management Tools
Teaching and classrooms produce a lot of documents on their own, in regular times, which can sometimes be difficult to manage well and effectively. But document management tools offer easy-to-use platforms that help students and teachers organize the number of papers, hand-outs, and info-sheets that each class or lesson necessitates.
Teachers can easily upload a document to the platform to share for class consumption, while students can also manage their different assignments from different subjects on the same platform. They can use the record-keeping functions of these tools to keep track of the progress of certain assignments and move them to different folders when appropriate.
Online Homework Platforms
Online homework platforms are another important way for teachers and students to organize classwork under one, easy-to-use platform that lets everyone easily share and see everyone’s work. Homework platforms make it easier to track a student’s progression and challenge them to be responsible for uploading and organizing their homework assignments.
Homework platforms are also a good way to help streamline the way a class handles paperwork and class assignments. Rather than printing loads of paper hand-outs, teachers can upload and save documents to a particular drive and then give students access to those drives. Students can then view them in-app or with another third-party app to complete and then file them.