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University of Massachusetts Amherst

Torrey Trust, Ph.D. is a Professor of Learning Technology in the Department of Teacher Education and Curriculum Studies in the College of Education at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her work centers on the critical examination of the relationship between teaching, learning, and technology; and how technology can enhance teacher and student learning. Specifically, Dr. Trust studies how educators engage with digitally enhanced professional learning networks (PLNs), how emerging pedagogical tools (e.g., HyperDocs), practices (e.g., Making) and technologies (e.g., 3D printers, augmented reality, ChatGPT, generative AI tools) influence learning, how to design and use open educational resources (OERs), and how to find, critically evaluate, and teach with digital tools and apps. Dr. Trust served as a professional learning network leader for the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) for five years, including a two-year term as the President of the Teacher Education Network from 2016 to 2018.

Dr. Trust's research, teaching, and service in the field of educational technology has received noticeable recognition, including the 2016 ISTE Online Learning Network Award, 2017 Journal of Digital Learning in Teacher Education Outstanding Research Paper Award, 2017 American Educational Research Association (AERA) Instructional Technology SIG Best Paper Award, 2017 ISTE Emerging Leader Award, 2019 AERA Technology as an Agent of Change for Teaching & Learning SIG Early Career Scholar Award, 2020 University of Massachusetts Amherst College of Education Outstanding Teaching Award, 2020 AECT Annual Achievement Award, 2023 MERLOT Classics Award, and the 2023 University of Massachusetts Amherst Distinguished Teaching Award. In 2018, Dr. Trust was selected as one of the recipients for the ISTE Making IT Happen Award, which "honors outstanding educators and leaders who demonstrate extraordinary commitment, leadership, courage and persistence in improving digital learning opportunities for students." www.torreytrust.com

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This eBook features critical reviews of more than 100 digital tools and apps for teaching and learning. Each page was written and designed by students enrolled in EDUC 390D, 592A, or 692D at the University of Massachusetts Amherst

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Scaffolding

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There is no shortage of formative assessment strategies, techniques, and tools available to teachers who use formative instructional practice in their classrooms. Here is an extensive list of 75 digital tools, apps, and platforms that can help you and your students use formative assessment to elicit evidence of learning. We didn't just add any old tool to this list. Here are the criteria we used for those that made the cut:

Supports formative instructional strategies and ways to activate learners to be resources for themselves and peers

Is free or awful close to it (under $10 per year, where possible)

Allows both students and teachers to take the activator role when possible (sometimes teachers need to get things started)

Before you dig into the tools, I encourage you to spend some time thinking about exactly what you want to accomplish with your students. "How to pick the right digital tool: Start with your learning goal" by Erin Beard can help you wrap your head around goals and guide you in choosing the best tool for the task. "27 easy formative assessment strategies for gathering evidence of student learning" can help you decide what strategies work best for you and your students.

Record audio and video

Create quizzes, polls, and surveys

1. Crowdsignal Lets you create online polls, quizzes, and questions. Students can use smartphones, tablets, and computers to provide their answers, and information can be culled for reports.

2. Edulastic Allows you to make standards-aligned assessments and get instant feedback.

3. FreeOnlineSurveys Helps you create surveys, quizzes, forms, and polls.

4. Gimkit Lets you write real-time quizzes. And it was designed by a high school student!

5. Kahoot! A game-based classroom response system that lets you create quizzes using internet content.

6. MicroPoll Helps you create polls, embed them into websites, and analyze responses.

7. Naiku Lets you write quizzes students can answer using their mobile devices.

8. Obsurvey Designed to make surveys, polls, and questionnaires.

9. Poll Everywhere Lets you create a feedback poll or ask questions and see results in real time. Allows students to respond in various ways. With open-ended questions, you can capture data and spin up tag clouds to aggregate responses.

