TOP PICKS | 34 TOOLS

Best Apps and Websites for the Flipped Classroom

Be more mentor than teacher by turning traditional lecture-based instruction on its head. These great flipped-classroom apps and websites help students gain new knowledge at home so that they can come to class ready to put it to use. The resources in this list -- everything from interactive lesson apps and instructional videos to whiteboard apps -- help teachers create, curate, and deliver content that students can experience at their own pace, freeing up classroom time for clarification, exploration, and creation.

If you're planning on flipping your classroom, or have already, you might be interesting in our tips and resources for classroom management or using video in the classroom.

Top Picks

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Instruction, Classroom Management, and Communication Tools

Kiddom

LMS offers tangible options to differentiate learning

Bottom line: An excellent option for monitoring individual progress toward goals, but teachers will need to be deliberate when selecting and assigning content.

Grades: K–12 Price: Free

Nearpod

Interactive slide show tool engages students and promotes collaboration

Bottom line: This effective tool leverages the capabilities of 1-to-1 environments and brings slide shows into the 21st century.

Grades: K–12 Price: Free, Paid Silver edition is free and supports up to 30 students. Gold edition is $120 per teacher per year and supports up to 50 students. Platinum edition is $349 per year and supports up to 75 students. Volume discounts available for schools and districts. There are also in-app purchases for additional material.

Versal

Slick course creator is full-featured, but lessons remain traditional

Bottom line: A great option for putting your course materials online in a clean, attractive way, but don't rely on it for all your instruction.

Grades: K–12 Price: Free, Paid $5 per month or $50 per year for Pro features (progress tracking, private courses), or $7 per student annually for institutional features.

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.

PlayPosit

Simple design makes it easy to jump into interactive video

Bottom line: With features that are both basic and useful, it's an easy tool to learn; adding interactivity to video is a snap.

Grades: 2–12 Price: Free, Paid Basic accounts are free. Optional premium features are $96/year and include the ability to copy and edit other teachers' content, the ability to crop video, more question types, student-created content, printable worksheets, grade exporting, and advanced student data.

Spiral

Provide instant feedback with collaborative, multimedia assessment tool

Bottom line: Engaging, easy-to-use tool that supports both formative and summative assessment while allowing for student collaboration.

Grades: 3–8 Price: Free, Free to Try, Paid Spiral Teacher is free forever and covers up to five classrooms. The Pro Teacher subscription is $39 per teacher per year and offers unlimited classrooms, student accounts for home use, and progress reports. The Pro School subscription is estimated at $3 per student and offers the features of Pro Teacher plus additional features, including full integration with the school's LMS.

EdPuzzle

Crop, customize, and remix online videos for your classroom

Bottom line: If you're using online video in your classroom, you'll want to look into EDpuzzle as a way to layer in more learning opportunities while students watch.

Grades: 3–12 Price: Free

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.

Kahoot!

Gamelike student-response tool can spark competitive fun

Bottom line: Effortlessly fun quizzing that can lead to productive formative assessment and student reflection if implemented effectively.

Grades: 3–12 Price: Free

Screencastify

Easy screen-recording tool facilitates outside-the-box instruction

Bottom line: If you have access to Chrome, Screencastify is an easy instructional tool that lets teachers and students communicate in new and creative ways.

Grades: 3–12 Price: Free, Paid Free version offers up to 50 watermarked videos per month and a maximum length of 10 minutes per video; premium version ($24 per year) removes the watermark and unlocks more features, including trimming and exporting capabilities. Bulk pricing is available for groups of teachers and districts.

TES Teach with Blendspace

Create multimedia lessons with engaging but not-so-interactive style

Bottom line: Blendspace allows you to incorporate lots of multimedia resources but can still be confusing for students.

Grades: 3–12 Price: Free

Actively Learn

Empowering social ereader keeps kids actively, independently engaged

Bottom line: Far beyond the average ereader, this tool helps students connect and stay engaged while teachers easily measure progress.

Grades: 4–12 Price: Free, Paid A free version is offered for teachers which includes access to thousands of books, assignments, the ability to import 3 articles per month, the ability to embed questions, notes and media, and a gradebook. The Personal Plan is $18 per month for teachers that do not yet have financial support from their school. This allows teachers to share and receive assignments from other teachers, unlimited uploads, differentiation for students, and much more. There's also a Team Plan for a group of individual teachers and their students; this plan is $695 per teacher per year (funded by the school or district). A School Plan is available and is $10 per student per year for all teachers, students, and administrators in a school or district. This offers administrator accounts, research tools and professional development webinars and in-person sessions.

