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The Impact of Learning Disabilities and the Pandemic

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The Impact of Learning Disabilities and the Pandemic

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Social difficulties can make learning even more challenging for academics to occur.

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Many people are aware that children who have learning disabilities usually cannot cope with academics. Although it is widely known that children diagnosed with LD process learning differently, there are other areas of child development that may also be impacted. Most educators and parents do not realize how learning disabilities affect social skills. Poor social skills can prevent a child from forming meaningful relationships with family members, friends, and peers.

The impact and degree of the lack of social skills is unique to each child and depends on the nature of the specific learning disability and the child's basic temperament. Developing effective social skills (also called social competence) is essential for all children.

Impact of Dyslexia and ADHD on Social Skills

Dyslexia is a learning disability that affects a child's skills in writing, reading, and spelling. It also has an impact on social skills development. Here are five common social challenges faced by children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder ADHD and dyslexia:

1) Unable to understand jokes- A child who is a struggling reader may not read as frequently as other children. As a result, he might not be exposed to different words and how they're used. This makes understanding puns and idioms very difficult for the child.

2) Difficulty finding suitable words- A child with dyslexia is unable to find the right words about topics they feel strongly about or when a quick response is required.

3) Miss out on social cues- Dyslexic children have a hard decoding body language, social cues, and facial expression.

4) Difficulty messaging friends/peers- A dyslexic child might shy away from sending text messages because they're unable to spell or understand abbreviations.

5) Remembering things incorrectly- The child is unable to recall specific details or words. It can lead to confusion about what someone said.

A child diagnosed with ADHD or Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder might be impulsive, inattentive, hyperactive or any combination of these three traits. If the child is inattentive, they might find it difficult to observe social cues and body language signals. His attention may suddenly switch to something else or his mind will wander.

If the child is hyperactive and or impulsive, he might constantly interrupt others during a conversation and find it hard to await their turn. The child is not behaving this way on purpose but others may get frustrated and even offended.

The Importance of Social Competence

Social competence refers to interpersonal skills. These are both verbal and non-verbal behaviors that are valued in social relationships.

A child with learning disabilities may have a hard time forming and maintaining relationships with his friends, family, peers, teachers, and acquaintances. For example, if the child has a language processing disorder, he might find it hard to understand what the other person is saying.

This child may have difficulty in expressing their ideas through speech. These issues can significantly interfere with forming meaningful interpersonal relationships.

The 3 Elements of Social Interaction
Every interpersonal interaction has three components:
1.Social Intake- Art Of Small Talk, taking note and comprehending what the other person is saying, body language, cultural-specific behaviors, voice emphasis, and eye contact. A child with learning problems may be unable to pick up on unspoken and spoken cues. They might also misread the moods and meanings of others.

2. Internal Process- Improve Your Emotional Control, identifying and managing your reactions and emotions and interpreting what others are saying. A child diagnosed with a learning disorder may misinterpret or miss out on another person's mood, meaning, and words. They might process the information incorrectly. This leads to inappropriate reactions and or conclusions.

3. Social Output- how the child communicates and reacts to other people via body language, speech, and gestures. A child with LD might give inappropriate responses such as nervous giggling, irrelevant answers, angry words, etc. The child might not respond well.

Social Skills Training For Learning Disabilities

When it comes to providing social skills training, parents can help immensely. Consider the following tips:

1.Practice the 3 R's- Provide relevant skills instruction, that addresses real life, and is offered in real time. Look for teaching opportunities or moments as they arise in your child's life. For example, when you take your child to the playground, guide him in his communications or interactions with other kids. He may need help in asking another peer to play with him or share the see-saw, etc.

You may have to offer prompts so that your child interacts appropriately with others. Don't forget to offer praise for successful interactions.

2. Model correct behavior- Parents demonstrate appropriate interactions with their child. Observational learning is a powerful learning mechanism for your child.

3. Encourage generalization-Teach your child when and how to use specific social skill sets as situations arise. For instance, once he has learned to take turns while playing board games, help him use the same skill when you're waiting in line at the toy shop.

