The night before ISTELive takes off, however, a group of dedicated educators organizes an old-school board game meetup during which people can connect in a way that predates even the oldest of tech.

Bonding Over Board Games 

With the tech-heavy focus of ISTELive being the reason educators gather in the first place, having a board game night right before might seem counterintuitive. After all, what do board games have to do with tech? 

Eric Curts, Technology Integration Specialist at Stark Portage Area Computer Consortium, explains how game night came to be a beloved pre-conference staple.

“This is our second year doing this at ISTE, but we’ve done similar things like this at other conferences,” says Curts. “Just a bunch of folks saying ‘Hey, this will be fun to do in the evening. We’re a bunch of nerds and we like board games. Let’s do a board game meetup.’ And from that we said we should do this at ISTE.”

Last year’s inaugural event at ISTE was so well-received that there was no hesitation in doing it again. 

“What’s behind it is we just want to have opportunities that meet everybody where they’re at,” says Curts. “They don’t want to be in a room with really loud music where they’re trying to scream over it to talk to somebody.”

The difference between a conference floor and a board game table can make all the difference when trying to get to know someone.

“Some people say ‘Hey, I’d rather go somewhere tonight where I can just meet some new people, talk, laugh, have some fun, play some games, and connect,’” Curts says. “And I love that about board games. It’s an opportunity that can bridge and connect people. They learn about each other, and that’s what we’re trying to do. Connecting awesome educators with other awesome educators in a venue that supports fun and creative communication.”

Pre-ISTE = Pre-Technology?

Having a board game night before an educational technology showcase can be jarring given the fact that these are on opposite ends of the spectrum. However, the focus on non-screen gaming is not meant to take away from the advent of technology highlighted by ISTELive. Rather, it helps to bring together a mass of wandering educators for one night to laugh, talk, and connect over one of the oldest forms of entertainment.

“We’ve had people from South Africa, Canada, and Australia,” says Matt Winters, Utah State Board of Education Specialist and founding participant. “We’ve had board game designers and we’ve had educators from higher ed and K through 12. It’s just incredible to see people play a giant version of Jenga and enjoy the craziness of it. I love that it feels like I’m at home, playing a board game with my friends. But these are friends from all over the world, and I’m just meeting them now. Hopefully, I’ll have a connection that goes forward for years.”

A Special Type of Connection 

Board games, much like the people who play them, are diverse in nature as there’s one for almost anyone who would like to play. This diversity was at the heart of the Pre-ISTE Board Game meetup, as participants are encouraged to bring a game of their choosing to the event. Games that would be present were listed prior to the date of the event so attendees would not bring the same game. As Director of Design and Innovation for Community Region Charter School in Maine Dan Ryder recalls, it was a much smaller game night that sparked the idea for this pre-ISTE ritual. 

“How did it start? Playing games in Utah and then going for an Uber ride,” Ryder says. “Both Eric Curts and I were in Utah as featured speakers for an event, thanks to Matt Winters. We both went to a game night and, during the Uber ride from the conference to the airport that Eric and I shared, we said we should do this at ISTE. We laughed, but there was no reason why we couldn’t. So, at ISTE 2023, we were able to find a hotel that had a function room, we were able to get a handful of sponsors, and we got a small room that could hold about 150 people or so. We packed it.”

With an eye toward inclusion, Ryder says the event involved those who were less inclined to the hustle and bustle associated with average social gatherings.

“This tends to be an introverts’ paradise and we wanted to have something that was the opposite just as an alternative,” he says. “We’ve had a gentleman come who says he looked at the table and said those weren’t his games. I told him, someone is coming later with more games. He stuck around, found a couple games, had a couple conversations. Originally, he wanted to leave at 6:10 and he ended up leaving at 10:30. It just goes to show you the power of games, connections, and good people. It’s hard to go wrong there.”

Related:

• ISTELive 2024: Edtech Show & Tell
• How Gamifying Education Brings Out the Best In Students

This tools works for creating presentations but also websites and documents, allowing teachers and students to pick their outputs when working on projects. Essentially, this speeds up the process of building presentations, not only in generating the words but also the images for the slides.

Like many AI tools, the ability to edit is there so you can make changes if the final results aren't as expected.

This guide aims to explain all you need to know about Gamma as an AI tool you can start using right now in class.

What is Gamma?

Gamma is an AI-powered presentation generator that can output in slides, documents, or webpages with very little input required beyond a written request.

Crucially, this tool can use AI to generate images too, allowing you to get an original finish that includes relevant images without the concern of any copyright infringements.

Unlike many other AI tools out there, this one will generate in-line as it processes, so you can see the points being written and images appearing as it scrolls down filling the pages. This provides a super fast overview before scrolling back up to see if it was all as you wanted -- but a nice touch to give you a preview as you go.

While this tool allows you to output in PowerPoint or PDF formats, it won't support Google Slides natively, so if that's your tool of choice, this might not be ideally suited to you. That said, the Gamma tool can be used to present, inside a browser if you want, so it doesn't have to be a prohibitive issue.

How does Gamma work?

Gamma is easy to get started with, as it runs within a website so you can access it from most devices and internet connections. You can sign up right away using an email address or a Google account. You are then asked how you want to work: Generate, for a written command; Paste in Text; or Import File or URL. Pick the output of presentation, webpage, or document, and hit Generate to get going.

In the output you can see the content being generated and along the left side the slide previews are available so you can scroll through or present with an at-a-glance view. It's possible to add comments or reactions to sections as well as to edit the text in format, style, and content.

It's also possible to edit with AI with simple requests such as "make longer" or "improve writing" as options. Or edit manually for a deeper level of control to get the exact output you want.

What are the best Gamma features?

Gamma is deeply AI-powered, which means it is smart enough to do most of the legwork of any task you have set, without you having to do much -- ultimately saving time. So you can create a more personalized and professional end result while still saving on time over traditional non-AI software.

The automated image generation using AI is a really appealing part of this software. That's not only thanks to the images being original but that there is also the ability to work with that as you need, even accessing graphics via the likes of Giphy or Unsplash, right from within Gamma.

Everything can be outputted in PowerPoint, so if you want to place the presentation on a machine for a display without the internet, that's an option. Or for sharing with students, this can be a helpful way to allow them to do so offline if needed.

The ability to remix, using AI is a really helpful. Hit the button at various stages and the AI will give you variations to things such as the theme, writing, images, and more, until you find what you like. This lets you personalize the finish but while still working at speed using the AI.

How much does Gamma cost?

Gamma offers a few options including a free plan and two payment tiers.

The Free plan gets you 400 AI credits to generate up to 10 cards, use basic image models, have unlimited gammas and users, branded PDF and PPT export.

The Plus plan, at $8/month paid annually at $96, gets you unlimited AI use, 15 cards, no "made with Gamma" badge, PDF and PPT exports, priority support and everything in Free.

Go for the Pro plan, at $15/month paid annually at $180, and you get all the above plus 30 cards, longer AI inputs, premium image models, publish to custom domains, custom fonts, detailed analytics, and password protection.

Gamma best tips and tricks

Present personally
Vary your presentation outputs to suit varying ages and abilities without costing you much extra time.

Try a website
Rather than building a presentation, try creating a website and have students interact with it as a more immersive learning experience.

Tweak manually
Don't be afraid to manually adjust the result to get it perfectly aligned with your needs. It may take longer but will likely still be faster than doing it from scratch.

