Baran Berşan Alişan

 Gistory is a free Turkish-made app that follows the Multimedia Learning Theory and Universal Design Principles. It enables students to get language content for learners of foreign languages.  The teacher can add pictures or videos and assignments for their students. The best feature of Gistory is that it has different endings and an interactive story. Students can pick the way their characters will follow and get different endings. 

  Storybird is an online social platform (and Chrome app) for storytelling. Students act as authors, pairing their words with site-curated, licensed art. Students can compose text, but they can't upload their own art; they must use Storybird's curated collection in their picture books and illustrated poems.  After signing up or logging in with teacher-provided credentials, students can read published stories or create their own. They can repost favorite stories to their own Storybird account feeds, "heart" stories they like, and comment on them. Students can explore what their classmates have written in the class library or click on the Read tab to browse stories using a variety of filters. When students are ready to create their own, there are three possibilities: picture book, long form (think chapter book), and poetry.  To get started, students choose which format they want, then browse Storybird's art collection to find illustrations...

Mondly, Dualingo, Memrise and Busuu are some of the online tools that you can practice or learn a language. Such apps provide you many activities and quizzes. They send notifications to remind you that you need to practice. I used Memrise a few years ago and it was a unique experience. You can practice any language you want, whenever you want with these apps.  They are all free to use but if you want to upgrade you can always buy a premium account. 

  Biteable  is a video-making solution designed to help marketers, HR representatives, agencies, and entrepreneurs create animated videos for Facebook and Instagram advertisements, cartoons, commercials, presentations, and more using customizable templates. Biteable is arguably the easiest video making-tool. It helps you to make your lessons look more interesting. You can create a video about any topic you want with Biteable.  Here is a video about Biteable:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iv2mW2z3OtQ

 Mindmeister is a mind-mapping application that allows you to create effective mind-maps for your lessons. I have tried many mind-mapping websites/apps but the most useful one was Mindmeister. It has a simple interface where you can find templates for your works. Also it is easy to download and save your works after you're done with them because it uses a cloud software to save your works. So, you don't need to worry about saving your works.  Here is a link for my mind-maps:  https://baranbersanalisan.blogspot.com/2021/03/tpack-method-and-samr-model.html

 Kahoot is a fun online tool that allows you to create quizzes for your students. It is a game-based online tool. You can create trivia quizzes for your students and unleash the fun in classrooms.  We used Kahoot many times in online education and I think it is one of the best tools for creating quizzes because it allows you to edit questions and answers freely. You can share your Kahoot code after creating a quiz and by using this code your students can join in. Each question has points and the top three scorers are displayed at the end of the quiz. Here is a video about Kahoot: 

 Quizlet aims to help students practice and master what they're learning. It has a feature named "Flashcards", it can be helpful to teach and memorize new terms and definitions. You can write a word in English on the one side of the card and on the other side you can add an image or write the L1 word.  It is mostly used for "Flashcards", but you can also create tests and games for your students. 

 Canva is a free online tool that allows you to create designs for your works. It is very simple to use and includes lots of templates to use.  I used Canva many times this year to design and edit photos for our brand. It is very easy to learn and use. One can create a design or choose a template to work on.  Teachers can use Canva to create outstanding posters and images for their lessons.

  Socrative  is a cloud-based student response system developed in 2010 by Boston-based graduate school students. It allows teachers to create simple quizzes that students can take quickly on laptops – or, more often, via classroom tablet computers or their own smartphones.  , Teachers can easily design and launch activities or create quizzes with Socrative. Teachers can share their classrooms with students by giving them the class code.

  Pixton  allows teachers and students to construct their own comic strips. There are a variety of comic strip layouts, numerous character and background choices, and a ton of creative options. This is a great learner-centered tool that allows students to construct their own knowledge and display it in a way that is meaningful to them by allowing them to create comics representing their concepts and ideas. It is free to use but there is also a premium version of Pixton if you want.

