TOP PICKS | 27 TOOLS

Awesome Productivity Tools for Back-to-School

Both students and teachers can benefit inside and outside of school from organizational tools like calendars, presentation templates, and note-taking apps. Whether students are setting goals, receiving homework reminders, using mind maps, or tweaking their schedules, they are sure to be building long-lasting skills. Teachers can also use these tools to curate the best edtech, easily grade student work, and organize lesson plans. We've found some of the best and served 'em up here.

Need help developing norms, routines, and procedures for all this technology? Check out our Teaching Strategies page on Digital Classroom Management.

Top Picks

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Note-Taking Apps and Sites

Pages

Impressive word processor and publisher with great sharing features

Bottom line: Impressive word processor makes layout and publishing a breeze, with easy file conversion and advanced features. And it's free for newer iOS devices.

Grades: 3–12 Price: Free, Paid Free for iOS devices registered September 2013 and after.

Bear

Write, edit, and sync content on the go with flexible note-taking tool

Bottom line: For an app that doesn't have a lot of bells and whistles, it's surprisingly versatile and useful for many types of writing and note-taking.

Grades: 6–12 Price: Free, Paid The app is free to use. The Pro version is $1.49 per month or $14.99 per year and includes syncing capability across devices, more themes, and more export options, such as exporting a note as a PDF.

Evernote

Impressive organizational tool has limitless uses

Bottom line: This free information-management tool can help kids become tech-savvy and learn to better organize their digital lives.

Grades: 6–12 Price: Free, Paid Basic, Plus, and Premium plans available. Basic plans are free, and come with 60MB of uploads per month and access on two devices. The Plus plan is $34.99 per year and comes with more features, plus 1GB of uploads per month and access to an unlimited number of devices. The Premium plan is $69.99 per year, and adds even more features, including a presentation mode and the ability to annotate PDFs.

Microsoft OneNote

Note-taking giant built for flexible, collaborative work

Bottom line: A powerful (and free) tool for thinking and organization that's making smart strides in the education space.

Grades: 6–12 Price: Free

Notability

Flexible note-taking tool empowers learners of all abilities

Bottom line: An excellent tool that lets students make their notes thorough and useful in the way that best suits their learning styles and abilities.

Grades: 6–12 Price: $9.99

Resources for Gathering and Organizing Ideas

SymbalooEDU

Organize favorite educational links into handy grid

Bottom line: It's a simple, visually clean, and very helpful way to organize online information for you or your students.

Grades: 1–12 Price: Free, Free to Try, Paid

MURAL

Multifaceted message boards help kids collaborate

Bottom line: MURAL can encourage individual team members to contribute to a project by making idea sharing and presentation a simple, visual process.

Grades: 2–12 Price: Free, Free to Try, Paid For educators and students, MURAL is free. For everyone else, the membership costs $12 per year.

Kami

Versatile annotation tool helps users critically connect with content

Bottom line: Kami is an effective way to promote student interaction with texts, authentic documents, and pictures.

Grades: 4–12 Price: Free, Paid Free version includes basic annotation features and comes with in-app advertising. Teacher Plan is $99 per year, which supports 150 students and includes additional features. School/district pricing is available.

MindMeister

Powerful mind mapper aimed at adults, simple enough for older kids

Bottom line: Sophisticated productivity tool enhances learning and organization with simple dashboard and slick workspace.

Grades: 5–12 Price: Free, Paid Free account limited to three mind maps. The Edu Personal plan ($2.50 per user per month) has unlimited mind maps, file/image uploading, and other extra features. Edu Pro plans ($4.17 per user per month) add options for multiple users, exporting, and reports. Schools can pay $0.99 per user per month (minimum 20 licenses) for the Edu Campus plan to get additional group sharing, backups, and custom login and themes.

WorkFlowy

Simple tool helps teachers and students make lists, get organized

Bottom line: A simple, free way to get organized combining lists, outlines, and notes with some extra nice-to-have features that make this tool a solid option for teachers and students.

Grades: 5–12 Price: Free

ZoteroBib

Fewer clicks and less clutter equal a new go-to site for citing sources

Bottom line: An intuitive site that takes the stress out of citing sources, but students will still need instruction to tweak auto-generated citations.

Grades: 5–12 Price: Free

Google Drive

Nifty tool for collaboratively editing and syncing files across devices

Bottom line: Google Drive is a smart choice for budget-conscious schools, with its free productivity tools and file syncing.

Grades: 6–12 Price: Free, Paid Free (up to 15GB); $1.99 per month for 100GB and $9.99 per month for 1TB (discounts for annual prepayment).

LiveBinders

Cool organization and eportfolio tool; watch out for privacy features

Bottom line: A good tool for its organizational, storage, and digital publishing features.

Grades: 6–12 Price: Free, Paid A Free account offers 100 MB of file storage with a file size limit of 5 MB. For individual educators and student accounts, the Basic Plan is $4 per month, or $25 per year with 1 GB of storage and a file size limit of 50 MB. A Pro account is $10 per month, or $100 per year for 50 GB of storage and a file size limit of 75 MB.