• New Teacher Starter Kit
• Best Tools for Teachers

The column’s author, Kwame Anthony Appiah, a philosophy professor at NYU, replied to the teacher that this mixed policy toward AI was ethical because the students need to practice writing while the teacher already knew how to grade. The real question, Appiah wrote, was whether AI grading tools could fairly grade students in a manner that helped them improve for the next assignment, like a skilled teacher.

As AI gets better and better, and more tools are available on the market, it’s an increasingly important question, as is a follow up: If AI tools can grade fairly and effectively, will students and teachers accept it?

AI Can Already Help With Assessments 

Deirdre Quarnstrom, Vice President of Education at Microsoft, says there’s a lot of interest in the question. “As I look across the industry, I think any potential task that an educator can do, there is organizations working on how to improve that, and how to make that better,” she says.

AI is already skilled enough at summarization to help teachers in the grading and assessment process, she says, by performing initial evaluations based on a set of instructions or prompts or criteria.

Michael Klymkowsky, a biology professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, is developing an AI tool that can help assess biology students' progress. Instead of grading, it’s designed to help inform teachers on where students are at with the material. However, he says it might already be able to do a better job at grading than humans in some instances, including a mega section for a course with grading done by time-strapped graduate assistants.

“Graduate students don't always have time to grade everything equally rigorously,” Klymkowsky says. He adds that adopting a system such as this might help teachers to not be as reluctant to assign short-answer questions because of the additional time traditionally needed for grading.

Whether or not school leaders would permit such a use openly, or if students would accept its use, is another question altogether.

AI Grading Obstacles and Concerns  

A recent pair of studies looking at AI assessments and writing found that AI wasn’t as good as skilled teachers, but was close and was probably better than overworked or inexperienced teachers at providing feedback.

Steve Graham, a co-author on both studies and professor at Arizona State University, says that a key to whether students and teachers become comfortable with AI-graded work are perceptions of its accuracies. “If you trust feedback from AI, then I think you're more likely to use it,” Graham says. One way to build that trust is through increased research and studies so its efficacy can be evaluated and best practices can be developed.

Still, it’s easy to imagine some teachers still being reluctant and students pushing back against poor AI-generated grades even though there is precedent for acceptance of machine-generated assessments. For example, state writing assessments are increasingly scored by computer programs less advanced than generative AI, Graham says. These tools don’t really analyze the writing, just the semantic and syntactic markers, while also assessing whether it's a match for good, quality writing.

“People were initially leery about that, but you're seeing that used more and more,” he says.

Although Graham believes AI grading and assessments overall can eventually help students learn and ease time constraints for teachers, he also stresses that we’ll need to always keep in mind the human element.

“The only reason I'd want feedback from AI is to make a paper better that I'm either writing for myself to explore something about me, or that I'm writing for other people to read,” he says. “The fear I have is that if we turn to algorithm-based feedback or feedback from ChatGPT, and we don't have other people reading our papers, well, what's the purpose here? And ultimately, we write for a purpose.”

• Scientists Compared ChatGPT Writing Assessments to Human Assessments. Here’s What They Found
• The Biggest Edtech Companies Are Going All In on AI. Here's Why

FOR EDUCATORS

Tech & Learning webinars feature education leaders and experts from across the country, discussing how they are solving some of the biggest challenges facing schools and districts, from AI and data privacy to mental wellness and cybersecurity. Each one provides professional learning opportunities, best practices, advice, and more. Plus, registrants may be eligible to win a $250 Amazon Gift Card!

FOR SPONSORS

Webinars continue to be one of the best ways to generate leads and educate fresh audiences about your solutions. Tech & Learning’s webinar platform and marketing program offers an opportunity to showcase your product and get qualified leads in two models: single sponsor and multi-sponsored.

To read about and view all of our past webinars, visit Tech & Learning's Webinars page.

UPCOMING WEBINARS

Creating a Responsible AI Policy: Top Ten Things to Know

Tuesday, July 23rd | 2:00 PM Eastern | 11:00 AM Pacific

For school and district leaders facing the task of creating a responsible AI policy, understanding of the different types of AI and domain-specificity matters.

In this one-hour webinar, we’ll explore ten critical aspects essential for creating a responsible AI policy. The session will cover key areas including the following:

• Data privacy
• Safety and security
• Educator training and support
• Student well-being
• Strategies for rolling out an AI policy within a school district.

Learn more and register here.

Empowering School Communities Through the Next Generation of the K12 Maker Movement

Wednesday, July 31st | 2:00 PM Eastern | 11:00 AM Pacific

Join us for an insightful webinar hosted by Cricut designed to explore the transformative potential of the next generation of tools powering the K12 Maker Movement.

This webinar will cover the following:

• Introduction to K12 Maker Movement 2.0
• Benefits for Educators & Administrators for Leveraging Cricut to Empower the Next Generation of the K12 Maker Movement
• Implementation Strategies
• Resources and Support

Learn more and register here.

RECENT PAST WEBINARS

Implementing an AI Roadmap Framework: Preparing Staff & Students

The rapid growth of AI in schools has caused both excitement and concern from school district communities. In Part 2 of this two-part series, Tech & Learning, in partnership with PowerSchool, brought together school district experts to share advice about how they trained their staff to be comfortable with the integration of AI tools, as well as support students with using the AI tools that can help with their success.

Designing an AI Roadmap Framework: Creating and Communicating AI Guidelines and Policies

The use of AI in school districts has been equal parts exciting and concerning for educators. Many factors involving the use of AI-driven programs and technology have yet to be fully understood. However, the quest to integrate and comprehend AI’s usefulness is one that many school districts have undertaken to help both teachers and students.

3 Modern Challenges Facing District IT Leaders

With the rise of innovations such as generative AI, IT leaders face increasingly complex challenges in the effort to protect student safety and digital wellbeing. During a recent webinar presentation sponsored by Linewize, Logan Joiner, Network Analyst for Richland School District in Washington, and Terrisa Reeves, Territory Directory for Linewize, discussed exploring practical solutions and empowering IT teams for success in the evolving world of edtech.

To read about and view all of our past webinars, visit Tech & Learning's Webinars page.

“Writing can be a powerful tool, and we have evidence that it will help you understand the material better and remember it better,” says Graham, a professor at Arizona State University, who has studied effective writing instruction and how AI does in writing assessments.

But that only happens if students actually write. “If we move to a point where something like chat GPT is writing for us, then we lose the advantage of thinking about the material we're writing about, which can increase our understanding," he says.

Reconciling these two goals -- having AI help students learn to write more efficiently without hijacking the cognitive benefits of writing -- should be a key goal of educators. Finding the ideal balance will require more work from both researchers and classroom educators, but Graham shares some initial tips for doing this currently.

1. Have Students Brainstrom Without AI  

Many talk about how they use AI as a brainstorming partner and to generate ideas. Graham isn’t certain that’s the best use for students, at least not initially.

Instead he’d like to see the students get their ideas down on paper before working with AI. “You're still thinking about it, then you're bringing in other ideas,” he says.

2.  Have Students Write A First Draft Without AI

Once a student has the ideas for a paper, Graham advises having them write a first draft. “Then the polishing of the material may be a great place for AI to help us,” he says. This might include sentence construction, changes to tone, and other aspects of writing improvement that are generally separate from the part of writing involved in thinking about a topic.

3. Have Students Go Deeper Than The First AI Response

AI tends to offer advice so confidently students might be tempted to take it whether it improves their writing or not. To overcome this, Graham suggests writing a sentence and then having AI suggest multiple versions of that sentence, and then rewriting it with the class making it clear why the final sentence you chose is the best.

