1. Flipgrid
What is it?
Flipgrid is a free video discussion platform created by Microsoft. Educators post discussion topics to which students must respond via video. It is supported by in-depth video tutorials and a comprehensive guide to getting started, as well as providing access to hundreds of prepared discussion topics for time poor teachers.
21st Century skills employed:
Digital citizenship, critical thinking, creativity, communication, collaboration, agency, metacognition.
How can it be used?
In any classroom of any age group (obviously assistance and permission required for younger students). A great conversation starter for the beginning of a topic or a way to evaluate learning at the end of a topic.
2. Padlet
What is it?
An online collaboration tool where students and teachers can share ideas instantly and curate and annotate information for a specific purpose. It has a satisfactory level of support for first time users with a gallery board to provide inspiration and can be considered the ‘sticky note’ of the internet (Renard, 2017).
21st Century skills employed:
Critical thinking, digital literacy, collaboration, metacognition, information literacy.
How can it be used?
Assignment preparation to co-collate credible resources, digital storyboarding, exit tickets with instant feedback, online classroom discussion and brainstorming. There are numerous ideas for using padlet in the classroom, some of which can be found here.
3. Minecraft: Education Edition
What is it?
Minecraft: Education Edition is a game based learning environment created by Microsoft which provides students with the opportunity to collaborate whilst creating an immersive online environment. The education edition is supported by educator resources, subject kits and a purpose built world to support foundation skills on the platform. The opportunities for building the skills students need for the future is endless on this platform.
21st Century skills employed:
Collaboration, creativity, computational thinking, digital citizenship, problem solving.
How can it be used?
The opportunities for use are almost limitless due to the cross KLA applicability. Examples of some uses are learning the foundations of computation thinking skills and how to code, building examples of sustainable environments online and designing cities of the future. For some other fun and creative ideas, explore this resource.
