Stinto

Stinto is a tool for us to create instant chats. When we create our chat room, we invite our students by sharing the link. I personally don’t use whatsapp groups, but Stinto is a good alternative for instant messaging when needed.

It is very user-friendly and serves the purpose. What I also like about it is that the content of the conversation will be deleted automatically after a while.

 

Twiducate

What about using Twitter for educational purposes?

We can can create a controlled social platform to enhance students learning by integrating Twiducate into our classes. What we should do is to sign up and get a class code to share with our students. Once they are on the class network, we can hold brainstorming sessions, ask students to share their opinions and reflections on a follow-up question etc.

LinoIt

LinoIt is a virtual canvas of sticky notes to promote collaboration in our classroom. For the ones who have used Padlet, Lino can be considered an alternative. After we log in, we can create a canvas by customizing it. This web based tool can be used for brainstorming, idea sharing kind of purposes, but one another way to use LinoIt is as exit slips by providing students with the prompt to submit their comments and responses. Reviewing their responses, we can determine their needs and plan the next lessons accordingly.

We can create private groups and give our students access to the canvas through the link so that they can make contributions. You can see an example from my classes on my page .

 

Rewordify

Rewordify is an amazing tool from which our students will benefit in their online learning process. This tool will also help our students gain more learner autonomy.

When they have difficulty in understaning an English text, they can simply enter the text to instantly have an easier version. Even

Text Source: Forbes

if it doesn’t require registration to simplify the text, what they rewordified will be auto-saved if they log in. In this way, they can keep track of what words they have learned, and share their own documents.

This tool can also help students learn and practice vocabulary. When they click on the highlighted words, they can have the definition and  pronunciation of them. Additionally, they can have the opportunity to practise parts of speech in the original text.

Penzu

Penzu is an amazing web-based journal tool through which we can promote reflective writing. It requires registration. It is private but entries can be shared through email. Now I will share some ways to integrate this easy-to-use tool into our teaching:

 

  • We can write entries about our reflections on the activities at the process of our professional development.
  • If we conduct an action research, we can use Penzu as our research diary by taking notes about our observations, lessons, students and our teaching.
  • We can encourage our students to keep an online diary to practice writing. It will nurture their motivation to see the progress over the entries.
  • We can ask our students to write their reflections about the lesson or summarize what they learn everyday.

I would be happy to learn about your ideas on how to integrate Penzo into your lessons! Please share your comments below.

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