Office Lens

Capture, annotate, sync, and share across the digital landscape

Bottom line: Sharing options and annotation features support paperless collaboration and instruction, especially for users proficient in other Microsoft apps.

Grades: 6–12 Price: Free The app is free but requires a Microsoft online account.

Scheduling and Goal-Setting Tools

Goalbook Toolkit

Set tailored targets with pricey but worth-it kit of tools, strategies

Bottom line: You pay for quality with Goalbook Toolkit, including access to clear, well-crafted learning goals and strategies that allow for far easier differentiation.

Grades: Pre-K–12 Price: Free to Try, Paid 30-day free trial. There are three paid plans: $995 per year including district/administrator support, $395 per teacher per year with district/administrator support, or $795 per teacher per year with online PD and 1:1 coaching for teachers. The latter two plans require a minimum purchase of 10+ licenses.

Remind

Teachers' text reminders give students -- and parents -- a reason to check their phones

Bottom line: Well-designed, widespread messaging tool can keep students and families connected with their schools -- provided they have access.

Grades: 1–12 Price: Free Remind is free, but if you use it to fundraise for events, they charge a fee of $0.50 per transaction. School and district plans with are also available.

Time Timer

Easily conceptualize, manage, and visualize time

Bottom line: Goes above and beyond standard timers to include handy customization and visual cues.

Grades: 1–12 Price: $2.99-$4.99 The mobile app is $2.99 and the iPad app is $4.99.

Showbie

Flexible desktop, mobile assignment tool works best with pro features

Bottom line: A flexible way to collect student assignments and offer written and verbal feedback, especially with the premium features.

Grades: 5–12 Price: Free, Paid The free Basic version has limits of 25MB per file, 10 assignments (which expire after one year), 1-minute voice note length, and 1-minute video clip length. The paid Pro version has a 500MB per file limit, unlimited assignments with no expiration, 30-minute voice note length, and 10-minute video clip length. It also adds a student portfolio, gradebook, class discussion, and parent support, among other special features.

Google Calendar

Simple calendars aid communication and keep kids up to date

Bottom line: As a fine replacement for paper-based planners there are some interactive components; the calendars still fill up quickly.

Grades: 6–12 Price: Free

iHomework 2

Keep track of assignments, due dates, and tasks with digital planner

Bottom line: This flexible, easy-to-learn organizational tool will help students get set up for success, though teachers will need to follow up regularly to make sure the information is accurate.

Grades: 6–12 Price: Free, Paid The app is free for basic features; $1.99 removes ads. A Premium subscription ($4.99 for six months, $8.99 for one year) adds options for syncing between devices, universal access, grade tracking, and more.

myHomework Student Planner

Digital planner makes scheduling easy, if paired with teacher app

Bottom line: If used on a regular basis with teacher guidance and motivation, students can be ready to tackle their complex schedules with ease.

Grades: 7–12 Price: Free, Paid Basic version is free and offers the ability to track classes, receive due date reminders, sync between devices, and join Teachers.io classes. Paid version starts at $4.99 per year per student and offers everything in the basic version plus eliminates ads, offers more customization options, and allows external calendar access. Group and school discounts are available.

My Study Life

Organizational tool makes managing complex schedules a cinch

Bottom line: If they can make it a habit, students will love staying on top of assignments and test dates with this handy, pocket-sized "personal assistant."

Grades: 10–12 Price: Free

Templates for Presentations

Educreations

Enliven lessons and presentations with easy-to-use whiteboard tool

Bottom line: An easy, functional way to create presentations on the fly.

Grades: 3–12 Price: Free Basic version is free but only supports one project and 50 MB of storage. For $11.99 month-to-month ($8.25 per month if billed annually), teachers get unlimited drafts, 5 GB of storage, and more. School subscriptions cost $1,495 per year.

Explain Everything

Powerhouse tool for creating stellar multimedia presentations

Bottom line: Teachers and students can make dynamic presentations that involve different types of media in this innovative, fun app.

Grades: 3–12 Price: Free to Try, Paid There's a 30-day free trial. The Education Plan is $4.99 per user, per year (minimum of 5 users). Individual plans are $24.99 per year.

Loom

Create, present, and assess with free, effortless screencasting

Bottom line: This intuitive tool is excellent for recording and responding to screencasts of any length.

Grades: 3–12 Price: Free

Tiki-Toki

Create eye-catching multimedia timelines for any purpose

Bottom line: Multimedia timelines connect events visually, creating pathways for deeper analysis of any chronological story.

Grades: 6–12 Price: Free, Paid A free account limits user to one timeline. A teacher account is $125/year and allows for up to 25 timelines (for the teacher) and 50 student accounts (each with 5 timelines). The teacher account also removes ads and allows timelines to be embedded on webpages. Individual accounts range from $7.50-$25/month, depending on number of timelines and editing and embedding features.

Prezi Classic

Stylish presentation creator with a unique 3D zooming effect

Bottom line: An elegant, flexible alternative to other online slide software tools, but it requires some finesse to make the effective use of the features and infinite canvas.

Grades: 8–12 Price: Free, Paid Teachers get a free "Edu Standard" version which includes unlimited storage and privacy controls. The "Edu Plus" upgrade ($84/year) adds offline access and advanced presenter tools.

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