10 inexpensive apps every educator should know

Nearpod

Nearpod is an iOS app that allows teachers to deliver customized presentations directly to students' devices, and allows them to interact with their classes through customized assessments. The multimedia content will capture the attention of students of all ages, keeping them focused and eliminating off-task behavior. In fact, teachers can actually control students' devices when delivering a presentation through Nearpod. The reporting tool enables teachers to monitor individual results and analyze student progress. Absences also become less problematic since students can join in a Nearpod session from anywhere.

Price: Free

Skype

In today's age of being constantly connected, Skype is an essential app for the classroom. Parents unable to attend a crucial teacher conference? Skype makes virtual conferences simple with its easy-to-use interface. Other uses for Skype include incorporating a pen pal program with students from around the world or using the app to coordinate with guest speakers to offer virtual class visits.

Price: Free

Socrative

Socrative is a smart student response system that allows teachers to engage with the classroom through a series of educational exercises and games via smartphones, laptops, and tablets. One version is downloaded on a student's device while another is downloaded on a teacher's. Students can respond to multiple-choice, true/false and essay questions, and teachers control the flow and selection of the questions. Teachers have the option to view results in real time, or download and assess the results upon completion with the app's detailed reporting tools.

Price: Free

TeacherKit

Having a teacher's assistant in the classroom can be quite useful, but not every school has the budget for the expense. TeacherKit is a school-wide tool that keeps teachers, students and even administrators organized. It is also a virtual organizer that can be used to take attendance, enter grades and manage and analyze student progress and behavior. Administrators can also use the tool to track all student and teacher performance.

Price: Free

Yammer

Yammer isn't just for the enterprise. The popular business social network provides administrators, teachers and students with the full cloud suite of Microsoft Office productivity, email, file sharing, communication and IT management tools. Discussion and assignments can extend out of the classroom with Yammer's collaboration tools, encouraging more communication among peers and teachers. Yammer's specially priced solutions for academic institutions also make it a value for educators and students.

Price: Range from free to $3 student/month (about £1.75, AU$3.19); $6 teacher/month (about £3.50, AU$6.50)

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