10. Poll Maker Offers unique features, like allowing multiple answers to one question.

11. ProProfs Helps you make quizzes, polls, and surveys.

12. Quia Lets you create games, quizzes, surveys, and more. Access a database of existing quizzes from other educators.

13. Quizalize Helps you create quizzes and homework.

14. Quizizz Guides you through designing quizzes and lets you include students in the quiz-writing process.

15. Quizlet Lets you make flashcards, tests, quizzes, and study games that are mobile friendly.

16. Survey Hero Designed to build questionnaires and surveys.

17. SurveyMonkey Helpful for online polls and surveys.

18. SurveyPlanet Also helpful for online polls and surveys.

19. Triventy Lets you create quizzes students take in real time using individual devices.

20. Yacapaca Helps you write and assign quizzes.

21. Zoho Survey Allows you to make mobile-friendly surveys and see results in real time.

Brainstorm, mind map, and collaborate

Present, engage, and inspire

Generate word or tag clouds

1. EdWordle Generates word clouds from any entered text to help aggregate responses and facilitate discussion. Word clouds are pictures composed of a cloud of smaller words that form a clue to the topic.

2. Tagxedo Allows you to examine student consensus and facilitate dialogues.

3. Wordables Helps you elicit evidence of learning or determine background knowledge about a topic.

4. WordArt Includes a feature that allows the user to make each word an active link to connect to websites, including YouTube.

Get real-time feedback

Foster family communication

1. Remind Lets you text students and stay in touch with families.

2. Seesaw Helps you improve family communication and makes formative assessment easy, while students can use the platform to document their learning.

3. Voxer Lets you send recordings so families can hear how their students are doing, students can chat about their work, and you can provide feedback.

Strengthen teacher-to-student or student-to-student communication

Keep the conversation going with live chats

1. Yo Teach A backchannel site great for keeping the conversation going with students.

2. Chatzy Supports live, online chats in a private setting.

Create and store documents or assignments

1. Google Forms A Google Drive app that allows you to create documents students can collaborate on in real time using smartphones, tablets, and laptops.

2. Piazza Lets you upload lectures, assignments, and homework; pose and respond to student questions; and poll students about class content. This tool is better suited for older students as it mimics post-secondary class instructional formats.

Learn more

There are several resources for learning more about formative assessment and responsive instruction strategies. Consider our formative practices workshops, where school and district teams can gain a better understanding of the role formative practice plays in instruction and the four foundational practices to use in the classroom. Or for a quick start, download our eBook "Making it work: How formative assessment can supercharge your practice."

Jump in, try new tools and methods, and have fun!

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75 digital tools and apps teachers can use to support formative assessment in the classroom

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We've compiled an extensive list of 75 digital tools that can help teachers use formative assessment to elicit evidence of student learning.

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"Feedback as Dialogue!"

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This podcast changed the way I see the brain!

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One Head, Two Brains | Hidden Brain Media

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This week, we search for the answer to a deceptively simple question: why is the brain divided? Psychiatrist Iain McGilchrist explains why popular distinctions between the “left brain” and “right brain” aren’t supported by research. He argues that one hemisphere has come to shape Western society — t…

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Video: The surprising habits of original thinkers

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Video: The surprising habits of original thinkers

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The surprising habits of original thinkers | Adam Grant | TED

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Problem Library: 116

Crossed Circuits
Two roommates argue about each others use of energy. Which roommate should pay a utility premium? How much extra?

Watson, George

Physics and Astronomy

1 Hour or Less

Introductory (non-majors)

What Is the Cause of This Swelling and Why Am I Short of Breath When I Exercise?
"Joan is a corporate lawyer for a Fortune-500 company. She has been physically active her entire life.
Lately Joan has. . .

Tallitsch, Robert

Biological Sciences

1 Hour or Less

Intermediate (majors and non-majors)

The Fastest Man in the World
This problem introduces students to speed and acceleration.

Duch, Barbara

Physics and Astronomy

3-6 hours

Introductory (non-majors)

Pass the Buffer-in
A student needing to prepare a pH 7.5 buffer must decide whether an unlabeled recipe will do the job.

Groh, Susan

Chemistry

1-3 Hours

Introductory (majors and non-majors)

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DISCIPLINEAdd Filter "Collapse " Biological Sciences Biotechnology Chemistry Accounting Aviation Science Business Administration Chemistry and Bi...

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What college teachers should know about memory: A perspective from cognitive psychology

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What college teachers should know about memory: A perspective from cognitive psychology

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After watching this, your brain will not be the same 

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After watching this, your brain will not be the same 

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After watching this, your brain will not be the same | Lara Boyd | TEDxVancouver

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Disclaimer

The simplified model presented here is just one of many ways to categorize types of memory. There are other models too, and some of them use slightly different definitions for some of the terms used here.

