What are /r/edtech's favorite Products & Services?

From 3.5 billion Reddit comments

If you're ok with more of a first come-first serve approach, you could use something like calendly. You put in your availability, send the link to parents and they can book a time. You can set how long appointments are, how much time you would like between appointments, etc.

Got it. I actually got to do something similar. My grad school prof let me do a project instead of a paper and I made him a wiki to hold all of his resources. If you are looking to do something with coding, I'd recommend teaching yourself scratch. It is the best intro to coding for kids. It can be applied to most grade levels (it's even been used in university courses). I'm happy to guide you. I've taught it to middle school kids for years.

I've used Polleverywhere and had great success. Depends on what you want. I've seen Survey Anyplace too. It's more fun but you're limited on responses in the free version.

Podia seems restrictive. There are some things I can't do with their website builder. Teachable is worse as it lacks advanced customization. Kajabi is the best of all but the cost is too much for me. I've been looking at another course creation software and will probably switch to one that has more features and better subscription plans.

Interesting. Apparently one can still access the courseware for free, although it's unclear if this also grants forum access. The forums are really essential to the process.

It's a little disappointing that you'd only get a certificate for the paid version. Glad I already have one for free, then!

Not long ago, they only offered paid classes for credit, which is totally understandable and still much, much cheaper than University courses for credit (and better educational value, too, IMO). I wonder if that's still the case?

If I could swap out some of my college courses for Udacity ones instead, I'd do so in a heartbeat.

I would suggest going the eBook route to save printing costs, overhead, and standardize inputs.

I have used Sphinxdoc before and I have a generic ebook template that uses sphinxdoc on GitHub. Pandoc is also popular.

You could give the students a simple template file for one recipe that they would need to rewrite that includes title, description, picture, ingredients list, and instructions. Cereal and milk would be a simple example that would not take away anyone's ideas.

In my experience, kids tend to get carried away with text editor features. By supplying a plain text template, the students would focus on the content and picture.

Others have suggested some formats. On the content, having made a bunch of educational videos, start just as you might in a classroom-based course by breaking the curriculum into a Scheme of Work (at least a subject for each lecture). Map the learning outcomes to the lectures, so you know that everything gets covered, and how everything gets assessed.

I say you should start with a basic template for any class:

• Title Slide: So they know they're in the right place and who you are.
• Why should I care? (Arguably the most important detail of a class because good delivery will stimulate curiosity and further learning even after it's finished. Lavish or shocking or exciting pictures here)
• What are the details and examples? Break it up with questions, exercises or activities every 10-15 minutes to keep the audience engaged. Keep text minimal and keep it visual/diagrammatic.
• What do I (the learner) need to do next?

This sort of structure I picked up from a book called The Snowball Effect.

Every single slide has an image or diagram; no exceptions.

Every single lecture has at least 1 audio or video clip; no exceptions.

Every lecture has handouts with more detailed notes.

What do I (the learner) need to do next - as a call to action right at the end, points to perhaps example questions, or a specific chapter, or a specific video to watch.

Many agree that each class should be broken into four or five 10 - 15 minute videos.

I tend to go through audio with Audacity to run a noise reduction filter or simply cut and delete unwanted noises, but it's a bit time consuming. In any case, make sure you are using a decent microphone placed conveniently close so that there isn't any gain on background noise. E.g. a headset mic or a Blue Snowball will do the job well.

You're on a great approach to figuring this out with the product inclusions you've provided. I recommend you take a look at some of the examples from the book, Learning Supercharged: Digital Age Strategies and Insights from the EdTech Frontier (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1564846865/) for some cranium fuel. There are plenty of examples from other schools that have approached this kind of project you can borrow from.

You've listed a lot of ideas, but what is the instructional intent for the learners? What are the short and long-term goals you hope to accomplish for the organization and the students?

Promoting my Mobile app to generate invoices/estimates with modern templates and share it with clients or download as pdf.

Disruptive Classroom Technologies by Sonny Magana

This mostly focuses on K-12 education. You didn't specify exactly what demographic you were looking for, but I found this book particularly helpful in regards to classroom tech implementation.

Hit me up if you complete your app, I'll have to add it to my board for notetaking. Here's my board: https://trello.com/b/rirGA3kZ/accessible-technology-software

And you may want to think about a name change now, there is already a stixx on the appstore. :(

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/stixx-insanely-addictive/id1008858399?mt=8

For the short-term, would something like a 90-degree adapter for the HDMI cables help out? It would help keep the cables from extending quite so far out from the wall, at least.

Longer term, if you have access to a 3d printer (either at school or a local makerspace) you could look into designing a custom cover for the front of the wall-plate. It would make the whole assembly stick out even further into the room, but it'd hopefully deflect impacts away from the more delicate components.