4. Promote role-playing- Create "pretend" play situations with your child. With your support, he can practice certain social skills and even improve on them. This will help him apply them in real world scenarios.

Why is learning social skills for people with learning disabilities important? Simply put, it builds confidence. Many children with children with learning disorders have low self-esteem. Building your child's social competence will help boost their self-confidence.

In addition, if your child is equipped with sound strong social skills he or she will be capable of advocating for themselves. In a classroom situation, this can be him asking the teacher for help.

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, dysgraphia, autism, etc. are learning disabilities that affect social skills and significantly hinder your child's social development. By helping your child tackle various social challenges, they will develop self-confidence and better interpersonal relationships with others.

Useful Links-
Help! My Learning Disabled Child is Being Bullied! 8 Tips For Students With Learning Disability and Dyslexia Transitioning To College Adult ADHD Procrastination. Tools and Strategies for Better Learning. Strategies For Teaching Children With Learning Disabilities

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The Impact of Learning Disabilities on Social Skills - LDRFA

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Many people are aware that children who have learning disabilities usually cannot cope with academics. Although it is widely known that children diagnosed with LD process learning differently, there are other areas of child development that may also be impacted. Most educators and parents do not realize how learning disabilities affect social skills.

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Study: Improving Students' Social and Emotional Skills Can Lead to Academic Gains

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Study: Improving Students' Social and Emotional Skills Can Lead to Academic Gains

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Classroom programs designed to improve elementary school students' social and emotional skills can also increase reading and math achievement, even if academic improvement is not a direct goal of the skill-building, according to a University of Virginia-led study to be published this month in American Educational Research Journal. The benefit holds true for students across a range of socio-economic backgrounds.

In the study, "Efficacy of the Responsive Classroom Approach: Results from a Three-Year, Longitudinal Randomized Controlled Trial," researchers led by Sara Rimm-Kaufman, a professor at U.Va.'s Curry School of Education and the Center for the Advanced Study of Teaching and Learning, looked specifically at Responsive Classroom, a widely used social and emotional learning intervention.

The study, funded by a grant from the Institute for Education Sciences at the U.S. Department of Education, is among just a handful of randomized controlled trials that have examined the effect of social and emotional learning interventions on student achievement.

"We find that at the very least, supporting students' social and emotional growth in the classroom does not interfere with academic learning," Rimm-Kaufman said. "Teachers were taught how to improve their relationships with students, foster relationships among peers, interact with students respectfully, facilitate students' development of self-control and prevent behavior problems, instead of waiting for the behavior problems to occur and then issuing discipline. When teachers receive adequate levels of training and support, using practices that support students' social and emotional growth actually boosted student achievement. On average, students exposed to Responsive Classroom practices for three years showed a 12 percentile gain in math and reading achievement."

Math and reading gains were similar among those students who qualified for free and reduced-priced lunch and those who were not. The gains in math were even stronger for students initially low in math achievement.

"The success of many curricula, including those that map onto the Common Core expectations, require that teachers use effective classroom management and develop student confidence, autonomy, and communication skills," Rimm-Kaufman said. Our trial of the Responsive Classroom approach suggests that teachers who take the time to foster relationships in the classroom and support students' self-control and social skills actually enhance student achievement.

"In a time of intense academic demands, many critics question the value of spending time on teaching social skills, building classroom relationships and supporting student autonomy. Our research shows that time spent supporting student's social and emotional abilities may be a very wise investment."

For the study, researchers followed a group of students and teachers at 24 elementary schools over three years, from the end of the students' second-grade year until the end of their fifth-grade year. The research team compared student math and reading achievement between 13 schools that adopted Responsive Classroom and 11 schools that did not.

Teachers being trained in the Responsive Classroom approach received two weeklong training sessions delivered in consecutive summers. Despite the same initial training, schools varied in their use of Responsive Classroom practices. The study found that student achievement gains were evident in classrooms where teachers who had been trained were using those practices fully and in ways that were consistent with the program goals. Teachers tended to use the Responsive Classroom practices effectively if they felt that the principals at their school supported them.