 Animaker is an website that helps you to create animations for your lessons. It helps you to make your lessons more attractive for your students. It includes lots of templates to use and edit. You can edit your animations as you wish.  Animaker is easy to create and share your animations. You can create animations and then send them to your students easliy by pressing share button. It is so much fun to create animations with Animaker. Here is my video:  https://app.animaker.com/animo/ZdFEgQqpP98y2in7/

 Journi is an education app for children. It includes games, videos and quizzes and developed by the help of education experts. It's main aim is to create a new approach to road safety education.  Journi is suggested for kids in year 5-6. It is pretty easy to use. Journi engages students into discussion and inquiry about how to keep themselves and others safe. Teachers have access to special educator accounts to control their classrooms.

Seesaw is an app that allows students and teachers to record and share their works in the classroom. Students can record their voices, add texts and add drawing on their works while working on them and then share them with their teachers and parents.  Seesaw also helps parents get to see what students do in the classroom. Also, the teacher can send digital notes and reminders. By using Seesaw parents stay up to date. When it comes to teachers Seesaw allows teachers to see if students miss anything by listening their recordings. 

Hey! I want to introduce "Nearpod" to you. With Nearpod you can make every lesson interactive. You can use animations, slides and gamified quizzes in youl lessons. With its formative assessment system which includes open-ended questions. draw-its and poles, you can see where your students are.  It includes lots of pre-made lessons to use and also you can create your own lessons. You can add your slides, images or videos directly from Youtube in a few clicks. And you can add questions to your videos and slides to make them more interactive.  Nearpod has different mods to use in your lessons. These modes help you to manage your students.  I suggest you to use Nearpod in your lessons to make them more attractive. And believe me you won't regret it. 

Today, I want to talk about "Voki". Voki is an online tool that allows you to create an animation of yourself. It is useful for your students to work while having fun. Your students can create their own avatar or they can choose a character that is pre-made and also record their voice. They can edit their recordings as they want. It is a lot fun to explore Voki. You can select your avatars accent too. Voki has lots of different choices. After you create your recording, you can easily share it by copying the link of your Voki.

Hey! Today, I want to introduce "Flipgrid" to you. Flipgrid allows your students to record videos to response your questions. You can create a class and then share its code to invite your students.  If some of your students don't want to show his/her face, it's not a problem because Flipgrid allows you to add filters, emojis, drawing and even images while you are recording. Everyone in your class can see each others videos.   

 Hi! Today, we will look at Jamboard. Jamboard is an interactive and online whiteboard developed by Google. As it is developed by Google, it integrates with the other Google products such as Drive and Google Slides. In online lessons Jamboard will help you to use a whiteboard. Both you and your students can use it at the same time.  Do you want to draw something? You can easily draw things on Jamboard. Or you can find images on Google and use them on your board.  With Jamboard you don't need to worry about saving your boards as it saves them for you on Cloud.  

 Hey! Today, I want to introduce "Pear Deck" to you.  Pear Deck is a tool designed bt teachers to support 100% student engagement. With the help of Pear Deck you can see if your students doing well or not. It brings your slides to life. You can edit your slides to ask questions to your students about the subject. You can invite your students to your session by giving them a code.  Pear Deck is one of the best tools to improve the quality of your lessons. 

 The second tool I'm going to introduce is Edpuzzle.  With the help of Edpuzzle you can get videos from Youtube, Khan Academy, TED and more to use them in your classes. It helps you to find different sources about your subject. You can upload your own videos or use the videos that already exist to assign your students assignments. You can edit or cut videos to give your students the most important parts. You can also do voiceover so that students can listen your own explanations. You can add questions to see if your students understand the video. If you want your students to watch the whole video you can select "prevent skipping" option to prevent them from skipping videos.  After the quiz you can use Edpuzzle's hassle-free analytics to get all the information you need. 

 Hey! I want to introduce you some online tools that can be used in online lessons. I want to start with Edmodo.  Edmodo is a global education network for every student or teacher around the world can use it. You can use both the website and the app on your mobile phone.  I started using Edmodo in the first year of university and it helped me a lot to schedule my assignments. By using Edmodo you can easily communicate with your students and teachers as it sends you notifications when you get any news. Teachers can upload their lesson materials (handouts, reference books) easily. And students can download them. Teachers can assign assignments or quizzes and students can upload their works easily. Students can include their parents too. To create a class you need to have an teacher account. After creating a class you can share the class code and students or your colleagues can join your class.  I created a class and these are the two posts I've shared: