Educational Technology Tools

Introduction:
Nowadays, technology and education are quite inter-related. Almost every teacher has some favorite technology tools that he / she use to involve the students in the lecture. With the advancements in the field of technology, the educational tools are also constantly evolving along with the addition of some better functionality and features. Therefore, it is difficult for a teacher to stay updated with the technology and utilize the most useful and newest tools. The educational tools can be characterized into various categories. Here, some of these tools will be discussed.

Technology Peripheral Equipment:
• Cloud Computing
• Social Networking Tools
• Web 2.0 Tools
• Classroom Instructional Media

Cloud Computing:
Cloud Computing uses the central remote servers and Internet in order to store the applications and data. Generally, the term ‘cloud computing’ is used for anything that provides the hosted services all over the World Wide Web. It enables the individuals to access their data and precious files from anywhere just with an Internet connection. This technology provides very effective computing by using a centralized data storage, bandwidth and processing. The most common example of cloud computing is Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo mail and so on. You can use the services just by connecting to the Internet.

Nowadays, many businesses are offering ‘virtual storage space’ which is a form of cloud computing. The students can use this technology in order to store their precious information. This would allow them to access their required information from the Internet even in the situations of data losses from their hardware devices.

Social Networking Tools:
With the rapid prevalence in our daily life, institutes still hesitate to use the social networks as an educational tool. There is a wide range of social media tools that can be used to make even better and more interactive environment in the classrooms. These tools enable the teachers to engage students in inventive ways by stimulating discussion and encouraging collaboration even among some soft-spoken students.

Different social networking tools possess distinct features. For example, Symbaloo provides the classroom resources management for the teachers. EDU 2.0 provides the course management system and teachers are able to share the quizzes, experiments, assignments, videos, lesson plans and other contents in a shared folder. Another tool Edublogs is quite similar to WordPress blogging platform and it only supports the educational content. Moreover, you will find a large number of other social networking tools that are currently used by the teachers and offers various different features and functionalities.

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Linda Green: Linda, a tech educator, offers resources for learning coding, app development, and other tech skills.