“Just as we might teach students how to form more complex sentences from simpler sentences with something like sentence combining, we can have activities where we help students make those kinds of decisions so that they use the feedback from AI to improve their sentence skills and make informed decisions,” Graham says.

4. Emphasize Thinking In All AI Writing Tasks  

Graham says that teachers want to have students focus on the idea that “thinking” goes along with writing as they explore utilizing AI for writing help. Even parts of the revision process should be centered on student thinking. Bolstering digital citizenship is also important in reducing the use of AI to cheat and shortchange learning.

“We want to be sure that at each point that we use this where you could potentially take thinking out of the mix, that we make sure that we structure the situation so that that's not going to happen,” he says. “We want to really emphasize ownership of what's written and responsibility. Ultimately, if AI helps you in some way, you need to be transparent about that. And if there's errors, they're your errors, because it's your responsibility to check on that.”

• Scientists Compared ChatGPT Writing Assessments to Human Assessments. Here’s What They Found
• The Biggest Edtech Companies Are Going All In on AI. Here's Why

Chief Information Technology Officer at San Antonio ISD, serving 45,000 students in 70 schools, Mendoza is known for creative attempts to teach cybersecurity, such as her popular “Phish Market” poster and PSA-video contest with winner’s artwork appearing as the lock screen on the district’s chromebooks and school monitors. She also offers a PD version of a popular television game show.

“It’s standard ‘Family Feud’ with a cybersecurity theme,” says Mendoza, who was honored for her efforts during a Tech & Learning regional leadership summit. “We follow the basic rules of the game, where a hundred people are surveyed and participant teams guess the most common responses. We just happen to have a hundred people on our IT staff, so it worked out great.”

Surveys are created with simple Google docs or Microsoft forms, free options that any district budget can handle.

“We send out a survey, asking questions such as, ‘What is the most commonly used password?’” Mendoza says. “Then we take the game around to different targeted departments because of the data they handle, and get some volunteers to make up two teams. We usually try to gamify anything within HR and finance. It’s just really engaging when you add in competition.”

Mendoza finds this style of engagement helps important info sink in, both for participating game contestants and the audience.

“So we might say, ‘We asked one hundred people, what are the most commonly used passwords? And the responses come — ‘1234’ or ‘pet’s name,’ ‘year of birth,’ all of these things that people do, but are super easy to guess or find,” she says. “There will be some funny responses and then ‘Survey says— ‘ and the results can be eye-opening. We want to hit them with that real-world shock. ‘Oh, wow — we all do that or know someone who does.’”

Some of the answers are entertaining, such as during the real show, which keeps the audience attentive rather than the dynamic of zoning out, too often seen in PD sessions. Mendoza then has the principal or a tech director give a short one liner of actual information, enough to drive home the lesson without ruining the fun and engagement of the activity.

“We created it within PowerPoint, using the graphics and theme song. It took a little bit of tweaking, but now that it's established, we can take it around to our different departments to take part in the game,” she says. “I personally think cybersecurity's super cool and fun, but you know, not all my colleagues across the district may feel that way. Sometimes people think it's a little intimidating or they think ‘It isn’t part of my work.’ Cyber safety is a shared responsibility. We all play a part in it and we want them to learn and understand the important role they play in cybersecurity.”

Gamification Isn’t Just For Students

Most school districts in Texas are required to have cybersecurity training approved by the state.

“These were often formal, traditional, sometimes boring videos that we were required to watch,” says Mendoza. “If you can reach beyond that traditional training, however, you can make a serious impact.”

It doesn’t matter how secure and advanced your system is if it is made vulnerable by those using it. This can be a real problem when human error leads to leaks of sensitive student data such as social security numbers, grades, health matters, personal phone numbers and addresses, and other family information.

“With cybersecurity, the No. 1 way people hack into systems is to hack the person, not the technology,” says Mendoza. “They go after those without cyber awareness, capitalizing on human error and carelessness. We need to ensure educators and staff realize the threats that are out there and that they are one of the most important parts of the strategy to keep our environment safe for our students.”

This sort of fun exploration of cybersecurity can even be a unique way to engage students in assemblies, cheering on teacher teams while learning.

“Hackers don't care if a target is a six-year-old, it is just an account to get in,” says Mendoza. “Kids need to learn just as much as our staff. Our students are growing up in a digital age from day one. Even if you're itty bitty, you have a digital footprint, and you need to learn to stay safe and how to protect your data. We did a little lesson with all K through 12. Some of the feedback we got from the teachers were stories of ‘My Roblox account was hacked and they took all my points.’ They are in their own world, but that could be so much bigger if they're not taught early and are ready for the future.”

Tips When Creating Your Own Cybersecurity Training Games

Create real-life activities. Mendoza says, “We did a tabletop exercise to take staff through a full-day scenario of what it’s like when you go through a ransomware attack. For example, 9:13 a.m., teachers complaining ‘I can’t log in or get to my email.’ How are you going to get through the day without no system? What happens if somebody picks up their kid early, what happens at dismissal? Now extrapolate that into a system down for three to five days. It was meant to be an exercise for staff, but it turned into a great resource for us to document and make a plan of everything schools would need from us and the central office to get by. Suddenly, it comes full circle and we have staff saying, ‘I couldn't make that connection, that my clicking a phishing link could lead to the whole district being down for five days.’ We were able to make it real for them.

Share the why. “A lot of the time we have processes for the vetting process on technology or digital tools,” says Mendoza. “Sometimes applications or softwares are denied. Educators see something on social media, a blog or a seemingly helpful app, and don't really understand why— ‘It’s free! I don't see why!’ It comes down to data privacy and protection. We have to read all the terms and conditions. At the end of the day, the ‘No’ is for the students and for our staff so we can be into a good digital environment.

Focus on the people. “Having the people part of your strategy is so important,” says Mendoza. “You have your processes, you have your technology, all your cybersecurity systems and solutions. But you need that people piece to make sure that your cybersecurity posture is strong.”

• Innovative Leader Awards
• How Gamifying Education Brings Out the Best In Students

To help teachers more easily find the best free and freemium sites they can use in their classrooms and curricula, I've curated a list that describes the top free/freemium sites for learning.

In some cases, Tech & Learning has reviewed the site in detail, and those links are included so readers can find out more about how to make the best use of the online materials. In all cases, the websites below provide valuable educational tools, lessons, and ideas, and are worth exploring further.

FREEMIUM SITES

AnimakerCreate presentations, posters, animations, and infographics. Free account for up to two teachers and 25 students.

Animoto
A drag-and-drop video creation site, Animoto offers a free account allowing unlimited videos. Great for beginners.

Belouga
Belouga is a digital platform providing K-12 teachers and students with a personalized learning journey through connection, communication and collaboration with peers around the world. Teachers can sign up for a free account.

Arcademics
Boost student engagement and fact fluency with this free multiplayer educational games, math games, language arts games, and more.

Better Explained
A different way to understand math concepts, for students and teachers.

Blooket
Blooket's game-based learning platform is fun, free, and customizable by educators.

Boardmaker
Boardmaker is a collection of standardized picture symbols used for communication with students who are strong visual learners, including those with autism spectrum disorders, Down Syndrome, speech and language disorders, and behavioral disorders. A thematic series of units called Boardmaker Activities to Go are free, and ready to download, print, or copy.

Classroom Cereal
Grammar practice in 30 free, printable short stories. Premium

Cloud Stop Motion
Cloud Stop Motion is free for individuals, schools and organizations.

