Learner-Centered Tools

Anchor is an online podcast creation tool owned by Spotify. Podcasts are like radio shows that are hosted on the Internet – they are audio-only programs with one or more hosts presenting topical discussions, open speculative conversation, comed…

Audacity is an audio recording and editing software application that is open-source so that anyone can download it for free with no restrictions of use. This software can: record live audio, cut, copy, splice or mix sounds together, and edit various …

BigHugeLabs is a learner-centered online tool that allows students to create their own content through images and text. BigHugeLabs offers a variety of simple, easy-to-use image design tools, including trading cards, badge makers, map maker, mosaic m…

Book Creator is a digital tool that enables students to create and read multimodal digital books. It is an ideal tool for enhancing student engagement through story creation and multimedia design. When creating their own books, students can either ge…

Brush Ninja is a digital art tool that allows you to create hand-drawn, animated gifs. With this tool, students can use the digital brushes, colors, and other features to design their own gifs with relative ease. The ability to add mul…

Buncee is an award-winning educational tool where students and teachers create and collaborate on projects. Interestingly, it was first conceived as an e-card and e-greeting resource. However, it quickly became popular among educators. Buncee then la…

Canva is an online design tool that offers users the opportunity to create professional-looking posters, slideshows, images, event flyers, resumes, cards, certificates, infographics, and other media. The tool allows students to design visuals to show…

CoSpaces is a mixed reality web-based application that allows users to create and engage with interactive media content. CoSpaces affords the student the ability to demonstrate their knowledge in new ways by building virtual interactive worlds, …

Easel.ly (pronounced “easily”) is an infographic design tool. Infographics use pictures, graphs, and a bit of text to quickly and attractively share data and information. Easel.ly lives up to its name since this is a tool that builds sh…

Educreations is an interactive whiteboard drawing and recording tool that allows educators and students alike to design more enhanced and engaging presentations. On the Educreations site or iOS app, users can record, share, and view interactive lesso…

Genial.ly is an online tool that can be used to create still, animated, or interactive visuals, such as posters, infographics, quizzes, and presentations. To create visuals, you can use pre-made templates or start from scratch. If you are a premium m…

Google Sites is a Google web application that allows users to create wikis and websites, with ease of use and collaborative design. Google Sites is free to use (with a paid option that offers more storage capability) and is included in the Google Wor…

iPiccy is a web-based photo editing and sharing application that offers a simple yet powerful set of features to alter and transform pictures. From traditional editing tools, like sharpness and contrast, to RGB level shifting, iPiccy offers a robust …

Loom is a free screencasting tool that allows users to capture their computer's screen and record themselves with their camera. Loom can be used on both Mac and Windows computers. Once you are finished creating your screen recording video, you can ed…

Marq (formerly LucidPress*) is a web-based desktop application that can be used to create brochures, flyers, newsletters, business cards, posters, magazines, and presentations. Created in October 2013 by Lucid Software, it is an alternative to comple…

Lumen5 is an AI-powered tool that creates videos to accompany written content. Users can input a link to an article or blog post, or write some text, and Lumen5 will turn the text into a video (see the Lumen5 features page). Users can then tinker wit…

Pencil Code, which is built on top of MIT’s Scratch, is a programming site for drawing art, playing music, and creating games. It is also a place to experiment with mathematical functions, geometry, graphing, webpages, simulations, and algorith…

Photopea is a creative learner-centered digital tool that serves as an advanced photo and graphics editor. This free alternative to Adobe Photoshop utilizes vector- and raster-based graphics (think Illustrator drawings and Photoshop digital photos) t…

Piktochart is a cloud-based application that allows users to easily create infographics. Users can embed interactive maps, charts, videos, and hyperlinks in a Piktochart infographic. To create an infographic, you start by choosing a blank or pre-desi…

Pixlr is a photo editing and graphic design tool that permits users to customize designs and modify pictures. From animations, presentations, and collages, to Instagram stories, you can create a wide range of creative projects with Pixlr. The applica…

Pixton allows teachers and students to construct their own comic strips. There are a variety of comic strip layouts, numerous character and background choices, and a ton of creative options. This is a great learner-centered tool that allows students …

Powtoon is an online platform for creating short video presentations. Powtoon gives anyone the ability to create professional videos and presentations. You can select from royalty-free libraries of animation, live-action video, images, designed backg…

Scratch is a free visual coding tool that was designed by the MIT Lifelong Kindergarten Group. Students can use Scratch to “code their own interactive stories, animations, and games. In the process, they learn to think creatively, reason syste…

Showme is a digital whiteboard app available on the iPad that allows users to draw and add voiceover narration. More than 65,000 schools are using Showme because it is a beneficial educational tool for all ages that allows students to demonstrate the…

Soundtrap is a community-based creative sound production tool that allows users to collaborate with classmates, teachers, and other users worldwide. Sountrap can be accessed directly by the user's browser. As a cloud-based tool, users can access Soun…

Storybird is a digital tool for designing visual stories. Students can design picture books on their own or work in teams (e.g., author and artist) to create visually appealing representations of their knowledge. Teachers and parents can pay to have …

Storyjumper is a popular tool for creating storybooks. It is easy to use for students of all ages and it can help them create their very own storybooks. Students can use their imagination and create new storybooks from scratch or customize pre-design…

Sutori is a “collaborative instructional and presentation tool for the classroom.” It can be used as an alternative to traditional presentations such as PowerPoint or Prezi. The stories can be viewed one panel at a time, like a slideshow,…

Sway is a web-based Microsoft Office tool that allows users to convey information as a newsletter, presentation, or document. Users can customize their Sway with headings, text, video, and images. Sways can be created from scratch, from a template, o…

ThingLink is a tool for creating interactive images and videos by adding tags. Tags can link to websites, social media pages, videos, maps, images, and audio. Interactive Thinglink images can be shared on social networks, including Facebook, Twitter,…

Timelinely is a free video annotation tool. Users simply paste a video’s URL into the search box on Timelinely’s home page and from there they can add written, audio, image, and video annotations to the video. Educators can use Timelinely…

Twine is an “open-source tool for telling interactive, nonlinear stories” (Twine, 2020, para. 1). With Twine, users can create and choose their own adventure stories, games, and hyperlinked texts (example Twine “Arcadia&rd…

Vocaroo is an online tool that allows users to record, send, and download voice messages. Teachers and learners can use Vocaroo in different activities, such as podcasting, digital storytelling, broadcasting, and giving feedback. Recordings can be do…

Weebly is a web-design tool that offers professional-looking, high-quality templates for creating websites. Originally, the website was intended to host e-portfolios and personal webpages but currently, it is widely used by artists, educators, and an…

Wixie is a publishing and creativity platform that allows students to “share their ideas, imagination, and understanding through their writing, art, voice, and video” (Wixie.com, 2022, para. 1). With Wixie, students can add text and voice…

Wix is a web development platform that enables anyone to create a website using simple cloud-based creation and management tools without any coding skills. Wix offers customers more than 510 professional templates that are updated to match today&rsqu…