"Our findings raise important questions about the support of teachers in implementing social and emotional learning interventions such as Responsive Classroom," Rimm-Kaufman said. "Because Responsive Classroom was most effective in classrooms where teachers were supported in implementation, thoughtful school leadership is important to success."

Social and emotional learning interventions are designed to teach students the social and emotional skills considered foundational to academic learning. The Responsive Classroom approach focuses on enhancing teachers' capacity to create caring, well-managed classroom environments by providing practical teaching strategies designed to support social, academic and self-regulatory skills, and bolster respectful and productive classroom interactions.

In addition to Rimm-Kaufman, the research team included Michelle Ko, Julia B. Thomas, Eileen G. Merritt and Jamie DeCoster of U.Va.'s Center for the Advanced Study of Teaching and Learning. The team also included U.Va. post-doctoral and doctoral trainees, including Ross A. Larsen, now at Virginia Commonwealth University; Alison E. Baroody, now of San Francisco State University; Timothy Curby of George Mason University; and Tashia Abry, now of Arizona State University.

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Study: Improving Students' Social and Emotional Skills Can Lead to Academic Gains

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Classroom programs designed to improve elementary school students' social and emotional skills can also increase reading and math achievement, even if academic improvement is not a direct goal of the skill-building, according to a University of Virginia-led study to be published this month in American Educational Research Journal.

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For many years, special education students were not given the same rights as general education students. Before the year 1961, The United States did not provide public education opportunities for students who had disabilities (degree.astate.edu). This made for a very non-inclusive public education experience in the United States. However, parents of special education children began to form advocacy groups  to facilitate public educatin to their children; they set up meetings with teachers and politicians and by the year of 1965, acts began to be funded and signed off on to support special education learning (degree.astate.edu)

The following is a list of Laws that have changed the face of Special Education and made major impacts on developing a more positive climate for students:

Section 504- This act was passed in 1973 and allowed proper accommodations to be provided to individuals with disabilities; it also bans any type of discriminations for funding, education or work based on disabilities. (stimmel-law.com).

PL94-142- Was passed in 1975 and guaranteed a free, appropriate and equal public education to a child with a disability. (www2.ed.gov).

Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA)-  In 1975, IDEA was developed. "This law makes available a free appropriate public education to eligible children with disabilities throughout the nation and ensures special education and related services to those children" (sites.ed.gov). IDEA has allowed more than 7.5 million students ages 2-21 to have services and obtain equal rights.

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)- In 1990, this act was passed. ADA made workplace and educational discrimination against individuals with disabilities illegal. It works very closely to provide similar rights as Section 504 and "fill in any gaps" to provide stronger laws. (stimmel-law.com)

No Child Left Behind- In 2001 "No Child Left Behind" was enacted to help close the "achievement gap" that often separated different socio-economic areas; making for unfair educational opportunities. This act works to provide all children with fair, equal, and significant opportunity no matter socio-economic status, disability status, race or school system (www.k12.wa.us).

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2. Inclusive Education: The Importance and The Impact

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2. Inclusive Education: The Importance and The Impact

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Inclusive Education is a phenomenon that all students are welcome, supported and given the proper education needed regardless of ability and requirements. For teachers, this can look like being sure that classrooms are accessible and appropriate for children of all levels, for administrators this could look like ensuring the school building is accessible to all.

Inclusive Education is important because it fosters the following three ideas:
1. It improves learning for all children with or without disabilities.
2. Promotes Understanding, reduces prejudices and strengthens social integration. While this is clearly positive for special education students, it is also very helpful to general education students as it assists with fostering empathy and friendships with students who are potentially unique from them.
3. It ensures that children with disabilities are prepared for the future socially and economically. By integrating the classroom, these students are able to learn how to function within a social situation as well as learn the same materials of the curriculum.

(https://www.unicef.org/eca/sites/unicef.org.eca/files/IE_summary_accessible_220917_brief.pdf)

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5. How do Disabilities Impact Learning? 

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5. How do Disabilities Impact Learning? 