This model highlights just a few of the key brain regions involved in different memory functions. Since no part of the brain exists in isolation, most types of memory include more areas than the ones listed here. The big idea to take away is that different areas of the brain have different functions.

If you wish to delve more deeply into the types of memory or the brain anatomy involved, we encourage you to explore the references linked at the bottom of the page.

When we learn, our brain takes in information about the world that causes us to change our behavior in some way.

For example, a young baby doesn't understand that fire can hurt them. But thanks to learning, if they touch a candle flame even one time, they will probably not do it again. The information that feeds into the brain-candle, flame, hot, pain-is physically recorded in the connections between cells. And those connections influence our future behavior-don't touch!

As the brain takes in any information and stores it, there are physical changes to the connections between brain cells. And those connections influence our behavior.

Neurons that fire together wire together

The brain is an enormous interconnected network of specialized cells called neurons and supporting cells called glia. To transmit information in the brain, neurons pass signals to one another. This passing of signals can cause physical changes to the connections between cells.

When we learn a skill (like riding a bike) or new information (like multiplication tables), we are building brain connections. The more we use those brain connections, the stronger they get. It's the reason "practice makes perfect."

In the activity above, you can read about how injuries to certain brain areas cause certain memory functions to stop working. But just as important are the connections between them. If two brain areas can no longer communicate, then learning and memory can break down.

Like trails through the wilderness, brain connections get stronger the more they're used

Learning is a process that relies on long-term memory systems in the brain. People who study learning typically divide it into 4 steps: attention, storage, consolidation, and retrieval. These steps dovetail with the Types of Memory described above, and they provide a slightly different framework for thinking about what happens when one or more of these steps go wrong.

Attention - Our sensory systems are constantly bombarded with information, yet most of it fades before we are even aware of it. Attention is like a filter that lets important information into the brain while keeping the irrelevant information out. Without attention, we would remember very little.

Encoding - As sensory information comes in, the brain processes it. Strings of sounds become words, flashes of light and color become images. The brain begins connecting this new information with what it already knows about the world. Some information that is encoded will fade, and some will stick around.

Storage - Long-term storage of information requires new brain connections. The brain has its own way of rehearsing experiences (there's evidence that this is what dreaming is all about), which helps strengthen brain connections. But we can also consciously repeat information or skills to help the brain form strong memories.

Retrieval - Retrieval is the process of accessing stored memories. We use it when we recall a fact or reimagine an experience. But we also use it when we take in new information. It's part of what helps us connect new information to old.

Even when memory systems function normally, memory is imperfect. To learn more about the fallibility of memory, visit The Seven Sins of Memory.

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The simplified model presented here is just one of many ways to categorize types of memory. There are other models too, and some of them use slightly different definitions for some of the terms used here. This model highlights just a few of the key brain regions involved in different memory functions.

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"...we tend to remember things particularly well when they are relevant to our goals..."

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The left brain vs. right brain myth - Elizabeth Waters

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Test your memory with this game from Johns Hopkins

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Neuroplasticity and Change: Tools for Peak Performance

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Neuroplasticity and Change: Tools for Peak Performance

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The ability to effect change is essential for individuals, families and their enterprises to thrive. We all know that change is difficult - but why is it so difficult? To answer that question, we need to understand more about the science of neuroplasticity and how the human brain works.

We are standing at an inflection point as families of wealth and their advisors strive to harness scientific advances that measurably foster agility and performance while promoting and protecting health and well-being, both today and in the future. The ability to effect change - and neuroplasticity, more specifically - is essential for individuals, families and their enterprises to thrive. Despite the profusion of available advice about improving and enhancing our lives and businesses, meaningful change remains extraordinarily challenging. There is still an insatiable demand for yet more information and assistance.

"The world of business is evolving at an exponential rate, new multi-billion dollar industries emerging rapidly and old, established industries becoming obsolete. In this fast-changing environment, operating with agility and a purpose-driven, innovative mindset is key to the sustained success of modern enterprises."

- Francois Botha (Founder, &Simple)

Podcasts are a relatively recent and popular iteration of information sharing. from spring 2021 indicates there are over two million different podcasts with more than 48 million outstanding podcast episodes. That's a lot of information - and yet we still want more.

The continued yearning and desire for personal and professional assistance suggests that despite the proliferation of advice and information, our needs are fundamentally not being met. Contemporary neuroscience not only explains why change is so difficult but now offers us a remarkable array of specific, actionable tools to effect meaningful and enduring change.

The science of change

Based on an understanding of neuroscience and human behaviour, we know that information and advice alone are not effective at producing satisfying behavioural or emotional change. In fact, our neurobiological makeup does not support the straightforward utilization of information as the basis for change.

We are all experiencing a kind of paradox - we have "information overload" with an "application breakdown". There is a disconnect between the advice tendered, its successful application and its conversion into meaningful change.

Change manifests itself in many forms: alteration of our emotional, cognitive and/or physical states to improve mood, resilience and our relationships; enhancing our professional lives, performance, health and spiritual well-being. We yearn to develop meaning and purpose, connection to nature, stewardship of our environment, and to create an enduring legacy. Indeed, these are all powerful epigenetic interventions that support the favourable expression of our genes.

We all know that change is difficult. But why is it so difficult? To answer that question, we need to understand more about how the human brain works.

Achieving neuroplasticity in order to change

Neuroplasticity is the capacity of our nervous system to learn new things - to change. Achieving neuroplasticity is the first step to optimizing our brain to effect change.

Yet, neuroplasticity alone is never the goal. The goal is to access neuroplasticity and then direct it towards particular changes we want to achieve. With practice and reinforcement, the changes we learn become increasingly reflexive. As an example, at a certain point in our development, we no longer had to be conscious of every step we took, we simply "knew" how to walk. The same could be said for learning a new language or navigating a new computer program.

Neuroplasticity enables behaviour that is initially tentative and deliberate to become automatic and reflexive.

Learning as a child vs learning as an adult

The human brain develops over time. Young brains are neuroplasticity machines. In the first few years of life, more than one million new neural connections form every second. After this period of rapid proliferation, connections are reduced through a process called "pruning" which allows brain circuits to become more efficient. This dynamic process never stops and our brain becomes a roadmap informed by the experiences of our life.

By the adult brain has fully . In order for adults to effect change, we have to engage in a different set of processes to successfully effect change and, more specifically, to endure. Adults cannot change the mind simply by using the mind. Words alone have the lowest currency to alter the brain. We can only change the mind through experience, but we can prime the brain for change with specific interventions that are fully under our control.

To effect meaningful change as an adult we must undergo a series of very deliberate steps to alter our internal state in ways that then allow us to change our brains.

Deep learning

For adults, change requires deep learning . Deep learning has two essential components: deep attention and deep rest.

Deep Learning =

Deep Attention (Alertness + Focus) + Deep Rest (Sleep + Recovery)

Alertness: Alertness is the state of feeling awake and alive. It involves the release of a neurotransmitter called adrenaline (sometimes referred to as epinephrine). You may recognize this as the primary neurotransmitter involved in the stress response. Alertness is also a state of vigilance, being aware of potential danger. The release of this neurotransmitter will often trigger a feeling of distress, agitation or discomfort. The levels of adrenaline are lower for deep learning than they are in dangerous contexts, but the feelings, albeit less intense, are much the same.

Focus: Focus involves suppressing surrounding noise to hone in on a specific task. When done right, focus is like casting a spotlight, eliminating unnecessary external stimuli. The neurotransmitter chemical responsible for focus is acetylcholine. This "focus" molecule highlights the areas of your brain that are involved in learning, marking those areas for change.

Distress and dopamine: The simultaneous release of adrenaline and acetylcholine produces a state of feeling that tends to be unpleasant, agitating and uncomfortable. This distressed state can be offset by dopamine, another neurotransmitter that is often associated with pleasure.

Small amounts of dopamine can be self-administered by celebrating small wins and reframing distress as a positive step necessary for change. Dopamine cannot be consumed or injected. It is up to the individual to generate the release of dopamine into the brain.

Deep rest: Change, or neuroplasticity, doesn't occur during the "deep attention" phase of work outlined above. Change occurs during periods of "deep rest", primarily sleep and recovery.

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Neuroplasticity and Change: Tools for Peak Performance - Aspen Brain Institute

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The ability to effect change is essential for individuals, families and their enterprises to thrive. We all know that change is difficult - but why is it so difficult? To answer that question, we need to understand more about the science of neuroplasticity and how the human brain works.