Community Tools

Actively Learn is a digital reading platform that allows teachers and students to interact within readings and digital texts. This online tool allows students to read a document as a class/group, making comments and answering questions throughout the…

Basecamp is a project management and communication tool. On Basecamp, you can set up a virtual space to organize group projects. Each space features a number of tools such as to-do lists, schedules, file sharing, and group chats (campfires) to…

Biblionasium is a community- and knowledge-centered tool that allows users to read, review, and share books with fellow readers. This tool’s targeted age range is 6-13 years old, but it can still be utilized for children younger or older, with …

Diigo is a social bookmarking and annotation tool that allows individuals and groups of people to highlight content and add comments to websites. Diigo is like a bookshelf of your favorite books, each one marked up with highlighted sections, comments…

Flipgrid elevates text-based discussion forums with teacher and student constructed videos. Teachers and students can create a grid about a specific topic and encourage peers and even people from around the world to record a short video about the top…

Google Classroom is a learning management system (LMS) that aims to simplify creating, distributing, and grading assignments and engaging students in learning online or remotely. Google Classroom is a free application designed to help students and te…

Google Drawings is a virtual board that allows users to create content by drawing, pasting images, linking videos and websites, and inserting text, shapes, tables, and other content onto a page in Google Drive. Users can create flow charts, diag…

Google Meet is a video messaging tool that allows users to communicate and collaborate at a distance. It overcomes geographical barriers and provides more opportunities for face-to-face interaction in a virtual setting. Google Meet offers real-time c…

Google Keep is a multimodal note-taking, organization, and list-making tool that exists as part of the G Suite for Education alongside applications such as Google Drive, Google Classroom, Google Forms, and Google Meet. With Google Keep, users can cre…

Hypothes.is is an online social annotation tool. It allows users to annotate openly on websites, blogs, online journals, and news articles. Hypothes.is allows users to create groups to share online text, resources, links, and annotations. It can be …

IdeaBoardz is a community-based tool that allows users to add sticky notes, known as ideaz, to an IdeaBoard. Users can make an unlimited number of IdeaBoards based on different topics. Within an IdeaBoard, users can add different columns to create su…

Instagram is a free online tool and app that allows users to capture and share photos and videos with friends and family. Since Instagram is one of the most popular social media channels for teens today and there are more than 1 billion monthly activ…

Jamboard is a Google tool that allows users to creatively organize, format, and present information through text, images, shapes, and drawings. As of 2020, there are 1.8 billion global active Google accounts, all of which have access to Jamboard (Pet…

Lino is a web-based “sticky note” service that offers bulletin boards, called “canvases,” on which people can post stickies. You can customize your canvas, choosing colors and backgrounds; pick and choose your sticky notes col…

Microsoft Teams is a communication platform developed by Microsoft that offers video chat, text chat, file sharing, and more. Teams is available for download on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android. It is a useful tool for “face-to-face” commun…

Netboard.me is a customizable, digital curation tool that allows you to collect and organize information in a virtual space, similar to Padlet. Netboard.me can be used to “create web pages with texts, links, documents, videos, photos, pres…

Padlet is a community-centered virtual bulletin board in which collaborators can simultaneously create and organize posts of any content type, whether it be text, documents, images, videos, audio, or links.Padlet is a great tool to use for colla…

Remind is a real-time “text” messaging tool that allows users to communicate with groups (e.g., entire classes or student organizations) or individual people. Remind has more than 20 million users and is employed in more than 70% of publi…

Schoology is an online learning management system (LMS) that allows educators to organize curriculum, create lesson plans, and provide student assessment. The LMS platform allows for peer collaboration and engagement through public or private di…

Skype is a free web-based communication tool which allows people to video conference, make calls, and instant message. Skype has more than 300 million active users all around the world (see 24 Amazing Facts about Skype).   Skype provides a …

Slack is a communication and task management tool. Users can create specialized messaging groups, or “channels,” according to different projects, teams, and organizations. What makes it different from other communication tools is that it …

TalkingPoints  is a messenger tool that allows teachers to connect and communicate with parents and families across any language. Teachers can communicate with parents via text messaging (via a phone or internet-connected device) in their native…

Trello is a visual collaboration platform that gives teams perspective on projects. Trello can be used to organize, collaborate, communicate and coordinate on projects and assignments. Trello is great for a variety of work, educational, and personal …

Twiddla is an online platform that bills itself as one of the easiest online collaborative tools in existence.  And, by many measures, Twiddla does meet its goal of maintaining a simple user interface.  Twiddla was launched in 2007.  A…

Twitter is a social networking tool that allows users to connect with people and explore topics of interest (#hashtags). There are more than 229 million daily active users on Twitter (source). Twitter users can read and write short messages (up to 28…

YoTeach! is a community-based tool that supports backchanneling, synchronous and asynchronous learning, collaboration, and real-time multimodal discussions within a virtual setting. With YoTeach!, teachers are able to create a free administrative acc…

Zoom is a community-centered video conferencing tool that allows users to connect with other users in any location around the world. This tool became very popular and widely used during the start of the COVID-19 Pandemic when teachers transitioned to…