Assessment And Feedback Tools In An Ipad Classroom: Fill & Download for Free

The edtech startup accelerator Imagine K12 has had 7 cohorts before it merged with Y Combinator. The startups from those 7 cohorts are:Summer 2011 cohort:BloomBoard - Professional development marketplace. Previously known as Formative Learning.BrainNook - Social learning games.Claco - Github for teachers.ClassDojo - Realtime behavior management tools.Educreations - iPad-based video lesson creator.Eduvant - Data analytics and intelligence tools for schools.ElevenLearning - Community-powered textbooks. No longer operating.Goalbook - Individualized education plan management system.remind101 - Private text messaging platform for teachers and students.Tutorcloud - Online marketplace to find and collaborate with tutors. No longer operating.Winter 2012 cohort:BrainGenie - Online STEM exercises with gamification. Acquired by CK-12.edshelf - Edtech discovery engine.Hapara - Google Apps-based teacher dashboard.instaGrok - Search engine for learners.LearningJar - Informal online learning management.LearnSprout - API for school systems.Socrative - Realtime assessments and exercises.TapToLearn - Educational games on iOS. First startup to go through YC and IK12 simultaneously.TeachBoost - Teacher evaluations and assessments.Summer 2012 cohort:Chalk - Digitizes paperwork for efficiency.CodeHS - Teaches high school students how to program.DigitWhiz - Game-based learning for foundational math skills.Blendspace - Multimedia online lesson plan creator. Previously known as EdCanvas.Tryumph - Collaborative study groups through existing social networks.NoRedInk - Adaptive learning lessons for grammar and writing skills.Raise - Allows HS students to earn micro-scholarships for college.Securly - Cloud-based web content filter.SmarterCookie - Video-based coaching for teachers.StudyRoom - 3D online study group.Tioki - LinkedIn for teachers.Winter 2013 cohort:Kaizena - Voice feedback from teachers to students.Accredible - Portfolios of knowledge for learners.MommaZoo - Private Facebook for classrooms and parents.Padlet - Easy-to-make online "walls" for any kind of content. Second startup to go through YC and IK12 simultaneously.Plickers - Realtime assessments using simple printouts instead of devices.Literably - Automatically scores oral reading assessments.Showbie - Platform to enable paperless classrooms.GigaBryte - Teaches programming through wearable electronics.VideoNot.es - Note-taking for videos.Fall 2013 cohort:Cellabus - Mobile device management platform.Class Central - Comprehensive MOOC aggregator.ClassroomIQ - Open response grading platform.Classwork - Realtime tablet-based whiteboards for students.DealsList - Gradebook for soft skills.Edoome - Edmodo for Latin America.EDpuzzle - Turn online videos into interactive lessons.Front Row - Differentiated, adaptive, and gamified math practice.geddit - Realtime confidence tracker for students.Kaymbu - Classroom documentation system for teachers and parents.Kodable - Early programming skills for K-2 students.Panorama Education - Data analytics and feedback surveys.SchoolMint - School admissions management platform.Fall 2014 cohort:AdmitSee - Repository of higher ed applications and advice.BrightLoop Learning - Real-time student observation tracking.Chesscademy - Adaptive learning tool for improving chess play.Educents - Marketplace for parents and educators.Edusight - Gradebook with built-in student learning portfolios.Eduvee - High school exam practice with machine learning.Formative - Real-time formative assessment & classroom response system.Leada - Data science & analytics online courses with instructor support.MathChat - Collaboration platform through drawing, typing, and messaging.Mission 100% - Video library of observation clips from real K-12 classrooms.Mosa Mack Science - Short animated inquiry-based science mysteries.Peekapak - K-3 curricula and storybooks aligned to the Common Core.Picolab - Meeting and collaboration platform for teams.ReadWorks - Research-based reading comprehension instructional materials.TeachMe - Educational math games and apps.Tickle - Programming lessons for Arduino, drones, robots, connected toys, and smart home devices.Trinket - Programming lessons delivered via a browser.Fall 2015 cohort:allcancode - Teaches K-12 students how to code through building games.answer.ky - Automatic grading of handwritten answers via scanning.Codevolve - Teaches anyone how to code using an AI-powered platform.DeZyre - Learn job skills by taking interactive online sessions.KickUp - Analytics to help professional development teams support teachers.Rumie - Free digital education to underprivileged children around the world through low-cost tablets and volunteer educators.Sense - Evaluates open-ended assignments using AI to provide personalized feedback.Sesame - Multimedia student portfolios that teachers can evaluate using rubrics, checklists, or rating scales.Sown To Grow - Students set their own learning goals, scores, and evaluations.Swing Education - Marketplace for schools to find substitute teachers.Source: All Imagine K12 StartupsDisclosure: I am the cofounder of a startup from the 2nd cohort, edshelf.Fellow IK12ers: Feel free to edit the description I've written here, in case I misrepresented you.P. S. For more information about YC’s edtech startups, there are a few listed on the YC for edtech page.