Conjugemos
"Use without account" option has vocabulary, grammar, listening activities and games in Spanish, French, Italian, German, Portuguese, Korean, and Latin. Free student account offers unlimited access to public games, activities and printables and more.

Course Hero
Free study guides provided for a range of subjects. Each core topic is broken down into smaller sections which contain videos, infographics, vocab words, reading recommendations, and practice problems.

Data Classroom
DataClassroom is a web app that allows students in grades 6-12 to make graphs (line, bar, box plots, dot plots, etc.) and do basic statistical analysis. Free basic account.

Deck.Toys
Interactive lesson creation site, offering a free account for up to two classrooms, three private decks and up to 100 public decks.

DeltaMath
Delta Math is a free website for teachers and students covering a wide range of math content from middle school through AP Calculus.

Diigo
Social bookmarking site offering free teacher and student accounts, plus how-to guides for using Diigo in the classroom.

Duolingo
Provides foreign language instruction. Free basic content

EdPuzzle
EdPuzzle, which lets teachers create lessons from any video, offers a free basic plan, which includes access to more than 5 million videos, ability to create interactive video lessons, analytics, and storage space for 20 videos.

Educaplay
Gamify learning with a free account to create engaging learning activities. Choose from more than a dozen templates to create your own individualized activity.

Eduflow
Eduflow allows users to run online courses with things such as peer review and other learning activities. Free accounts available

Elementari
Elementari is a K-12 online platform to read, write, code, share, and remix interactive stories using professional illustrations and sounds offering free basic accounts. K-12 teachers in a public or chartered schools in the U.S. can receive a free Elementari Educator License (up to 35 student accounts).

Emile
Free access to Roman numeral and multiplication table games-based learning resources.

Epic!
Epic! provides online learning resources such as books, learning videos, quizzes and more. Free classroom access for all educators.

EverFi
EVERFI’s no-cost digital resources cover topics such as social emotional learning, STEM, financial literacy, career readiness, and health & wellness. Its standards-aligned resources have assessments embedded, enabling teachers to see measurable outcomes from student work in real-time.

Facing History
Collection of educator resources includes a wide range of flexible, multimedia materials, from primary sources and streaming videos to teaching strategies, lesson plans, and full units. All resources free with creation of online account

FluentKey
FluentKey helps language teachers make listening meaningful by turning real-life videos into an interactive game. They have hundreds of videos in Chinese, English, French, and Spanish. Free basic account includes videos, transcripts, quizzes, and games.

Formative
Formative enables teachers to build their own assessments and assignments, or pull and customize “formatives” from its library of thousands of pre-made materials. Educators can always sign up for free accounts.

Freckle
Freckle.com has a free level that includes differentiated activities in math, ELA, and science, and a basic teacher dashboard.

Gamilab
A platform in which anyone can find or create their own simple learning games.

Genially
Create presentations, infographics, and more in seconds.

Infogram
Create charts, maps, and infographics for free with a basic account, with the ability to access up to 10 professional templates.

Kahoot
Kahoot! offers a free basic plan that allows teachers to create, play, and host games outside of the classroom and in-class.

Kami
Kami is a cloud-based platform providing digital space for teaching resources, including digital books, lessons, videos and audio. The free basic plan includes no-ad service, toolbar functions, view documents and images through Kami, autosave, and file conversion.

Loom
Loom is a work communication tool that helps users create instantly shareable video. Capture your screen, record your front-facing camera, and narrate it all at once, then share with a simple link.

Lucidchart
Featuring graphic organizing and mind mapping, Lucidchart is a cloud-based tool to make learning visual and collaborative. 10 free Lucidcharts

LucidPress
Lucidpress is a cloud-based tool for creating documents such as infographics, posters, magazines, and school newspapers. Free basic plan includes 100 professional templates.

Manga High
Mangahigh.com is a game-based learning site where students learn mathematics via casual games that balance fun and learning. Free math games and curriculum-aligned activities without account required.

Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams offers unlimited chat, video calling, file sharing, storage, and more.

Mote
Mote is a Chrome extension that allows educators to record feedback of their students' work. Free basic account.

NearPod
NearPod's free plan allows up to 40 students per session, essential assessment and lesson creation tools and multimedia content.

Fusebas (formerly Nimbus Capture)
A Google extension that works like Screencastify. Allows you to screen grab, record over presentations, or record a "live" lesson. Many features are free but expanded features can be purchased as well for a modest price.

NoRedInk
NoRedInk is a free online curriculum that includes diagnostic tools and assessments, targeted skills practice, a writing platform that guides students through the drafting and revision process, and instructional resources for teachers.

Parlay
A discussion-based learning tool and global community of educators who aim to reimagine class discussions. Free teacher trial with no time limit.

Pear Deck
Basic free accounts integrate with Google and Microsoft tools and allow users to create interactive lessons, polls, quizzes and formative assessments.

Pecha Kucka
PechaKucha helps teachers, students, and researchers create short, powerful talks that are engaging, memorable, and easy to share. Basic free plan includes unlimited presentations

Quill
Quill.org offers online literacy, writing, grammar, and ESL/ELL resources for teachers and students. Free for educators and students, paid premium reporting features.

Quizlet
Quizlet offers curriculum-based materials, interactive study methods and games Always free for students and teachers.

Quizizz
Free fun gamified quizzes for math, language arts, history and more. No account required to play.

Remind
Remind offers communication solutions for teachers, students and parents. A free Remind account lets educators create up to 10 classes with up to 150 people each. Always free.

ScreenCastify
Chrome screen recording extension offers a free basic account.

Seneca
Offers free certified teaching resources with topics by subject and exam.

Sight Reading Factory
Free sight reading exercises for piano, guitar, woodwinds, strings, ensembles and more. Users simply select the instrument or modality desired, time signature and key signature and start playing the music. Then click the play button to hear how the piece is supposed to sound. No signup is required for the first twenty challenges. Student subscriptions available for as little as $2 annually.

Slido
Free basic plan includes up to 100 participants, unlimited audience Q&A, and three polls per event.

Solfeg.io
Online music lesson plans. Free plan includes 20 free songs, unlimited students, lesson plans and more.

Starfall
Starfall.com uses animation and sound to engage children in the learning process. Each category offers selected free resources.

Sumdog
Offers personalized math and spelling practice, curriculum-aligned. Free account includes six games, standards alignment and personalization.

Sumo Paint
Sumo Paint's well-organized interface makes it easy to start creating digital art right away. Its free basic plan allows online creation with selected tools and limited storage, while the modestly priced full plans are as low as $2 per month for students.

Sutori
Sutori is a collaborative presentation tool for the classroom for all age groups and content areas. Free basic accounts provide the ability to create and share stories, collaborate, slideshow view, and more.

Tynker
Free teachers accounts provide three free coding courses, more than 35 hours of K-12 code activities, unlimited student accounts, and professional development.

Typing Club
Free edition allows unlimited students, three classes, two instructors, and the ability to create and customize lessons.

Typing.com
The typing.com free account provides lessons in typing, tech readiness, career prep, coding basics, and more. Full district and administrative tools.

Vectr
Vectr is like a streamlined, simplified and— best of all, free—Adobe Illustrator. The free version allows 30 MB space and includes (blockable) ads while two premium versions offer higher storage, more tools, no ads and AI features. No account needed to get started, but you'll need one to save progress.

