It’s not news that educators say technology learning tools increase student engagement, enables personalized learning and improves student outcomes.It’s also not news that educators want to introduce more education technology in the classrooms.As a parent of a grade 4 student, we have certainly seen the introduction of desktops and tablets in my daughter’s classroom.
There are lots of education websites and apps, but they’re not all great.So where do you go to find out which learning tools are the best for your kids?Even teachers confess to struggling to find useful edtech tools.In a recent survey, almost a third of teachers say they spend an hour or more a week researching edtech products, and more than three quarters of them say it is difficult finding high quality products.What they, and us parents, need is a good site that lists and reviews online learning tools.We haven’t seen many learning review sites out there, that is, until now.
Common Sense Media has created a free online resource, called Graphite, that combines independent reviews of online learning tools and sites with ratings, so that it’s easy to find the best tools for your child’s education needs.I see that they have reviewed some of the great tools and web sites that we have also mentioned on this blog, such as Bill Nye the Science Guy, NaNoWriMo Young Writers Program and Google Art Project.
An added element to this review site is the social aspect.Graphite encourages teachers to share their expertise with personal reviews and field notes about what works best for their students.That is certainly invaluable advice to us parents.