Which is the best tool for online teaching?7 Essential Online Teaching Tools Every Language Teacher Should HaveHaving a hard time keeping up with the latest tools for online teachers?Chances are, you’re probably feeling excited, and maybe a little overwhelmed.The days of simple PDF files and email correspondence ended with the ’00s. These days, online education is conducted with high-tech applications that give students an enhanced digital learning experience.As you can imagine, when I started tinkering around with new teaching tools, I felt like my head was constantly spinning.Of course, supplemental material like Wikipedia and YouTube have been around for ages, making them comfortingly familiar. However, when people talk about the new educational apps and websites that pop up, they may as well be speaking Greek to me!But once I got used to them, I realized just how transformative online teaching tools can be—not just for language teachers, but for all educators!Keeping up with all the online resources for teachers out there seemed like a mission. It was enough to make anyone go crazy!So how do you sort through all these online resources and determine which are going to be your go-to teaching tools? Read further to see some exciting applications for online teachers that won’t become tomorrow’s old news.Whether you’re teach languages, math, science or any other subject online, this post will help you optimize your virtual classroom—guaranteed!Enhance Your Virtual Classroom with These 8 Online Teaching ToolsWe can all think of online services that seemed transformative at the time, and is now obsolete. MySpace, anyone? And when you think of investing your time into learning a new kind of technology only to have it become outdated a year or two later, you may wonder if it’s even worth the effort to break away from traditional teaching methods.But online education, in itself, is a move away from traditional learning. Exploring new and exciting online teaching tools is just one more way you can bring innovation into language learning.The best resources can transform your teaching, making everything about the classroom, from discussions to presentations and grading, feel effortless.Here’s how the use of online teaching resources might look on a typical day:Present the class with teaching material using a series of examples. You can share a document, an embedded recording, a podcast or a combination of all three.Assign practice activities and give feedback. Online flashcards and interactive games are good ways to accomplish this step.Dive deeper into the topic. Have students interact on a shared blog or create and record dialogues and skits.Assign further practice and homework exercise. Consider an online worksheet aligned to your content standards.Looking to add interactive teaching materials to your online classroom? FluentU is the perfect language-learning platform to accompany your online teaching applications. Providing the best of real-world content and traditional teaching resources, FluentU offers a perfect blend of video clips, pop music, interactive games and digital flashcards to make your online lessons fun and more engaging.And now for the meat and potatoes of this post. Here are our picks for the best online teaching resources to transform your virtual classroom into an interactive learning zone.Learn a foreign language with videosVideo Conferencing Apps to Keep You ConnectedConferencing apps give you the ability to video chat with anyone in the world for free—opening up unprecedented opportunities for language teachers. You can use it to introduce your students to your friends and acquaintances living in a country that speaks their target language. This gives students the opportunity to speak with someone with the expertise to chat with your class about food, holidays and language differences. You can even include Partnerships with other classrooms around the world can enrich your language lessons through online conversations with other students learning the same language.1. Skypeonline-teaching-toolsAs an online teacher, you have probably already harnessed the power of video conferencing to chat with students or content area experts all over the world. And you probably already know about Skype, as it’s been around for at least a decade.Effective and easy to use, Skype has helped countless online educators bring language and culture to life in their classrooms. Some teachers even enjoy the fun of a unique activity called Mystery Skype, in which classes converse and have to guess what country the other class is from based on their conversation.Skype has undergone many changes and updates over the years, and has some new and compelling features that you may not know about. For example, it’s “Capture” feature allows you to easily add images, attach funny GIPHY comments and add videos within a message thread. This can give online conversation a whole new dimension of realism. Imagine a lecturer on Spanish architecture including real-life photos and video of the buildings as he talks about them, or a conversation about French food enlivened with real video footage of a meal as the speaker describes