VEXcode VR
Free computer science/coding instruction, offering three ways to code: block-based, blocks + text, and text-based coding with Python. Students code a virtual robot using a block-based coding environment powered by Scratch Blocks

We Video
Free plan offers 1 gGB cloud storage, 22 songs from the music library, five minutes per month video time.

Wizer
Wizer's free version of its program, Wizer Create, allows teachers to create self-grading customizable worksheets for their students.

XtraMath
Helps kids master basic math. Aligned with Common Core State Math Standards, the site targets K-6 elementary school students but is also used by older students for review or intervention.

Zotero
Open-source software that allows users to collect, organize, cite and share research. Free accounts allow up to 300 MB storage, while three premium accounts allow users to expand storage as needed.

FREE SITES

Ableton’s Free Synthesizer Learning Tool
A surprisingly in-depth online "manual" for learning the synthesizer, Ableton’s Free Synthesizer Learning Tool offer a fascinating, easy and fun way to learn to learn to play a synthesizer—right in your browser window. No need to purchase an expensive instrument- simply explore each chapter at your own pace while you learn to create digital music.

AMAZE
AMAZE is a free online resource that teaches about puberty, reproduction, relationships, sex, and sexuality., and provides strong guidance for educators in the form of videos, lesson plans, and references.

American Chemistry Society
The American Chemical Society offers its ChemMatters magazine articles for high schoolers online. Biographies of chemists and historical articles are also available.

American Panorama
Created by the Digital Scholarship Lab at the University of Richmond, this free interactive digital atlas of America uses online GIS to explore and visualize data with maps. Varied topics include presidential global travel, the importance of canals to American economy and overland trails. A related resource, the Atlas of the Historical Geography of the United States, provides digital reproductions of the classis text by Charles O. Paullin and John K. Wright.

Audacity
Audacity is a free, open-source audio editor and recorder for Windows, macOS, GNU/Linux, and other operating systems.

Bark for Schools
Student and school safety product that detects potential problems across G Suite, Office 365, and Chrome to help protect students — at no cost. Bark looks for potentially harmful activities that may indicate online predators, adult content, sexting, cyberbullying, drug use, depression, suicidal ideation, and more.

Bedtime Math
Bedtime Math helps families introduce math as a fun part of their daily routine, while the Teacher's Corner features "math libs," wacky fill-in-the-blank word problems that kids will love to solve.

Bibcitation
Easy-to-use website serves as a free online citation generator for students and teachers. Choose from dozens of styles, from MLA7 to Zootaxa, and easily copy and export citations. No account is required, but creating a free account allows users to save their data.

Big History Project
Big History Project is a remarkable free online social studies curriculum that emphasizes skill development such as writing and critical thinking, allowing students to draw connections between past, present and future.

Bomomo
Fun, simple art site that allows users to create art using their computer mouse. No account required. Save and download as a jpeg or high-quality png image.

Bookshare
An ebook library serving people with barriers to literacy such as dyslexia, learning disabilities, visual impairments, and physical disabilities. Free for qualified students.

Bunk History
Digital archive of a variety of media produced about current events, culture, history and government. Articles, book reviews, book excerpts, and maps linking to other media make this a unique current events/social history site. From the University of Richmond.

CHALK Academy
Offer multilingual, Chinese, and Korean learning resources.

Chart It
Create and share professional-looking charts for free, or explore interesting charts and graphs made by fellow users. No account required.

Chartle
Fully free and easy-to-use site for creating, saving, and sharing 10 types of charts.

Chrome Music Lab
Chrome Music Lab makes learning music more accessible through fun, hands-on experiments. Fourteen online music tools allow users to play with melody, chords, arpeggios, rhythm, and more. Create and share music online easily, no account required.

CiscoWebex
Cisco Webex offers a free video/meeting software plan.

CK-12 Foundation
Offers free standards-aligned lessons in math, science, English, social studies, and more. Each lesson has a reading passage, videos, optional review questions, and self-graded practice questions. The lessons can be assigned to Google Classroom. Bonus: The new Flexi 2.0 AI-powered tutor provides answers to questions like "How to do ratios?" and "What is heredity?".

ClassDojoClassDojo is a free tool for parent communication, sharing information, and portfolios, provide a platform for teachers to assign and students to complete and submit work online.

Class Playground
A unique free resource for teachers that combines real-life materials with digital learning, Class Playground provides summaries of important concepts such as story sequencing and multiplication tables, accompanied by printable PDFs that demonstrate the ideas to help kids learn.

CMU CS Academy
Provides a free, online, interactive textbook for high school and middle school teachers to use to teach computer science in their classrooms.

CommonLit
The CommonLit Literacy Model is built on a foundation of more than 2,000 high-quality free reading passages for grades 3-12, complemented by aligned interim assessments, growth-oriented data, and expert-led teacher development.

Compassion Project
The Compassion Project is a national initiative to provide compassion education to elementary school students across the US.

Computer Science without a Computer Crash Course
Amazing free YouTube channel offering educational videos in diverse subjects from biology to literature to philosophy. Free activities, printables and ideas for computer science curricula. No computer required

Curriculum Associates
Free printable K-8 Reading and Math activity packs (available in English and Spanish) and guidance for teachers and families to support learning at home.

Curriki
Curriki offers digital learning content—curriculum, lessons and on-demand content—that is free, open, and accessible to all. Be sure to explore CurrikiStudio, the suite of free interactive learning tools.

Data Nuggets
Data Nuggets are free educational resources, co-designed by scientists and educators. When using Data Nuggets, students learn about authentic science research projects, and work through an activity featuring real data from a real scientist, providing practice developing explanations about natural phenomena using data from the study.

Ditch That Textbook
Provides more than 100 free elearning activities, templates, and tutorials, from graphic organizer templates to ready-to-use interactive lessons. Be sure to check out Remote Learning 101, a free remote learning online course from site creator, educator Matt Miller.

Dr. Roger's Math Neighborhood
This is a free online video series with detailed solutions to more than a thousand publicly released College Board SAT Math, Subject Test Math Level 1, and Subject Test Math Level 2 problems.

Educandy
Easily create and share fun interactive games for students to play and learn from.

Free Math
Free Math is free software that integrates with Google Classroom or any LMS and allows students to show and save their step-by step work on math problems in a digital format. Teachers get help with grading while retaining the choice to give partial credit for work shown. An automatic comparison feature flags student work to prevent copying.

GameChangineer
From the Virginia Tech College of Engineering, this free site helps students learn computational thinking and logic in order to create their own games and understand the computer science principles behind classic games such as Downhill Ski, Pacman, Space Invaders, and others.

GIMP
Powerful open-source image software, frequently cited as the best free alternative to Photoshop.

GIPHY
Create original GIFs in a few minutes, or explore the library of GIFs provided on site.

GoNoodle
GoNoodle offers movement and mindfulness videos created by child development experts. Available for free at school, home.

G Suite for Education
Free teaching and management tools for teachers and schools include Google Docs, Google Sheets, Google Meet, Google Classroom, Google Forms, and many more.

Hand2Mind
Hand2mind offers hundreds of free printable PDF worksheets, searchable by topic or grade.

HHMI Biointeractive
Seven free virtual labs, designed for high school and college students, include built-in quizzes, notebooks, and references.

HippoCampus
HippoCampus.org is a free, core academic web site that delivers rich multimedia content -- videos, animation, and simulations in math, sciences, history, and more. More than 7,000 free videos in 13 subject areas. Teachers can create a free account to customize HippoCampus for their students.

