57 Free Digital Interactives For All Teachers… Plus 8 Free Mobile Apps

Welcome to a post that examines an amazing free collections of educational digital interactive programs and apps. You are sure to find something that will fit your classroom in the very near future. First, to ensure you do not miss one of these valuable posts or other resources covering PBL, Digital Curriculum, Web 2.0, STEM, 21st century learning, and technology integration, please sign up for 21centuryedtech by email or RSS. As always, I invite you to follow me on twitter (@mjgormans). Please give this post a retweet and pass it on. Have a great week – Michael Gorman (21centuryedtech)

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57 Free Digital Interactive For All Teachers… Plus 8 Free Mobile Apps – Michael Gorman (https://21centuryedtech.wordpress.com/)

As I travel the country I hear teachers asking for a collection of interactive applications that can be used with their students. This request always comes with some understandable prerequisites that include but not limited to; engaging, curricular ties, standard based, content rich, transparent in use, kid friendly, rigorous, promote 21 century skills, multidisciplinary, formative, academic, and productive. Educators are always excited when I share several of these wonderful interactives and apps. I never have time to demonstrate all of them… but you can! They are easy to use tools that you can use tomorrow with your students. You just might need some time to play and decide which ones to start with.

Language Arts Teachers have often been aware of the website Read Write Think, but often are note aware of these amazing interactives. Teachers outside of Language Arts see the name of the site and never explore these interactives. They miss out on some of the best tools on the internet. After all, every subject has a need for students to read, write, and think. These interactives can be used in all areas! lets take a look at some of these tools that promote literacy and high order thinking. You will find they will connect with needs of CCSS, Next Generation Science, and any subjects literacy needs. I spent sometime investigating those that I feel could be used in just about any classroom (not just language arts). While these are the ones I highlighted I am sure you can find more that work for you and your students.

Timeline – Timeline allows students to create a graphical representation of an event or process by displaying items sequentially along a line, organized by time of day, date, or event and labeled with short or long descriptive text. Addition of an image makes a timeline more visually appealing. Great for any content area class.
Trading Cards – Invigorate students’ writing with an interactive tool that allows them to demonstrate their comprehension using a mobile app. These trading cards can be on any person, subject, place, item, animal, or what every you might connect in your area of study.
Venn Diagram – The Venn Diagram app allows users to compare and contrast information in a visually appealing way. Sounds like a 21st Century Skill useful from fine arts to applied science.
Bio Cube – Bio Cube is a useful summarizing tool that helps students identify and list key elements about a person for a biography or autobiography. One of my favorites because the teacher can make their own cube template on any subject from elements on the Periodic Table to highlighting amendments in the Constitution.
Comic Creator – The Comic Creator invites students to compose their own comic strips for a variety of contexts (prewriting, pre- and post-reading activities, response to literature, and so on). How about explaining a major event in history, a math problem, a scientific concept, or a foreign language creative story?
Doodle Splash – Doodle Splash combines the process of drawing with analytical thinking by pairing online drawing with writing prompts that encourage students to make connections between their visual designs and the text. What a wonderful way for students to explore concepts in all subject areas.
Fact Fragment Frenzy – Fact Fragment Frenzy provides elementary students with an online model for finding facts in nonfiction text, then invites students to find facts in five sample passages. A wonderful way to promote literacy and CCSS across all curriculum in relationship to nonfiction reading.
Flip Book – The Flip Book is designed to allow users to type and illustrate tabbed flip books up to ten pages long. Students and teachers can use the flip book for taking notes while reading, making picture books, collecting facts, or creating question and answer booklets. This applies across the curriculum.
Hints about Print – Hints about Print demonstrates the process of evaluating a nonfiction print resource to determine its appropriateness for a research project. What a great tool to possibly evaluate a web resource for any class project.
K-W-L Creator – This tool allows students to create an online K-W-L chart. Saving capability makes it easy for them to start the chart before reading and then return to it to reflect on what they learned. This especially appeals to the Project Based learning part of me.
Postcard Creator – The Postcard Creator helps students learn to identify all the typical parts of a postcard, and then generate their own postcard messages by typing information into letter templates. After printing their texts, students can illustrate the front of their postcards in a variety of ways, including drawing, collage, and stickers. Imagine the possibilities for your students!
Printing Press – The interactive Printing Press is designed to assist students in creating newspapers, brochures, and flyers. Great publication tool for any project.
Profile Publisher – Students use the Profile Publisher to draft online social networking profiles, yearbook profiles, and newspaper or magazine profiles for themselves, other real or fictional characters. The profiles could involve inanimate objects, physical places, any living thing, or dream one up to match your standards.
ReadWriteThink Notetaker – Useful for a wide variety of reading and writing activities, this outlining tool allows students to organize up to five levels of information. After all… almost every class involves some note taking.
ReadWriteThink Webbing Tool – The Webbing Tool provides a free-form graphic organizer for activities that ask students to pursue hyper-textual thinking and writing. Great way to facilitate critical think and brainstorming.

All of the interactives can be found at the Student Interactive Link at Read Write Think. Here you can sort by grades, popularity, newness, and other filters. One great feature about these Apps is that all work can be either saved to a computer or emailed. It allows work to be done at school and home and in multiple settings. Final work can even be sent to the teacher. You can learn more about this feature at this link.

With the popularity of these Interactives the people at Read Write Think have been working on a set of Free Mobile Apps that can be used on tablets. At the present time there is a collection of eight mobile apps. There are ones geared for Language Arts and others that could be used across the curriculum such as Trading Cards, Timeline, and Venn Diagram.

Remember that this is just a small portion of Read write Think. You may wish to explore some of the other areas. You will find content appropriate both in and outside of the content area. I am sure that it is obvious that regardless of your content area all teachers must facilitate their students to read, write, and think!

Thanks for joining me on this wonderful journey of 21st century resources. Join me in future weeks as together we continue to explore several more posts devoted to the Flipped Classrooms, Project Based Learning, Assessing 21st century skills, technology integration, web resources, and digital literacy. I enjoy learning from all of you. Also remember to subscribe to this blog by RSS or email and follow me on twitter at mjgormans. I also appreciate your sharing of this post and any retweets. Keep up the amazing work, have a great week, and enjoy the resources! – Mike Gorman