it.2. Zoomonline-teaching-toolsIn addition to Skype, another free video conferencing tool called Zoom has recently come on the scene. It functions similarly to Skype, but offers a number of extra features that lend themselves exceptionally well to collaboration. Its unique “Zoom rooms” make group calls a breeze, facilitating collaborative work as well as conversations with other classrooms around the world. Another advantage that Zoom has over Skype: you can record conversations to use for later assessment and feedback, an invaluable tool for helping your students improve.Collaborative Planning Tools to Help You Stay OrganizedOne of the toughest and most important tasks of teaching, whether online or face-to-face, is planning lessons that align with your content standards. Related to that, it’s equally important to communicate your expectations clearly to students and parents, and ensure that they can access the materials they need.Fortunately, there are some great platforms out there which simplify this process for you.3. LiveBindersonline-teaching-toolsRemember those old three-ring binders? They were stuffed with lecture notes, handouts, worksheets and homework in various stages of completion. The idea was to keep everything needed for one class organized in one place—but sadly, this commendable goal often went awry.LiveBinders is technology’s answer to all that old-school paper wrestling and desperation. You can easily upload presentations, documents, worksheets and web resources, appropriately organized under relevant tabs. This makes it easy for students and parents to see what they need to work on and to track their progress. As an added bonus, it greatly simplifies co-teaching, as lesson plans can be easily shared for collaboration.4. Planboardonline-teaching-toolsIf you struggle with finding or creating just the right template to use for your online lessons, Planboard truly is a lifesaver. You can set up easy-to-use templates aligned to your curriculum standards, which can be used over and over again. You can even add an entire semester’s worth of lesson plans to be tweaked and used again next year (with some improvements, of course). Attachments and images can be added to your lessons with ease.Even better: you can access the app from any device, so it’s easy to make adjustments to your lessons while you’re on the go.Apps for Presentation and Review to Help You Engage Your StudentWhen presenting or reviewing content, engagement is key. Finding ways to learn material in a way that’s fun and memorable is often a challenge in any environment.Here are two wonderful apps to make your content more engaging and enjoyable.5. Prezionline-teaching-toolsA takeoff on the old standby slideshow presentation, this app is an online whiteboard that lets you interact with information visually as you speak. It allows you to move to any place in your presentation that you want, instead of moving in a linear fashion from one slide to the next. This organized and visual method of presentation can help make even the driest topics more memorable to your audience.6. Quizletonline-teaching-toolsThis digital flashcard app makes vocabulary memorization more interactive than it ever was before. Students can use the fun, easy-to-use flashcard sets to quiz themselves or each other, or to play games like Matching or Gravity (keep asteroids from destroying your planet by typing the correct vocabulary word). You can create your own flashcards or choose from the pre-made sets.Quizlet has been around for a while, so you may already be familiar with its functions. But if you haven’t used it recently, you may not be aware of a new feature called “Quizlet Live,” which is especially great for online teaching. With this app, you can put your students in teams to face each other in a live competition, adding an elusive element of personal interaction to your virtual classroom.Quizlet also offers opportunities to connect with other language teachers via forums and discussion boards.Help Students Improve Speaking with Audio Recording AppsVerbal communication is a foundational element (if not the foundational element) of language teaching. Not only that, but the ability to record your students when they are speaking is important for meaningful feedback and assessment.But giving your online students the same quantity and quality of verbal communication that they might engage in and receive in a face-to-face classroom can seem like a daunting task.Fortunately, technology keeps adapting to make the process of creating and using audio recordings ever simpler.Here are some apps that allow you and your students to communicate with ease.7. Vocarooonline-teaching-toolsThis popular online recording platform makes the process of creating and uploading voice recordings beautifully simple. Best of all, it allows you to easily link voice comments to student work in a blog or a cloud document service like Google Docs or Apple’s Pages (if you and your students are using Macs and iPads), making for meaningful and personalized assessment and feedback.You can also make your lessons even more personalized by creating podcasts of your instructions for an activity or a homework assignment.