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Learning disabilities can make education and participating in education very challenging for students. They also can not be cured, fixed or changed; it must be something integrated into lifelong learning and social life. These difficulties which affects "one of more cognitive processes related to learning" can affect skills such as reading, writing, math or any other learning skill (ldaamerica.org).
However, often times individuals with learning disabilities are of average or above average intelligence; but in their grades or tests, the impact of the disability could make it seem as though they are below average or have "gaps" in their abilities.

Disabilities also can lead to isolation from peers, causing anxiety or low feelings regarding attending school. This affects learning as the social isolations and negative feelings about themselves can cause even more challenges with academic performance.

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6. Social Skill Instructions and the Positive Impacts on Education

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6. Social Skill Instructions and the Positive Impacts on Education

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Teaching Social Skills in a classroom to all students is vital to success as social skills are impactful on having a successful life. Teaching social skills and implementing them into education helps students learn to make good choices, form meaningful relationships, and how to behave in a multitude of situations that can arise.

Often times Social Skills are taught in Social Groups or Special Education settings; but studies show that facilitating social learning into General Education as well can result in better academic and social performance in later school years for children (naspcenter.org). In an inclusive classroom setting, teaching social skills indirectly and directly can lead to strong conflict resolution skills, reduction in school violence, stronger social-emotional awareness and involvement in extracurricular activities (naspcenter.org).

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4. General and Special Education: The Social Workers Role 

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4. General and Special Education: The Social Workers Role 

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In this section, as I am in school for my Masters of Social Work, I will be discussing the role a School Social Worker plays in the general and special education collaboration. It is critical that a General and Special Education teacher collaborate to provide inclusion and proper services for a child, and a School Social Worker also plays a major role in this process.

No matter the setting, a Social Worker is always an advocate to ensure the dignity and worth of a person is valued and that all clientele are equal. School Social Workers assist with the general and special education collaboration through bringing the mental health assistance, advocating in IEP meetings, helping with behavioral concerns, consultations with general and special education teachers, and group and individualized therapy (sswa.org).  These roles assist both General and Special Education teachers as often times, the School Social Worker works with

Some Services School Social Workers Provide alongside the General and Special Education teachers are, but not limited to:

1. Attending IEP Meetings.
2. Providing Crisis Intervention for inclusive classrooms.
3. Working with the teachers on intervention strategies.
4. Counseling (Groups or Individual for children with Special Needs).
5. Assisting Parents in accessing school and community resources.

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The COVID-19 Pandemic and our ever evolving society have placed technology in the classroom at the forefront and a major educational resources. It assists with the distribution/submission of work, communicating with guardians, providing virtual fun experiences to students, and ways to present work to a class.

Distribution and Submission of Work- at all grade levels, online technology such as edline, blackboard, or classroom dojo allow teachers to put out assignments virtually, grade the assignments and provide feedback. At the K-12 levels, there is often a parent login so parents can be involved in this aspect with their students.

Communicating with Guardians- Technology has also added the aspect of making for a stronger ability to communicate with caregivers outside of pickup or drop off times. This can be offered through email, text or virtual announcements Programs such as "Remind" give guardians updates on the school day or let them know about due dates, making them again, more involved in the students school performance socially and academically.

Providing Virtual Experiences to Students- With the world of COVID, field trips and guest speakers can be unsafe. With the use of technology, virtual field trips are available for students and educators as well as collaborating with a potential guest speaker to meet over a zoom call to speak to and engage with a class.

Presentation of Lessons- Teachers can present work via powerpoint or other resources as a way to provide an interactive lesson. This can also be made available online to students if they wanted reiteration on any specific assignments. Resources like powerpoint, canvas, or a padlet like this one can be great for presenting information.

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Video on "The History of Special Education"

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Video on "The History of Special Education"

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This is a 3 minute video that shows the history of special education.

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Some technology options to inspire educators! 

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Some technology options to inspire educators! 

