Animoto is a good digital tool to be used in asynchronous learning environments. Students learning from home need to collaborate into virtual classrooms projects. They can do by creating and sharing their videos to the teacher and peers. It is very easy to distribute and share videos made by Animoto. Videos can be saved to the computer, downloaded, embedded, and shared by using links. Teachers can assign a real-world PBL activity. Students at home can work at their own pace on their project. They will have enough time to take or search for picture, they can have time to explore and do their own research to find information, then they will have time to create their video and share it with their teachers and peers by sending links or by uploading it to their Learning Management System. They don’t need to be present personally or virtually to do the presentation. 

Animoto can be used to do asynchronous lab activities from home. A chemistry teacher can explain then assign a lab activity that can be done at home. Students during their experiment can take pictures of the process and the results, then create a video of their process with written explanation sentences of the process and share it with their class. History teacher can ask students to do research about an historical event as a brainstorm activity or flipped classroom activity before introducing the lesson. Students using Google can search for information and picture and create slideshow video about this video to be presented to the class. 

Animoto introduces ISTE Standards for students. Students will be digital citizens (ISTE Standards Students, 1.2) by using technology safely and appropriately. They are empowered learners (ISTE Standards Students 1.1) by taking an active role using technology to create their own learning material and their knowledge. They are knowledge constructors (ISTE Standards Students, 1.3) and innovative designers (ISTE Standards Students, 1.4) by doing their own research, searching for their own material, taking their own pictures, and creating their own design slideshow videos. They will become creative communicators (ISTE Standards Student, 1.6) by expressing themselves creatively and by communicating their ideas and presenting their project.  

Glogster allows teachers and students to create a personal digital poster that can include academic information, podcasts, videos, images, and unlimited creativity. It captures students’ interest in internet access and research. Students will navigate websites for texts, audio, hyperlinks, or images to find information about their learning content. It helps teachers to create instructional and project-based learning activities that are fun, engaging, and safe.

Glogster empowers both educators and students with the use of technology, by creating multimedia posters that can reflect students’ knowledge and research of a subject content.  Glogster also empower students’ voices by giving them the opportunity to show off their projects and work to their teachers and parents who can access the projects online by using the Glogster link. 

Glogster is a good tool for all sort of learners. It can engage all students even the passive ones. It let students independently work on their interactive posters. It makes all students present and viewable to the public through their project. Visual learners can use variety of different designs, colors, pictures, and videos to explain their points. Spatial learners can also benefit from this tool by being able to organize all their components across their glogs. Logical learners are able to organize their thoughts in a strict manner that is best for them. Kinesthetic learners are able to be hands-on with the computers while musical learners are able to import songs and videos right to their glogs. Being able to import all types of learners is important for any learning topic. 

Glogster perfectly fit in a synchronous learning environment since it needs collaboration and group work. During any live session, teachers can divide students into groups and send them to breakout rooms to work on a PBL activity using Glogster. Students when done, they can present their digital posters related to any topic to their teacher and classmates. 

A science teacher can create a project-based learning activity on wild animals. Each group of students will choose a wild animal to do research on. A group of students can choose to do research on a lion. They will work together to search for different resources from internet. They can use Wikipedia to find information about where lions live and what they eat, and they can use Google Images to find pictures of lions, and they can download videos from YouTube to show lions naturals habitats and how they act. After being done with the research, students can add all these informations and multimedia materials in addition to their own texts, sounds and music to express their ideas to a one place that is a “glog” using Glogster digital tool. 

Glogster introduces ISTE Standards for students. Students will be digital citizens (ISTE Standards Students, 1.2) by using technology safely and appropriately. They are empowered learners (ISTE Standards Students 1.1) by taking an active role using technology to create digital posters that show what they have learned about a topic. They are knowledge constructors (ISTE Standards Students, 1.3) and innovative designers (ISTE Standards Students, 1.4) by doing research using internet, looking for multimedia material to create a digital presentation poster. 

Pixton can be used for language, reading, science, social studies, or any other learning topic (Bogler, 2018). It is a good digital tool for Project-based learning and problem-solving activities, where students can demonstrate how to solve problems and demonstrate it through the use of pictures. Students will choose a background, add characters, face expressions and persons’ actions. They can also write sentences or use the microphone option to dictate sentences to create characters’ thoughts or dialogues. Teachers working on a project-based learning topic can ask students to create a Pixton comic story about this topic. For example, history teachers working in dinosaur’s topic, can create a PBL activity where students have to use their knowledge learned in class and do some research about dinosaurs, their history and create a comic that inform about dinosaurs and tell their stories, how they lived and how they were extinct. 