Animoto Gives students the ability to make a short, 30-second share video of what they learned in a given lesson.AnswerGarden A tool for online brainstorming or polling, educators can use this real-time tool to see student feedback on questions.The Answer Pad Allows teachers to capture data from students using the web or the app and is touted as being ideal for the flipped or blended classroom.AudioNote A combination of a voice recorder and notepad that captures both audio and notes for student collaboration.Backchannel Chat This site offers a teacher-moderated version of Twitter. An extension of the in-the-moment conversation might be to capture the chat, create a tag cloud, and see what surfaces as a focus of the conversation.Biblionasium This online, safe, and simple book network allows teachers to view books students have read (a digital reading log), create reading challenges for students, and track progress. Students also can review and recommend books to their peers on the site.BookSnap While currently, this app is only available for iOS, it truly provides a digital way for learners to interact with text and with other learners.Buncee A creation and presentation tool that helps students and teachers visualize, communicate, and engage with classroom concepts and ideas.Chatzy Use Chatzy to support backchannel conversations in a private setting. These live chats make great companions to classroom discussion, provide exit tickets, or keep a discussion going after the class is over.ClassKick This app allows teachers to post assignments for students, so both the teacher and peers can provide feedback on the assignment. Students can monitor their progress and work.ClassPulse A mobile and web app that increases student engagement outside of the classroom by creating a more collaborative environment.Coggle A mind-mapping tool designed to understand student thinking.Conceptboard This software facilitates team collaboration in a visual format–similar to mind-mapping, but using visual and textual inputs. Compatible on tablets and PCs, Conceptboard can work from multiple devices.Crowdsignal Quick and easy way to create online polls, quizzes, and questions. Students can use smartphones, tablets, and computers to provide their answers, and information can be culled for reports.Dotstorming A whiteboard app that allows digital sticky notes to be posted and voted on. This tool is best for generating class discussion and brainstorming on different topics and questions.Educreations Interactive Whiteboard A whiteboard app that provides students the tool to share understanding and comprehension.Edulastic allows teachers to create standards-aligned assessments quickly and get instant feedback from students to adjust learning.survey Creator A tool that allows teachers to quickly and easily build questionnaires and surveys. There is a free option but it’s for a limited period.Five Card Flickr Designed to foster visual thinking, this tool uses the tag feature from photos in Flickr.Flipgrid This tool has been recently updated. Students can use 15-second to 5-minute videos to respond to prompts; teachers and peers can provide feedback.ForAllRubrics This software is free for all teachers and allows you to import, create, and score rubrics on your iPad, tablet, or smartphone. You can collect data offline with no internet access, compute scores automatically, and print or save the rubrics as a PDF or spreadsheet.Formative This online, all-student response system provides teachers the opportunity to assign activities to students, receive the results in real-time, and then provide immediate feedback to students.FreeOnlineSurveys Allows teachers to create surveys, quizzes, forms, and polls quickly and easily.Google Forms A Google Drive app that allows you to create documents that students can collaborate on in real-time using smartphones, tablets, and laptops.GoSoapBox Free for less than 30 students, this all-student response system works with the Bring Your Device (BYOD) model, so no charge for a clicker. One of the most intriguing features for me is the Confusion Meter.brainstorm An iPad app that allows students to collaborate on projects using a stylus or their finger on the screen.Kahoot A game-based classroom response system, where teachers can create quizzes using internet content.Kaizena An online tool for providing students with real-time feedback on their digitally-uploaded work. Teachers can highlight or speak to give verbal feedback and attach teacher-created, reusable resources to student work.Lino A virtual corkboard of sticky notes so students can provide questions or comments on their learning. These can be used as exit tickets or during a lesson.Mentimeter allows you to use mobile phones or tablets to vote on any question a teacher asks, increasing student engagement.Micro poll A great tool for quickly creating polls and analyzing responses. Polls can be embedded into websites as well.Naiku Teachers can easily and quickly create quizzes that students can answer using their mobile devices. Great for checking for understanding before and after a lesson.Nearpod This tool is nice in that you can not only gather evidence of student learning, like an all-student response system, but you can also create differentiated lessons based on the data you collected. The basic version (30 students or less) is free.Obsurvey Create surveys, polls, and questionnaires quickly and easily.Padlet Provides an essentially blank canvas for students to create and design collaborative projects. Great for brainstorming.Pear Deck Plan and build interactive presentations that students can participate in via their smart devices. Limited free usage, and it offers unique question types.Peergrade A platform that allows teachers to create assignments and upload rubrics. Students upload work and are anonymously assigned peer work to review according to the rubric.Piazza A platform that allows teachers to upload lectures, assignments, and homework; pose and respond to student questions; and poll students about class