Beyond that, do the room's occupants need to access the wall-plate regularly? If not, the easiest solution might be to just find a small piece of furniture to put in front of it. Run the cables out from the wall-plate, and move a short bookshelf or something similar there to keep people from banging into it all the time.

I have these and have had my high school classes using them since August with no issues. My kids aren't using them every day necessarily as many have their own headphones, but they have withstood the rigors of the modern urban education environment so far.

Hi r/edtech! We're Grove, and we're working on a super-charged teaching & student management tool for teachers (think of it as a combination of Nearpod + GoGuardian).

To date, we've built management software for VR devices, but we're currently considering a move to also support Chromebooks + PCs. We'd love to (1) hear more as to what y'all have been using for your classroom management needs and (2) get your feedback over a call on what we've built so far. If you'd be interested in chatting, feel free to book a call with us here: https://calendly.com/d/dpcw-3gsh/feedback-on-grove-for-chromebooks

Thank you!

While I've not touched it in a while, I stood up the EdX platform at one point. Self hosted. Looks like it has matured quite a bit in the past five or so years:

https://open.edx.org/the-platform/

We've got something like these , but I would certainly agree that some sort of pin pad or 'padlock type' lock works better -- no worry about losing keys.

We've also used these , specifically their carrier carts.

I'm not sure you'll be able to find anything where the charging bricks are totally concealed, but anything where you have to feed them through some sort of cable management system should be sufficient -- getting those buggers out is a pain!

YouTube my man. YouTube has everything. I've heard mixed results from https://www.masterclass.com/, depending on the subject but might be worth a gander. I use OTIS for educational tech topics. https://otis.teq.com/

If you're looking for something not covered in those three...let me know.

Byju sells overpriced Memory cards which parents by on EMI. I have been running a free educational website for 8 years now. The following review summarizes all that is problematic with Byju's:

I would not recommend this to any other parents. Since you will get all the information online that to free, there is not real value in going with Byjus premium app. There are multipl free material available in different sites, and which is good enough for kid. Also it is always good kid to explore the answer himself by going through different books. So I would see this Byjus learning is not really a good way of learning, and that to spending so much of money on top of it.

https://www.trustpilot.com/reviews/5d6283cef018690bd053a6d2

Idea: if only Khanacademy , Quizlet, Fatskills etc got together and started bundling Education dumps, ala Wikimedia dumps.

It looks like a good solution for a common problem in schools. From what I've read, it has excellent reviews, it does what it promises and it is easy to set up, use and customize. A good product in my opinion.

However, you could also use a shared inbox software to monitor everything your students do. As you need it for about 150 gsuite accounts, it'd be fairly easy to set up, because you can set you up as the administrator and your students as collaborators and limit their range of actions.

You could use something like Kayako to accomplish so. In addition, apart of filtering the content your students create, share and send, you could overview other channels like social media. Furthermore, you can import data from other apps, in order to meet your purposes.

You can also design workflows to quickly alert your team whenever a suspicious content has been sent, written or shared. Kayako's customer support team can help you to design every single aspect.

You can request your own free custom demo to test it out: https://www.kayako.com/demo-request

I hope that helps!

I’ve worked in many public school districts as a former consultant and I’ve seen many help desk solutions. I started working for a school district a couple years ago and after a lot of research implemented FreshDesk (free sprout plan) with SAML Single Sign On with G Suite for Education. Their implementation of SSO supports user provisioning so my user’s accounts get created on first login. It’s amazing and does everything we need. I can’t recommend it enough.

https://freshdesk.com/pricing

My $.02: If you know how or want to learn, wipe macOS off that thing and install an easy-to-use Linux distro like Ubuntu or Elementary OS.

Not only will you provide lots more degrees of freedom to access software—all free of charge—, you'll provide a computer that itself is a more powerful teaching tool because of how open it is to explore and customize.

Also, you'll extend the functional life of the device. Linux will run on that thing forever. I bet macOS won't support updates for a 2009 device for much longer, if they haven't abandoned it already.

I use Reflector Teacher. https://www.airsquirrels.com/reflector/teacher

Just tried with my android phone and it worked; I use it with my ipad at school and it's great. For me, very worth the 18 bucks. Not sure of free apps that would do the same.

All I have ever used is Prentice-Hall Keyboarding and Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing, which were both LAN/server-based products. I'm sure there are some web-based products out there now that would be better, but I imagine you are looking for free, which might make things tricky.

You might consider TuxTyping: http://tux4kids.alioth.debian.org/tuxtype/

Feel free to DM me. I run Grasshopper: https://Grasshopper.codes we are always interested in how people learn from the app, and could be interesting to run some user studies together if that’s your kind of thing.