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Updated for 2020: Since this post was first written, the education landscape has changed greatly! We've updated it to include five more tech tools teachers can use to inspire creativity in the for virtual learning.
Virtual Learning Tools

The shift to remote learning had many teachers scrambling to find effective ways to share lessons, deliver instruction, and allow students to collaborate. Here are some of our favorite tools to get online/hybrid classes running effectively:

Ozobot 1:1 Program | Evo Student Packs

With the shift to remote learning, we knew we needed to work with districts, teachers, and our extended community to understand education's new challenges. The result is our 1:1 Robotics Program, designed for teaching core subjects anywhere without sacrificing STEAM. Each student receives a Student Pack-a care package from you to them-to make core subjects more hands-on and collaborative with their robot study buddy using our 2 Ways to Code. Plus, we made Ozobot Classroom remote-friendly, including a seamless Google Classroom integration and Learn Anywhere Lessons that can be used virtually or back in the classroom.

More good news: Ozobot qualifies for federal and state initiatives (CARES Act, 21st Century Schools etc), making 1:1 possible for educators nationwide. Sign up for a personal demo to learn more and see how we can be part of your K-12 solution to keep students engaged in class or at home.

Buncee

Buncee understands how much more kids learn if they're engaged, so their platform makes it easy to engage students from anywhere. Teachers have the flexibility to create activities that their class will enjoy with over 1000 templates, and students earn badges as they complete their work. Buncee also makes it easy for students to collaborate with sharing and discussion functionality.

Bakpax

Bakpax is an AI tool that autogrades student work, giving them (and the teacher) instant feedback on assignments! As teachers know, hand grading student work can take hours, so Bakpax allows teachers to save time with the more administrative aspects of teaching, so they can focus more on creative lessons/activities and individualizing student instruction.

Bakpax wants to support educators during the transition to remote learning, so teachers can currently access Bakpax for free!

Pear Deck

Pear Deck allows teachers to make lessons interactive so every student can actively participate, whether instruction is synchronous or asynchronous. It utilizes formative assessment, active learning, retrieval practice, and more to close the achievement gap, even for students who are learning from afar. Bonus: PearDeck has the stamp of approval from many Ozobot Certified Educators.

SeeSaw

Rather than limit students to one method for demonstrating their knowledge, SeeSaw allows students to show what they know with tools like draw+record, collage, video, and more. Educators report that SeeSaw is intuitive for students to use, so minimal support is required to use this tool!

For more tips on creating successful virtual learning environment, check out our Ozobot Certified Educator-hosted webinar!
Original post by Amanda Dodge:
Students who grow up with a love of learning are more likely to stay engaged in STEAM subjects and other lessons as they grow older. They won't take what they learn at face value, and will instead seek out ways to expand their knowledge and ask questions about what they learn.

Teachers are always looking for ways to pique student interest, from engaging experiments to unique learning methods. If you want to add fresh elements to your classroom and encourage your students to be creative, check out these tools. They might offer the tech solutions you need to wow your students during the learning process.

Evo Classroom Kit

We may be a little biased, but our personal favorite tool is the Evo Classroom Kit. This kit is made for students grades 4 through 8 and includes 12 Evos, accessories, and a driver's ed activity that allows students to program Evo's proximity sensors and other features. Plus, students and educators can explore over 100 STEAM lessons in the Lesson Library. Lessons cover a wide range of subjects along with Ozobot's two ways to code-online with OzoBlockly and screen-free with Color Codes. Teachers across the country have shared how they use their Classroom Kits to encourage creativity while teaching coding concepts. We pride ourselves on fostering a creative experience that motivates students to keep learning.

Nearpod

Nearpod specializes in multimedia displays to make discussions more engaging. One of their top tools for teachers is Nearpod VR, an affordable virtual reality headset that lets teachers explore different concepts in 3D. There are more than 450 VR tutorials, broken down by subject and grade level. Take your students to explore volcanoes or for a historic look at the Taj Mahal. This technology inspires curiosity about the world and student engagement in lessons.

Learn Around The World

The goal of Learn Around the World is to use technology to connect students and educators globally. They have events and collaborative projects where students can work with people in different countries, and virtual field trips for exploring foreign lands. LATW also has guest speakers and private events that teachers can take advantage of. Imagine speaking with someone who lives in Buenos Aires while learning about Argentina. Your students can ask questions and use their curiosity to spur discussion.