ClassFlow

Robust lesson-creation, presentation tool offers built-in assessment

Bottom line: This powerful tool supports connected and blended learning from instruction to assessment, though it's best used to enhance already great instruction.

Grades: 4–12 Price: Free

Edmodo

Manage classes, content, and communication with social LMS platform

Bottom line: This free platform allows for teacher-monitored classroom communication but lacks excitement.

Grades: 4–12 Price: Free This website is free to use for all features, but it does contain advertisements on the teacher side.

Explain Everything Whiteboard

Refreshed version of the original presentation tool still excites

Bottom line: While this app lacks the options of the full-featured Explain Everything app, teachers and students can still make powerful presentations.

Grades: 3–12 Price: Paid There's a one-time $9.99 purchase to use the app. If you want to use the features of the new Explain Everything app, users can upgrade with an Education Plan subscription: $4.99 per user, per year (minimum of 5 users). Individual subscriptions are $24.99 per year.

Office Mix

Transformative PPT add-on gives a personal touch to flipped lessons

Bottom line: These engaging, interactive digital lessons can take on a personal, human touch that offers the potential for great learning.

Grades: 5–12 Price: Free Office Mix is a free, downloadable add-on for PowerPoint in Office 2013.

Verso

Flip the classroom, gather student feedback with easy-to-use tool

Bottom line: Promote better discourse, participation, and accountability -- across devices -- with this thoughtfully designed platform.

Grades: 5–12 Price: Free to Try

Doodlecast Pro

Record what you know and share it with the class

Bottom line: Students and teachers can make presentations, lesson plans, maps, graphs, and other digital creations.

Grades: 6–12 Price: $4.99

GoClass

Deliver interactive lessons right to kids' mobile devices and tablets

Bottom line: Support learning in and out of the classroom with this multi-faceted content-delivery tool.

Grades: 6–12 Price: Free

Google Hangouts

Communication, learning, and fun converge nicely in Google's slick platform

Bottom line: It runs like a dream, works on all devices, and can be used in so many ways to enhance interactive learning.

Grades: 6–12 Price: Free

Wikispaces

Powerful tool for creating collaborative websites

Bottom line: Wikispaces.com is a rare, collaborative Web tool that's both powerful and accessible.

Grades: 7–12 Price: Free, Paid Educators receive free accounts including one wiki, unlimited users, and 2 GB of storage. Upgraded school versions start at $1000 per year for an unlimited amount of wikis, 100 users, 1000 GB of storage, and more robust management features.

WordPress.com

Solid blogging tool and content management system offers DIY blogs

Bottom line: This is a great tool to get kids blogging and creating online content.

Grades: 9–12 Price: Free, Paid Basic accounts are free, Premium sites are $99 per year, and Business sites are $299 per year.

Instructional Content for At-Home Learning

NOVA

Compelling science videos have high-quality classroom applications

Bottom line: Stellar simulations, teacher guides, and other activities can stand on their own, and they're enhanced with high-quality video content.

Grades: Pre-K–12 Price: Free

ST Math: K-6

Game-based, visual activities get below the surface for deep learning

Bottom line: Great tool for differentiating in-class and at-home math practice.

Grades: K–6 Price: Free to Try, Paid Pricing available upon request.

Redbird Mathematics

Excellent adaptive math for flipped or blended classrooms

Bottom line: If you're looking for courseware for your nontraditional classroom, this is based on solid research and proven technology.

Grades: K–7 Price: Paid Contact developer for pricing information.

Khan Academy

Missions boost learning with balance of focus, freedom to explore

Bottom line: A solid resource for Common Core math instruction as well as foundational knowledge in a number of other subjects.

Grades: K–12 Price: Free

TenMarks Math

Responsive and adaptive math practice for every grade level

Bottom line: Adaptive K–12 math practice that hones in on students' areas for growth with lots of potential to empower.

Grades: K–12 Price: Free to Try, Paid There's a 30-day free trial. The Essentials plan is $5 per student per year. Comprehensive ($10 per student) and Premium ($15 per student) plans include additional features, such as tools for differentiation and assessment, as well as school- and district-level reporting.

Science360 for iPad

Amazing images, videos, and fact-packed text on many science topics

Bottom line: This massive science video, image, and info site has something new for everyone.

Grades: 2–10 Price: Free

Newsela

Absorbing daily news stories offer kids just-right learning content

Bottom line: Up-to-date, high-interest articles meet students right at their level: Use this robust tool to bolster students' nonfiction reading practice.

Grades: 2–12 Price: Free, Paid There's a "Pro" subscription targeted at schools, but pricing information isn't public; interested teachers and districts can contact them for more information.