Have looked at Open edX? The most important part of your courses should be the content for sure, but if you add a good look around it, it will impact your students engagement and learning experience. Open edX, is open source, provides a nice look that is, of course, customizable in their source, on top of that has a very rich API, which can allow you to create a mobile app if that's what you are also looking for. Although I saw a responsive edX a few months ago, so that could also cover you.

Hi! I`d like to redesign my pet project https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.samusko.bohdan.schultetable and need to find out the ways to improve user experience. I have some assumptions but need to validate them. I would appreciate any help – whether you can chat with me and describe your motivation to learn speed reading, what approaches have you tried, what was good or wrong, why you quit, or what you'd like to see in that kind of app. As a reward, I can give you access to a premium account and first access to the new version of the app. In future, it will be available on IOS as well.

I attach them with cords: https://www.amazon.com/Universal-Coiled-Security-Cable-Double-Sided/dp/B07W4XL4JL/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&keywords=remote+control+coiled+cord&qid=1615908629&sr=8-4 (or similar)

​

Not trying to prevent theft so much as misplacement. Works 100% for us.

Thank you, I went through all your comments and they were valuable. The situation of the class is such that students can't only rely on digital tools. What they do is write on the paper and click a photo and share.

Based on quick google research, found this app which looks promising. It seems that it will fit into the exact need. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.teacheasyapp

I just create a simple gradebook application. I'd appreciate any feedback on the app. Thank you.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.binh.education.student.score.management.scoredent&hl=en

Hi, I’m a french freelance software engineer developing edtech games for my children. I decided to try to make it more professional and who knows, maybe one day it could become my main activity. As a first step, this week I released my first non-free game : it’s called Calcache, a mental math game for kids (6-9yo) available on iOS : https://apps.apple.com/fr/app/calcache/id1529890772 and Android : https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=bz.rxla.calcache

I just create a simple application that helps teachers manage scores

​

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.binh.education.student.score.management.scoredent&hl=en

​

I'd appreciate any feedback on the app, including app icon.

Do you want to send your phone's screen to your laptop, or the phone's camera output? If just the camera, you can using IPWebCam https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pas.webcam&hl=en_AU

https://www.amazon.com/Belkin-Thunderbolt-Windows-Laptops-Transfer/dp/B07R5CB6HY

If you haven't found a solution yet, you can check this out.

There is also stuff like this

https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-External-Monitor-Graphics-Adapter/dp/B00OD37KHG

But take care, a LOT of these products are windows only. This one seems to be Mac compatible, but 3x more expensive than most.

Thanks, I know with android it is easy to share a screen, we could also avoid the computer and go via a chromecast on the video projector, but the app to use the Iskn slate (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.iskn.imagink) is in development and I have no idea how unstable it could be. Maybe the wacom alternatives could do the job but I don't have any experience.

If you want the skinny on the practical, in the trenches side versus the theoretical journal research, this is your book: https://www.amazon.com/Digital-Ecosystem-Leadership-Overcoming-Integration-ebook/dp/B073H57VHS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1547209352&sr=8-1&keywords=matt+brady+digital+ecosystem

None of the over-tweeted/regurgitated blather on apps, tech conferences, etc.. This is about what's really happening in Edtech in schools. The format is bizarre and looks like a poetry book, but it kind of is poetry as its short and contains no bullshit.

From a philosophical perspective I’m fond of The New Education: How to Revolutionize the University to Prepare Students for a World in Flux by Cathy Davidson Amazon Link I feel that many of her perspectives are quite contemporary and shows the degree of change that is happening right now.

We have this cabinet in the classrooms:

https://www.amazon.com/Tripp-Lite-Charging-Chromebooks-CSC16AC/dp/B01DPNPNHI/

No one would sell an extended warranty policy that loses money. This means that those programs are very fundamentally a waste of money vs. just self-insuring. You'll never have enough devices fail to justify the overall cost of the extra warranty / plan.

What things do you think are not able to be replaced by visual delivery? For example, I've developed an Alexa skill that teaches modulus arithmetic without a screen and have had pretty good reception from children. I'm curious what types of educational ideas you don't think would be well taught without visual supplements? I'm very interested in trying to explore this domain!

HUE HD USB web cam ~$50, flexible neck and is plug-n-play so no software required. I've used it with video conferencing software and works well as alternative doc cam.

HUE HD (black) USB camera for Windows and Mac https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000TTIP40/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_9jT8zbP8N38XD

50 Things You Can Do with Google Classroom by Alice Keeler is a great resource. She also does district tutorials, but really, grab a bunch of copies of her book and just start.