Buncee

Never sit through boring Powerpoint presentations again with Buncee, a multimedia display tool that allows students to easily create displays and narrate them through microphone recordings. There are more than 8,000 graphics to choose from and students can upload their own media as well. They can either create a presentation based on their own findings or use Buncee's tools to add graphics to their ideas. This is also a useful tool for students who might be too young for Powerpoint tutorials.

Glogster

Glogster is one of the fastest-growing multimedia management tools for teachers and students. Your students can easily create posts and other graphic designs to enhance their learning experience. This site also allows teachers to find awesome content. There are more than 40,000 Glogs shared online across 80 topics and nine disciplines. With over 1.9 million teacher accounts and 17 million student accounts, Glogster is a favorite worldwide.

FlipGrid

Do you wish classroom discussion could continue after the bell rings? Do you wish you could encourage quiet students to speak their minds without feeling intimidated? With FlipGrid, teachers create discussion topics and students can respond with video recordings. Their peers can respond to keep the discussion going. This tool helps students formulate their ideas in a pre-recorded setting, which means no one gets talked over or ignored by louder voices.

TodaysMeet

TodaysMeet provides a backchannel of discussion for your classroom. Teachers monitor chat discussions during the lessons and can respond to or highlight questions asked by students as they go. Instead of stopping the class or losing your train of thought to answer questions, teachers can set aside time for questions and discussion at various points throughout. Plus, quiet students can ask questions and voice their opinions without having to worry about speaking up or waiting until the end.

Microduino

Microduino offers small electronic building blocks that kids can creatively assemble to find solutions to problems or explore ideas. These blocks can be stacked on LEGO bricks, expanding your resources as far as your imagination will go. This product also has open-source code compatible with Scratch and other programs you might already use.

TinyTap

TinyTap is home to more than 100,000 learning activities for students and teachers to use. You can search for games for your kids to play to better help them understand concepts, or ask them to create games of their own. TinyTap Market encourages students to learn by teaching, and provides the tools to help people develop their own games. Creators can even sell their games to gain recognition for their work.

Because Learning

This tool is ideal for teachers who want to bring STEAM learning to the classroom but worry about their lack of programming background. You don't have to be a professional web developer to engage your students. Because Learning is designed for educators and offers STEAM kits based on national learning standards. You and your students can start creating in just a few steps.

SiLAS Solutions

More instructors are increasingly concerned with social skills and encouraging their students to work together. SiLAS Solutions is a tool that can help. Through video game technology and 3D development, students use characters and create conversations with their own voice recordings. They can make videos talking through problems and expressing their emotions. Grading is easy, with teachers able to assess students and provide feedback through the system.

Labster

Do you wish you had access to a University-calibre laboratory? Consider testing simulations with Labster. Students can run a variety of simulations on topics ranging from diabetes to herpetology. The software runs mathematical algorithms based on the criteria so students get a full lab experience. Teachers can grade participation in different parts of the simulation as they would with a full-fledged science lab.

PhET Sims

Another simulation software that younger students can use is PhET simulations. Teachers can filter simulations by grade level and topic and use them to explore different ideas in the classroom. The goal of this organization is to increase STEAM literacy worldwide and create engaging interactive content that encourages students to ask questions and explore topics beyond what the common core demands.

ZeeMaps

ZeeMaps is a tool that students and teachers can use to create their own graphics. You can create maps on a local, state, national, and even global level. Students can choose different map types and assign colors and labels as needed. This is perfect for creating visual aids for projects, mapping out complex concepts (like battles in a war or evolving country borders), and letting students learn in an interactive manner.

Tiki-Toki

Just as ZeeMaps is useful for mapping out various concepts and ideas, Tiki-Toki is great for developing timelines. Students can customize events and choose different formats to explore their ideas. They can provide as much information as they need to fully explain a topic. This tool is ideal for both classroom-led activities and solo work.

Popplet

Popplet is a mind-mapping and brainstorming tool for students. You can use this tool to guide assignments, encouraging students to create mind maps for their projects, or create a classroom-guided brainstorm to explore new ideas. This tool is also used in group projects to help students creatively come up with solutions to problems. It teaches the concept of brainstorming and has a useful option to save your ideas for later.