Hour of Code Teaching Tools
The free Hour of Code computer science teaching and learning resources aren’t just for December. Build your curriculum with detailed guides and hundreds of free videos and activities.

ICivics
iCivics, inc. is a nonprofit organization in the U.S. that provides free educational online games and lesson plans to promote civics education and encourage students to become active citizens. Now offering a free remote learning toolkit.

iComputer
Fourteen free fun computing home learning activities for children aged 5-11 include topics such as coding for games, puzzles, and websites.

IDEA
The Inspiring Digital Enterprise Award (IDEA) is a free international program that helps users develop digital, enterprise and employability skills though online challenges and certificates. Users earn badges and industry-recognized awards for completing mini-courses in subjects such as research, blockchain, e-safety, virtual reality, and more.

Interactive Constitution
From the National Constitution Center, the interactive constitution allows users to explore each section, article, and amendment, with guidance from differing scholarly views. Mouse over selected paragraphs to reveal helpful popups with additional relevant information.

Izzit.org
Always-free educational videos, quizzes, interactive courses and other teaching and learning resources.

JacksonPollack.org
Paint like Jackson Pollack on this fascinating digital canvas created by Greek artist Miltos Manetas.

Khan Academy
Khan Academy is a fully-free comprehensive resource for students, teachers, and parents offering free lessons in math, science, and humanities.

Khan Academy Kids
Khan Academy Kids is a free online education program for children ages 2-7. The mobile app was designed by child development experts at Stanford University and engages kids in core subjects like early literacy, reading, writing, language, and math, while encouraging creativity and building social-emotional skills. Always free, no ads, no subscriptions, with an offline version available for when internet access is difficult.

KRITA
This free, open-source digital painting software download for Windows, Mac OSX, and Linux, focuses on illustration, concept art, matte painting, textures, comics, and animations.

Learning Apps
Free interactive learning modules in diverse topics from arts to history to vocational education. Have an idea for an app? Create you own by adding content to one of the provided templates.

Libby App
Free Overdrive app for digital books and audio books. Access through libraries.

Make Beliefs Comix
A fully free award-winning comic creation site that provides teacher tools and lessons plans, a Coronavirus Comic diary, ESOL/literacy help, and special needs sections.

MathCelebrity.com
Automated online math tutor, like a Google for math. Enter your math problem or search term, press the button, and it shows you the step-by-step work and answer instantly. Grade 2 through college.

Mindful Poetry Moments
Mindful Poetry Moments, a collaboration between Mindful Music Moments and The On Being Project, is a free program that offers a chance to pause and reflect on poetry's ability to encounter ourselves, the world, and each other. Participating schools, individuals and organizations will be offered recordings of poets reading their work, accompanied by mindful prompts and questions such as "Does this poem encourage gratitude? How?” and "What’s a line in this poem that brings a strong visual image to your mind?"

MIT App Inventor
This free cloud-based service lets students create their own mobile apps using block-based coding. Extensive tutorials support instruction.

Music Theory
Introductory and intermediate music theory lessons, exercises, ear trainers, and calculators. Free online content

New American History
Digital learning resources and tools developed by Dr. Ed Ayer for American history, geography, and current events. Fully free.

Open Culture
Extensive collection of free online learning resources, including courses, movies, podcasts, ebooks, audiobooks and more.

OpenShot
Free, open-source video editor boasting powerful features.

PBS Learning Media
PBS LearningMedia is a free, PreK-12 digital media service available to educators nationwide, offering teachers access to more than 30,000 learning materials aligned to state and national standards, including 25,000+ videos, interactive lesson plans, media galleries and more to enrich classroom instruction. Always free.

PBS: Nova Labs
Free standards-aligned virtual labs on diverse topics, from managing money to evolution. Each lab includes real-world data and an educator guide. No account required to play, but if you sign in with your Google or PBS account, you can save your game progress.

Phet
From the University of Colorado Boulder, these amazing interactive simulations demonstrate principles of physics, chemistry, math, biology and more. Searchable by topic, grade, language and inclusive features.

Pixilart
Remember the old video game graphics? Now you can create your own retro pixel art for free. Explore the gallery of digital art and comic creations or make your own. A daily digital challenge provides a prompt to get you started.

Prodigy
Award-winning curriculum-aligned math practice site offers free accounts for students and teachers.

Project Gutenberg
More than 70,000 free ebooks, available for download or reading online. Includes books in Chinese, Dutch, French, German, and many other languages.

Quizlet
Quizlet offers curriculum-based materials, interactive study methods, and games. Always free for students and teachers.

Reading Rockets
Extensive, in-depth research-based strategies and tools to help young readers, especially those who struggle with literacy.

ReadWorks
ReadWorks is an online resource of research-based reading passages and lesson plans for students of all levels K-12.

Rock Hall EDU
Free classroom resources such as videos, playlists, essays, lesson plans, writing prompts, and more. Teachers can sign up for a free account, download the resources, and use temporary authorization links to share materials directly with their students online. From the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

SEPUP
Science Education for Public Understanding Program (SEPUP) provides free science simulations, scientist profiles, and other digital resources for middle school science and high school biology students. No log in required.

Seterra Geography
Fun and educational geography quiz site that challenges users to demonstrate their knowledge of countries, capitals, flags, oceans and more. All the quizzes and printables on the website are free to use and no account is required to participate.

SFUSD Mathematics Core Curriculum
A complete math curriculum for all K-12 grades and topics is available for free from the the San Francisco Unified School District math department under the Creative Commons Attribution license. Anyone can copy, revise, remix, and distribute the work, as long as SFUSD is credited for the original creation.

Sketchpad
Comprising essential free online tools to create, export, and share digital paintings and drawings. Sketchpad's clean, easy-to-navigate interface invites users to create digital art with imagination.

Snapplify
Snapplify offers a library of 50,000+ free e-books. Teachers can sign up for free and also share their own resources on the platform. Integrates with Microsoft/Google for education.

SplashLearn
SplashLearn is a curriculum-aligned learning program that covers pre-kindergarten to grade 5 math skills through engaging games. Available on iOS, Android and the web, it offers a free-for-life teacher account. Assignments can be accessed at home for free through laptops, iPads or smartphones.

Storyline Online
The SAG-AFTRA Foundation’s award-winning children’s literacy website streams videos featuring celebrated actors reading children’s books alongside creative illustrations. Readers include such luminaries as Oprah Winfrey, Chris Pine, Rosario Dawson, Viola Davis, John Lithgow, Betty White, and dozens more. Always free.

The Choices Program
The Choices Program has a library of more than 1,700 free short videos (most are 1-4 minutes long) with leading scholars, journalists, practitioners, artists, activists, policy makers, and others addressing topics ranging from Afghanistan to Westward Expansion. Also available are free up-to-date lessons on current events.

The Good and the Beautiful
Free homeschool curriculum with course sets (Levels 1–5) that combine and thoroughly cover phonics, reading, writing, spelling, literature, grammar, punctuation, art, and geography. Always free.

The OT Toolbox
Free occupational therapy resources for teachers, therapists and parents designed to build skills in children through movement and play.

Toy Theater
A delightful creative art site with a simple intuitive interface that allows users to explore drawing, coloring, symmetry, animation and more, using digital tools and interactives. No account required.

Truth or Fiction?
Non-partisan fact-checking site helps users distinguish between real news and eRumors, fake news, disinformation, myths, and hoaxes.

Twig Science Reporter
Twig Science Reporter is a free weekly science news service for K-6 classrooms, designed to connect classroom lessons with real-world STEM news and events through high-quality video, images, activities, and suggestions.

