Five Brilliant (And Free!) Transformative Technology Tools

by Pownall Hall School

We all know how easy it is to spend enormous sums of money on technology - and that without careful planning and training the improvements in teaching and learning, pupil engagement and staff workflows won't be realised.  Here though we’ve listed five incredible tech-tools that are transforming learning at Pownall Hall School - and best of all - are completely free of charge!

5. Google Chrome Music Lab (https://musiclab.chromeexperiments.com/)
Google Chrome Music Lab is a brand-new web-based 'exploratorium' for sound!  It combines music, science and art in an incredible way and it offers enormous scope for delivering different areas of the curriculum.

Simplicity itself, it looks fantastic and it is utterly engaging - you’ll love it, and your pupils will love you for using it as a vehicle for their learning!  Our favourite element at the moment are where Wassily Kandinsky’s “sound of colors” are explored through the ability to “draw” sounds.  Simply wonderful!

4. Edmodo (www.edmodo.com)
Back in the day, you could easily spend tens of thousands of pounds each year on a clunky ‘learning platform’ that was a great idea in principle, but often poorly executed - and certainly not aimed at preparatory school age children.

As well as the expense, they were non-intuitive, difficult to use and manage and were visually insipid.  Then Edmodo came along and changed everything.  With more functionality and flexibility than most other learning platforms on the market, it is simple to use and even simpler to administer - making it perfect for younger pupils and less tech-savvy members of staff!  The impact on teaching and learning is phenomenal and it is device neutral - it plays as nicely with iPads as it does in a web-browser. We love it!

3. Duolingo (https://en.duolingo.com/)
Duolingo is a web and app based language programme that once again - aside from being completely free - has the quality to rival far more expensive products on the market.

There are ten fully developed language courses to learn from:  Danish, Dutch, French, German, Irish, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, and Turkish. It is also beautifully designed and the gamified learning approach makes it highly suitable for younger children.  You can find a more comprehensive review here.

2. Canva (https://www.canva.com/)
Canva turns children (and teachers and admin staff!) into design professionals!  They will be creating beautiful presentations, leaflets, infographics & newsletters within minutes of logging in!

What’s really impressive about Canva that it has much of the powerful functionality of Adobe INdesign, yet is simple enough for a complete beginner to produce work that is of an extraordinarily high-quality.  It also outputs to a variety of formats such as .pdf and high-quality .png graphics files which means it’s also an incredible tool when combined with class websites and school blogs.  What has impressed us is that Canva helps to improve the depth and thought that the children put into their work as they know they are going to be proud of the design element of the final outcome.

1. Google Apps for Education (https://www.google.com/edu/products/productivity-tools/)
Since moving from a Microsoft PC based IT infrastructure to Google Apps (which is free for education), we have enjoyed cost savings of thousands of pounds per year and we have a much more appropriate and flexible suite of technology tools available to us.

Google powers our email (unlimited accounts and free of charge), our calendars and our productivity and collaborative learning software; so no more eye-watering Microsoft fees!

It is so easy to administer that it’s handled in-house by teaching staff and provides unlimited file storage - again, free of charge, thereby saving a fortune in server costs.  We’re going to blog in more detail about Google Apps for Education - but it is also ‘device neutral’ - which means that it works as well on a PC, iPad or Apple Mac as it does on a Google Chromebook, and will happily read and export Microsoft files.  In summary, Google Apps costs nothing, it improves the quality of teaching learning and saves schools thousands of pounds each year.  Google is now the leading technology player in US education - and if you take the time to explore it, you’ll quickly see why.