content. This tool is better suited for older students as it mimics post-secondary class instructional formats.Pick Me! An easy to use an app for an iPod, iPad, or iPhone that facilitates random student selection. It can be organized by class for convenience.PlayPosit An interactive video and assessment tool that allows teachers to add formative assessment features (pauses and questions) to survey what students know about the topic. Teachers choose from a library of video content from popular sites such as YouTube, Vimeo, and others.Plickers allows teachers to collect real-time formative assessment data without the need for student devices. Perfect for the one-device classroom.Poll Everywhere Teachers can create a feedback poll or ask questions. Students respond in various ways, and teachers see the results in real-time. With open-ended questions, you can capture data and spin up tag clouds to the aggregate response. There is a limit to the number of users.Dollmaker A popular polling tool that has some unique features, such as allowing multiple answers to one question.ProProfs Build and test knowledge with quick quizzes, polls, and surveys.The Queue Free educational chat tool that mirrors Twitter and allows teachers to post questions and students to respond via the thread. Students can respond via text or video, and the tool allows “journeys” in which teachers introduce a topic via video and connect students to participating resources. Great for gathering formative assessment data at the beginning, middle, or end of units.Quia Teachers can create games, quizzes, surveys, and more, and access a database of existing quizzes from other educators.Quick Key Mobile Grading App – Helps teachers with accurate marking, instant grading, and immediate feedback for better student engagement.QuickVoice Recorder – Another free voice recording app for the iPhone or iPad that allows you to record classes, discussions, or other project audio files. You can sync your recordings to your computer easily for use in presentations.Quizalize A great tool that allows teachers to easily create quizzes and homework for students. Teachers can then see how the students did and identify areas for improvement.Quizlet Create flashcards, tests, quizzes, and study games that are engaging and accessible online and via a mobile device.RabbleBrowser An iPad app that allows a leader to facilitate a collaborative browsing experience.Random Name/Word Picker This tool allows the teacher to input a class list and facilitates random name picking. You can also add a list of keywords and use the tool to have the class prompt a student to guess the word by providing definitions.RealtimeBoard Teachers can invite students and collaborate with the whole class in real-time.Remind A free tool that allows teachers to text students and stay in touch with parents. A great ‘check for understanding’ tool that’s easy to use.Seesaw This tool helps teachers improve parent communication and makes formative assessment easy, while students can use the platform to document their learning.ShowMe Interactive Whiteboard Another whiteboard tool that students and teachers can use to check to understand.Socrative Exercises and games that engage students using smartphones, laptops, and tablets.Sparkpost This app from Adobe allows teachers to add graphics and visuals to exit tickets.Spiral A quick tool that gives teachers access to formative assessment feedback.SurveyMonkey Teachers can create and deliver online polls and surveys. (Note: This is an app that requires a monthly fee, but maybe worth the cost depending on your polling or survey needs.)SurveyPlanet Another survey creation tool that teachers can use to gauge student learning.Tagxedo A tag cloud generator that allows you to examine student consensus and facilitate dialogue.Triventy A free quiz game platform that allows teachers to create quizzes students take in real-time. These live quizzes provide teachers with real-time data on student understanding of classroom concepts. Students need individual devices to respond to quiz questions (compatible with mobile devices and laptops).Typeform A poll creation tool that lets teachers add in graphical elements.Verso Described as a feedback tool, this app allows teachers to set up learning using a URL. Space is provided for directions. Students download the app and input their responses to the assignment. They can then post their comments and respond to the comments of others. The teacher can group responses and check engagement levels.Vocaroo A free service that allows users to create audio recordings without the need for software. You can easily embed the recording into slide shows, presentations, or websites. Great for collaborative group work and presentations.VoiceThread allows you to create and share conversations on documents, diagrams, videos, pictures, or almost anything. This facilitates collaborative student discussion and work.Voxer Consider using this voice recording tool as a way to let students listen and self assess their ideas and assignments. You can send recordings to parents, so they can hear how their students are doing, let students chat about their work, or provide feedback to students.Wordable The Word Cloud Guessing Game. This app allows you to elicit evidence of learning or determine background knowledge about a topic. These word clouds are pictures composed of a cloud of smaller words that form a clue to the topic.WordArt This word cloud generator has an added feature that allows the user to make each word an active link to connect to a website you determine.Wordle Generates tag clouds from any entered text to help aggregate responses and facilitate discussion.WordSalad This app generates word clouds from the text you provide, and they can be exported and shared.XMind A mind-mapping software for use on computers and laptops.Yacapaca! Allows teachers to create and assign quizzes with ease.Zoho Survey Teachers can create surveys that students can access and take using mobile devices. Teachers can see results in real-time.