Unsilence
Through storytelling, the arts, and serious games, Unsilence creates interactive, research-based learning experiences that help communities learn about social injustice, human rights, and genocide. Unsilence's online interactive features are free to use and include choose-your-own-pathway stories, webquests, human rights poetry and stories, interactive exhibitions, and companion education resources.

Unsplash for Education
More than 1 million free images for safe and legal education use.

Van Gogh Museum’s Free Interactive Lessons for in the Classroom and Online
Free online teaching materials on Vincent van Gogh for primary and secondary schools. The interactive lessons can be taught on classroom smart boards, but are also suitable for online schooling, covering subjects including crafts, drawing, cultural and artistic education, languages, history, and geography.

Vroom App
Free educational tips and science explanation for parents of children up to 5, available by app, text, and printables. Always free.

Wakelet
A free tool that lets educators bookmark, organize, share, and curate top educational content.

White House Historical Association
Free education resources for learners of all ages, including classroom resource packets, reading lists, virtual tours of the White House, videos, historical essays, and a digital library of White House.

Wonderopolis.org
In this fun and engaging site, short videos and readings that answer various intriguing questions for students are followed by vocabulary challenges and comprehension questions.

W3Schools.com
100% free and non-commercial site providing tutorials in HTML, CSS, Javascript, Web building, and more. No account required.

YouTube Learning
Explore free educational videos covering every imaginable topic, from biology to history to taxes.

Zearn
K-5 curriculum aims to build deep understanding and a love of learning math for all students. Always free for all children, individual teachers and families.

• Best Free Constitution Day Lessons and Activities
• Best Free Formative Assessment Tools for Teachers
• Best Free Digital Citizenship Sites, Lessons and Activities

Over time I've learned that attempting to solve every problem with the “I will work harder” approach isn’t good for anyone, least of all my students. This is particularly true when it comes to prepping.

For example, early on, after thinking a class activity would take longer than it did, I was determined never to be caught flat-footed again and so I filled my slides with more numbers and added more slides, and between slides, I planned specific activities and backups for those activities. Not only was most of this is a waste of time, some of it was counterproductive, confusing students and making the class less fun and more rigid.

Fortunately, I've overcome those bad over-prepping habits and now focus on what really matters when it comes to class preparation. Here's my advice for young teachers looking to avoid making the same mistakes I did. 

1. Remember Less is More

This is true in many instances in life but nowhere more so than in the classroom. As teachers, we’re experts in our subject matter and have a lot to say, except no one benefits when we drown our students in words.

To overcome this over-prepping tendency, I focus more thoroughly on the key elements of the topic and anything from my experience or observations that might build on the material students have access to in readings. I make a rough outline of key terms and points I want to make but intentionally don't get too specific.

2. Have A Roadmap But Plan For Detours

The key ideas referenced above give me a roadmap for where I want to start and about where I want to end up during a class session. But I’ve learned to be much less rigid in the itinerary and this allows me to go where students want to go and better respond to their questions.

As new teachers, we’re worried about losing control of a class, and although that’s a valid fear, the best way to lose control and interest is to have a rigid class setup that doesn’t accommodate spontaneity.  

3. There Are Other Tools Beyond PowerPoint

Linked to my over-prepping early days was my overreliance on PowerPoint and other similar slideshow tools. Even though there are many teachers who make engaging slideshows and can have spontaneous moments between slides. I’m not one of them.

Over the years, I’ve found that my slideshows cause my students to tune out and make me more rigid and less engaging as an instructor. I still like to have the outline of a written path to follow so I don’t end up looking dazed and confused. But now instead of a slideshow, I use good old-fashioned handouts that I let students access through QR codes. For me, this has the benefits of a slideshow as it helps me outline a lesson and gives students something they can go over later to access material, but it is quicker to put together and easier to improvise with during class. 

4. Embrace Technology 

Even though I’ve gone away from PowerPoint, I incorporate more technology into my classes and presentations than ever before. However, it’s not all about the technology I use these days.

Instead, I have students use their cell phones for various exercises and encourage them to try out various apps I use in my research, including the transcription tool Otter.AI and historical newspaper database Newspapers.com.

I teach in higher ed so I don’t have the same concerns about too much screen time as K-12 teachers might, however, the key here isn’t so much the specific tech, it’s providing time for students to be active. This can be done by having students use their phones for classroom activities, but it doesn't have to involve a phone. I find that when students are active I have the best classes, even if -- and often especially when -- they don't go exactly according to plan.

• I Used To Create Long Slideshows. Here's 4 Things I Do Instead
• 5 Tips For Getting Online and In-Person Adjunct Teaching Positions

A decent projector can be a great way to have the advantages of a large display without taking up classroom space. For example, a ceiling mounted projector, is as the name suggests, out of the way above the heads of everyone, only noticed when in use. Short throw projectors are ideal for use in smaller spaces and can also be mobile options, to use in various classrooms as needed.

Variations exist in resolution, brightness, color, contrast, light type, and maintenance needs, and some devices even offer touch recognition for interactivity. A good place to start is by thinking about who will use the projector and for what tasks -- helping you narrow down the ideal options.

Consider our best projectors for schools guide to find which model suits you ideally.

Which type of projector for school is best?

A fair few projector types are available to consider before you get started. The main categories are ceiling-mounted, freestanding, and short throw. These refer to how the projector is setup in the room.

Ceiling mounted is great for a permanent setup that takes up no real room space, is remotely controlled for instant access, and connects wirelessly to the internet. Not ideal for hardwire connections, unless your IT department has wired that into a terminal for lower level access.

Freestanding is a similar shape and will need to be placed on a table to throw its image. But this is more portable and frees up the option to use this in more than one place. Plus, you can plug directly in with ease here.

Short throw projectors are ideal for smaller spaces where the distance between the projector and the wall, or board, is far less without losing any quality or distorting the angle of view. You can pay a premium for these models, but these are super portable, easy to plug into, and generally offer clear and bright images.

Screen quality

The display you get varies across the model types with lower and higher resolutions to be found in each category. Yet, there's more to consider when getting the ideal display output.

Brightness is arguably the most important factor to consider, especially if this is to be used in a bright classroom in daylight. Projector companies give this in a figure of lumens, in which the higher you go the better the results. Laser projectors offer very bright options here and generally last longer too. Aim for 3,000 lumens or more in darker rooms, and 5,000 and above for brightly lit classrooms.

Color is an important factor as the more you get, the greater the image vibrancy and richness on display. Many also offer HDR, which means the contrast will also be great -- all adding up to a more immersive experience. If you plan to watch videos on the projector, this is an especially important aspect to consider.

Resolution is a big consideration as you'll need a higher pixel count if you plan to use this as a larger screen. The bigger the image, the more blocky it will look if resolution isn't great. You'll want to get a 1080p as a minimum, but ideally a 4K resolution will suit as that can then be blown up to 100-inches and above without much loss to quality.

Light type

The light source varies in projectors between a bulb-powered model, a laser-based device, or LED options.

Bulbs, traditionally mercury-based, offer about a 5,000-hour lifetime before needing a replacement. Whereas LED and laser options last far longer, going closer to 60,000 hours of life before needing attention.

The LED and laser options are more expensive up front but with lower maintenance and running costs. These are also safer and more environmentally friendly, and can work out to be more affordable in the longer term.

It's also worth noting that laser projectors can offer far more colors and better contrast and definition for an end resulting image that is often superior to bulbs.