Venngage

You don't need to be an expert graphic designer to create engaging infographics for your classroom. Even better, your students can create graphics for you! Venngage offers free infographic tools to help students visualize their data and clearly present ideas. The infographics can be shared and saved online, so they can be used by students in real time and future students can also benefit.

Sutori

Sutori lets anyone build a multimedia-rich story that looks like a timeline, though the focus is on arranging information into an engaging, interactive format for storytelling. It's a useful format, too, because it's a more intuitive way to illustrate the relationships between concepts than, say, a slidedeck. The applications are many, as well: Teachers can use pre-made stories in their lesson plans (there are nearly 800,000 users, so stories are plenty), or they can create their own stories in a snap to use as teaching tools or study aids. What's more, stories can even be assigned as projects or homework, which could be a welcome alternative to an essay assignment.

Lifeliqe

With more than 1,100 3D models and 700 lesson plans, Lifeliqe provides an interactive way to meet Common Core and Next Generation Science Standards. This tool has data behind its name: 86 percent of students who used their 3D models to learn improved their science scores. The company attributes their success to the idea that 65 percent of the population is made of visual learners. By connecting with kids in the way they learn best, they're more likely to enjoy the material.

Storybird

STEAM educators who are looking to add reading and writing elements to their curriculum can try Storybird. This company curates millions of images from illustrators across the world and encourages students and teachers to use them to tell stories. Consider assigning an image to each student and asking them to write about it, or ask them to create a book using the lessons they learned in science or math class. It's a great way to get creative with online tools.

KidBlog

If you're trying to get your students to blog more and reflect on what they learned, consider using Kidblog. Nothing goes live until the teacher approves it, so you have final say in what is published. KidBlog creates a safe space for students to publish content without exposing them to the trolls of the Internet. It's available for K-12 students and you can tailor your lessons based on the age group. You can also track engagement statistics each year to see if your students are reading each other's work.

LiveBinders

The goal of LiveBinders is to help educators and their students go paperless with digital binders. Users can save articles and videos, take notes, and post other forms of content in one place. They can also share binders with each other and collaborate to create something useful. With this tool, you never have to limit yourself to just one textbook or resource. You can keep all of your resources in one place for years to come, always adding when you find something new.

Padlet

Padlet is another collaboration tool that teachers can use. Students can submit a variety of supplemental material to make the learning process easier and can comment and interact with it as needed. Teachers can monitor all interactions that students have with the content and track engagement analytics. This tool can be used for any subject or grade level.

Celestia

This tool is definitely more space-focused instead of the other one-size-fits-all solutions on this list. However, it's rare to find such a dynamic resource for exploring outer space. Not only is there a wide variety of content on Celestia, but students and educators can customize the content or add their own based on their needs. If there's something you can't find, create it.

Project Noah

Launched in 2010, Project Noah was created to encourage citizen scientists to document the world around them. People can photograph organisms and share them online, helping scientists document the location and rarity of various species. Teachers can make this part of the classroom experience by turning students into citizen scientists sharing their discoveries.

Science360 Video Library

One of the biggest challenges that teachers face is modernizing the classroom and making students care about what they're learning. Part of the National Science Foundation, the Science360 Video Library shares the latest videos related to science, technology, and engineering. Whether you're introducing students to outer space discoveries or explaining undersea exploration, you can update those lessons with this video collection.

Teachers TryScience

If you're uncertain where to start with science and STEAM lessons, check out Teachers TryScience. Teachers can find lesson plans and follow different strategies and tutorials to make their content more engaging. It can be intimidating giving students the keys to explore a particular topic, but this site makes it easier.

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27 Tech Tools Teachers Can Use to Inspire Classroom Creativity | Ozobot

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Discover our favorite user-friendly tech tools for inspiring creativity for students learning in virtual or in-person classrooms!

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TED Talk: Controversy on Technology in the Classroom

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TED Talk: Controversy on Technology in the Classroom

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This TED talk speaks about education and technology and if it is "good or bad." It provides negative and positive connotations about the role of technology in modern education.

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Technology, The best or worst thing for education | Scott Widman | TEDxYouth@BSPR