Saturday, February 15, 2025

Favorite Finds From FETC 2025

A few posts ago I wrote about my fabulous experience in January at FETC. 

I have been sorting through all of the amazing resources and wanted to share a list of the 25 new favorite websites and online resources--dialing in more than just my favorite sessions, but more into some of the websites I've been diving into since being at home. (I'm sure it won't surprise you the high number of AI-oriented websites. It's everywhere, including built into many teacher/school-oriented websites!)

Items with ðŸŒŸ are my personal favorites, and where I'd start if you are just toe-dipping in or looking for just a few tools to try! I most certainly haven't had the opportunity to play with them all, but am looking forward to giving them a go! (Might be a summer project!)

These are the tools I went in knowing about and have had some experience with, so they certainly get honorable mention! I get that they may not be known to everyone, hence why I included this list here!

  • 🌟 Canva EDU & the Magic Media tools that are embedded in--I've written about this many times. Start here to learn more. Polls & Quizzes are new and there's an endless amount of cool tools here.
  • Curipod--Generate lessons & presentations with this classroom tool for teachers
  • Khanmigo--click here to read my whole blog post on that.


🌟 Google Notebook LM

  • Upload your own documents (ex: standards, operating manuals, your own notes) or website addresses and then you can use it similar to ChatGPT to ask questions off this uploaded data set--your own self-created ChatGPT
  • Creates organized note summaries and adds tags for referencing
  • Can generate timelines of dates listed in
  • The program creates a podcast of the research and questions to assist in your own learning, so your notes literally are talking to you.
  • Integrates with Google Tools
  • 18 and up in terms of service so this is more of a teacher tool, but one I'm clearly very excited about!
Google Learn About
  • Still experimental through Google Labs
  • Brings in sources from many and includes exploration links
  • Great for ready to use supplemental teaching resources on different topics
Napkin.AI
  • Helps you create simple images for presentations through a drag-and-drop interface
  • Works as a visual thinking tool for connecting ideas and concepts.
  • The beauty of this tool is its simplicity--both in use and the images it creates.

🌟 Quizzizz

  • Similar to the gamification of Kahoot but with greater capability and instant feedback
  • Make quiz on anything, including pictures or websites
  • Integrates with Google Classroom and other learning management systems.
  • Allows for teacher reports and analytics to track student performance.
  • In the free version, you can create 20 games and then delete and create more--the paid version allows for the creation of more quizzes.

Brisk Teaching

  • An AI-powered lesson planning tool that aligns to curricular standards.
  • Built-in tools for assessment as well as strategies to differentiate lessons.
  • Integrates with Google tools and YouTube.

Gamma AI

  • AI presentation and storytelling tool where you can create slides/visuals based on your prompt.
  • Includes interactive elements like polls and quizzes to add in.

Magic School AI

  • Tools for creating classroom materials like lesson plans, worksheets, activities, and assessments.
  • Allows for differentiation and has built in interventions for students who are struggling.
  • Has an AI chat integrated to assist students and help answer their questions during assignments.

School AI

  • Though the name is similar to the one above, this is more of an AI integration tool for the teachers, their administrative tasks, and tracking student performance. 
  • Shows insights into learning gaps or trends from the collected data.
  • Free for teachers, paid subscriptions for student use

Suno

  • AI music creator tool for generating original songs, narrating lessons, creating voice overs, or adding audible content.
  • Has a text-to-speech generator with customizable voice options, including adding in different languages 
  • The audio files can be exported for use in lesson plans or presentations.

  • This is a social & collaborative writing game/tool--kind of like Kahoot with its gamification, but it makes writing more social and engaging.
  • Students login with class code that the teacher creates.
  • Point out literary elements, grammar, style, and tone in student writing. 
  • Energizes writing when you need a boost
  • An AI tool for differentiation and intervention for struggling learners
  • Teachers can customize learning paths for students by the questions they upload, then set the parameter as to what type of feedback students get. 
  • Depending on settings teachers create, students can go back and correct their answers.

🌟 FigJam
  • With Google Jamboard gone, this is the next iteration of endless real-time collaboration whiteboard canvas for classrooms.
  • It has the online sticky notes that Jamboard had, but also diagrams, templates, and other brainstorming sketch tools.
  • This is great for teaching "machine learning" (the basis of how AI data sets are created), so you could argue it could go in the AI section. However, it does kind of go deeper than that. 
  • It's an AI-based doodling game, making it fun to see if Google can guess your drawing.
  • Gives instant feedback on drawings 
  • Great way to introduce AI concepts & encourage creativity.
  • A good follow up to Quick, Draw! with Google for exploring machine learning.
  • Shows users how to train machine learning models through a user-friendly interface without coding but through images, sounds, or personal poses.
  • Allows for real-time training and testing of their models within the browser.
  • For all you tech/engineering teachers out there--you can take it to the next tech level and add a computer science component by adding arduinos or Raspberry Pi controllers.
🌟 Code.org's Ocean AI
  • Coding lessons combining AI, STEM, ocean preservation, and environmental education! Go green!
  • Tutorials using drag-and-drop coding make it great for beginners to see real world problem solving.
🌟 Padlet 
  • Padlet has been around for awhile as a way to create collaborative visual boards as a way to share ideas, videos, and links in real time.
  • Variety of board formats to choose from: grid, timeline, map.
  • It now has AI components built in that include building Padlets by prompt, "I Can't Draw" AI image generators, and multimedia generators based on text prompts to help build out what you want to create.
  • The paid version gets you more features and the ability to create more boards.

🌟 Helperbird Google Chrome Extension

  • Use this chrome extension accessibility tool to help support anyone with dyslexia, trouble focusing, or other learning challenges. 
  • Adapt fonts for readability on websites. 
  • Has text-to-speech tools, tools for summarizing text, and immersive reading mode
  • There is a paid version, but the free version is incredibly robust for reading and writing support.
🌟 The Achievery

  • Free digital learning platform created by AT&T for K-12 covering these subjects: math, digital literacy, English language arts, social emotional learning, technology and engineering, digital arts, and science.
  • Features clips from popular WarnerMedia films and TV shows, pairing lessons with standard-aligned activities.
  • There are some really great lessons tied to digital literacy, AI ethics, and more.

Elementari

  • Like a "chose your own adventure" for coding with kids to connect creativity with digital storytelling.
  • Templates for creating interactive digital stories along with student-friendly tools for adding illustrations, animations, and narration
  • Library of pre-made stories for inspiration or direct use.
  • Free and paid levels are both available.

Header images from my computer! Logos from each website.

No comments :

Post a Comment