Connectivity

Most projectors are now wifi-connected, but it's also worth thinking about if you'll need access to ports. Will you need to plug in external drives, laptops, flash drives, and the like? Are Blu-ray players or consoles going to be used with the projector?

Most projectors come with HDMI and VGA connections as well as LAN internet and USB ports, and are highly compatible with most devices.

It's worth thinking about sound here, too. Many projectors come with speakers built in, but these aren't always the best quality. You can potentially save money and get a better audio setup by using speakers already in the school, so consider connectivity for audio if you're going for this option.

Pricing

The cost you’re willing to pay for your projector for schools, or many of these, is of course a big consideration. As mentioned, it’s important to consider the upfront charges, ongoing costs, and eventual replacement figures.

You may have been considering new displays in the school, and by going for a higher resolution projector, perhaps with touch interactivity, you can avoid buying interactive whiteboards as well.

Be sure to check warranty and guarantee coverage as some models offer extended periods to provide peace of mind while also suggesting these are built to last.

• Best projectors for schools

In addition to actual new products, many companies released new reports and studies, such as:

• LearnPlatform by Instructure Edtech Top 40
• PowerSchool Education Focus Report

As ambitious and well-meaning as the Tech & Learning team was, it was impossible for us to visit every booth and connect with all those vendor partners on site. However, here are a few of the new education-related hardware, software, apps, tools, updates, and more introduced during ISTELive this year.

You can see Tech & Learning’s ISTELive 2024 Best of Show Award winners here.

Here are other new edtech products and platforms (listed alphabetically) showcased at the event.

Avantis Education | ClassVR Eduverse360

Eduverse360 is an expanded library for ClassVR featuring more than 300,000 stunning 360° images and videos from around the globe allowing teachers to take students on compelling, immersive field trips without leaving the classroom. Responding to increased demand for curriculum-aligned content across all subjects, new math resources are designed to make learning relevant, accessible, and fun. Popular English resources have been expanded to support English language teaching for K-2 and English as an additional language.

Capstone & ISTE | Cyber Sleuths

The Cyber Sleuths mystery series is designed to equip readers with critical thinking and problem-solving skills to identify credibility in the information they consume. It follows a worldwide, online network of tech-savvy kids who are wired-in and ready to take on the internet’s worst scams, fakes, and bad actors. With high-tech tools and data, they combat misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation circulating in their communities.

CTL | Chromebook Plus PX141 Series

The new CTL Chromebook Plus PX141 Series equips education users with the powerful performance, AI tools, and creative apps they need to get more done, faster. Easy ChromeOS device manageability combined with CTL’s lifecycle services reduces the burden on IT departments. It also integrates with Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, and is powered by twice the processing power as previous models and up to 10 hours of battery life.

Embodied | Moxie AI Tutor Mode

To help support Embodied’s popular Moxie Robot, which is designed to nurture neurotypical and neurodiverse children ages 5-10 intellectually and emotionally, the new Moxie AI Tutor Mode adds personalized learning powered by generative AI. The update enables kids to explore topics such as math, history, science, art, and more at their own pace, and develop a joy for learning. Moxie has unlimited patience, and offers a non-judgmental space to ask questions and safely explore, and is also FERPA certified.

Epson | ELPCS01 Mobile Projector Cart

Designed exclusively for use with the PowerLite 810E/815E, this cart enables easy transport while transforming nearly any wall into a larger-than-life display, and is ideal for shared spaces such as classrooms, gyms, meeting rooms, and more. The convenient and smartly designed on-board control panel makes it a snap to power on, change display sources and adjust image/audio without reaching for a remote.

OtterBusiness | Achiever Series

Achiever Series Folio ST is a new adaptable folio solution for iPad that brings together OtterBox’s 25-year legacy of trusted device defense with education-focused innovation. It features: smart technology that provides simultaneous access to power, data, display and wired headphone use; energy-saving design with magnetic folio automatically puts iPad into sleep mode when closed; and a clear asset tag window that enables easy inventorying for school IT professionals.

PowerSchool | PowerBuddy Learning Assistant & PowerBuddy Data Analysis

Embedded within the PowerSchool Schoology Learning Management System, PowerBuddy for Learning is a safe and secure AI assistant that delivers individualized guidance to students through contextually relevant prompts tailored to their grade level, lesson content, and assignments. PowerBuddy for Data Analysis serves as a co-pilot for data analysis by enabling users to access data effortlessly through natural language conversation, reducing the time it takes to respond to data requests by eliminating query writing, automating data visualizations, and producing detailed data analysis.

Quizizz | Accommodation Profiles

Accommodation Profiles is a first-of-its-kind tool that unlocks differentiation at scale for educators and school districts. Educators can now use it to meet students’ wide array of learning needs quicker and easier than ever before, while ensuring their lessons are accessible and IEP and 504 plan compliant. It layers critical accommodations for students over Quizizz content in just a few clicks with features such as: read aloud; extra time; reduce answer options; allow multiple attempts; and a dyslexia font face.

Samsung | AI Class Assistant

Launched in May 2024, the Interactive Display WAD series will now offer generative AI capabilities through the Samsung AI Class Assistant to help educators save time and focus on guiding students through their learning journeys. The Samsung AI Class Assistant provides features such as automatic transcriptions and generative summaries of spoken lessons. It will also analyze the transcriptions and classroom materials to create instant quizzes for students to demonstrate their understanding as they learn.

Second Avenue Learning + U.S. Patent and Trademark Office | EquIP HQ YouTube series

Second Avenue Learning + U.S. Patent and Trademark Office are expanding instructional offerings on intellectual property and patents with a new free YouTube series and interactive storybook to support EquIP HQ, a free invention education resource and contracted effort from Second Avenue Learning. The video series and interactive storybook follow the mission of EquIP HQ to reach as many students as possible – especially those who may be underrepresented or underprivileged – so they can improve today’s modern inventions through their unique perspectives and ideas.

Sphero | BOLT+

The Sphero BOLT+ programmable robot delivers best-in-class, experiential classroom learning and supports beginner to advanced coders. It features a suite of programmable sensors and motors, a vivid LCD screen, and endless learning opportunities. Sphero also has new Blueprint Engineering Kit and Class Packs, which include mechanical and powered electrical engineering components and an interactive storytelling code mat with literacy cards.

Toyish Labs | Clixo Classroom Online Portal

The Clixo Classroom Online Portal is the next stage of the award-winning toy line, Clixo. In this new portal, teachers and educators across the U.S. can access resources, free lesson plans, video challenges, and activity guides on how to incorporate Clixo into fun and educational classroom activities. The portal is part of the new Clixo Classroom initiative which includes the recently launched Clixo Classroom Pack.

Umety | Education Content Package

Umety’s new content package is designed to work seamlessly across various devices, including Interactive flat panels, VR devices, laptops, and tablets/mobile phones. This multidevice compatibility ensures that teachers can create and deliver engaging VR and AR, immersive lessons accessible to students of all ages, regardless of the technology available in their classrooms. Key features of the new content package include: interactive 3D models; 360-degree media; multidevice accessibility; and comprehensive subject coverage.

zSpace | zSpace AI

The new zSpace AI offers enhanced support for educators and learners by providing personalized assistance to teachers and students, filling gaps that traditional methods may not address with real-time information. It also provides a wealth of curated AI content aligned with student needs, from interactive simulations to data-driven insights. The Career Coach AI empowers students by providing insights into various career paths including information regarding careers in their local communities based on their location while using zSpace.

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