Pixton engages students and gives them superpower by giving them the ability write, share their understanding in a way that is fun and engaging. Pixton is a helpful tool for differentiation, especially that it has a dictate tool for students having difficulties in writing. It opens up students’ creative abilities. It increases their ability to connect to themselves and each other. This fun playful illustrated technique allows students to really dive deep into what they are thinking and feeling. Pixton gives students the opportunity to be creative It is a safe place for students to express themselves in whatever way they like. And at the end, students share their digital creation and will be proud of what they have created and learned.

Pixton can be used in both synchronous and asynchronous learning environments. It can be used in synchronous learning environment where groups of students can be sent by teacher to breakout rooms to collaborate, they can also collaborate with teachers to create Pixton story.  It can be used in asynchronous learning environment where teachers can assign a PBL activity and students at home can do their own research and create their comic story by their own at their own pace and submitted to teacher.  

Teachers can use Pixton to create Figurative Language lesson Project-based learning activity in English language.  Teachers after introducing and working on idioms in English language, can ask students at the end of the unit to create a comic digital storytelling about idioms. Students will spend time learning idioms, then will search for them in different books and stories that they have read. In a second step students will create a Pixton comic with pictures and characters with face expressions, actions, thoughts bubbles and dialogues to show their understanding of the common idiom. It can also be used to create a gratitude journal, where students can everyday document one thing from their real-life that they are grateful for. At the end of the week, students can see how their journal have evolved over the time. 

Pixton can meet ISTE Standards as students can be innovative designers (ISTE Standards Students, 1.4), creative communicators (ISTE Standards Students, 1.5), and global collaborators (ISTE Standards Students, 1.6). They will create and design their comic stories with their own creativity and ideas, they will share what they have created with classmates and teachers, and they will communicate and collaborate with teachers or peers to create a PBL story. 

 

Seesaw can be used for reading, writing, and math Project-based learning activities. It ensures that students have regular access to meaningful learning experiences. It is a helpful tool to make students use their thinking in a creative way. Teachers can assign different activities to students that can classified as a Project-based learning portfolio. For a PBL opportunity, teachers can assign different activities that can be done on Seesaw to create a portfolio for the whole project. Students can use the writing tools to write the research they did about any project, they can add pictures to document their research, use drawing tool to draw images or diagrams to explain the research process. All this work can be saved into draft in Seesaw until it is reviewed and accepted by the teacher before being posted on Seesaw dashboard so it can be seen by classmates and parents. 

Seesaw promotes for students’ engagement, creativity and help them share their voices. It empowers students and motivate them to think, create, reflect on their creation, and finally share their work. Students can use different tools to work on their PBL project like using photos, drawings, videos, and links. When using Seesaw, teachers can also differentiate the learning process, depending on students’ needs, by creating multiple versions of assignments. For example, teachers can create a writing prompt and assign it to the majority of students, then they can create another differentiated version of this prompt by using copy and edit tools, and they can add voice instructions and assign it for ELL students and for students with needs in reading and writing. 

Seesaw can be used in both synchronous and asynchronous learning environments. 

It can be use in synchronous learning environment where teachers can assign Seesaw activities for class routines centers during their live sessions. 

Students can use Seesaw to learn individually and asynchronously at home. Teachers can set the setting on home learning to provide login codes and assign activities for asynchronous home learning experience. 

For a project-based unit of teaching, teacher can assign a theme park project for students, and divide this work into small activities for each day. The first day, students will use drawing tools to draw the theme park. The second day, they will use math tools to calculate the cost. Third day they will take pictures of material needed for the park and add them to their Seesaw project. Fourth day, they will write how they want to design their theme park and what are the profits. At the end, they will create a brochure using Seesaw tools to promote for their project. All these creations will form a complete portfolio for the PBL activity. 

Students when using Seesaw become empowered learners (ISTE Standards Students, 1.1) as they are taking active role in creating material that demonstrate their learning progress over time.    

Teachers working on Project-based activities can assign real-world lessons from PenPal Schools website to students to read and answer questions that can be read by students all over the world. Students can review other students’ answers, give them review and invite them to be their PenPal, so they can keep learning together. Students can do research on PenPal School application to find material helpful to produce the Project-based activities assigned by the teacher. They will use the material they read, videos, pictures available in the application, add slides and charts to produce and share their project in its final design. Project-based assignments can be related to world cultures, environment, languages, science, math and more. PenPal Schools is a good tool for differentiation, as each lesson is available in different difficulty levels. So, teachers can choose the difficulty level and assign it to students depending on their skills, language needs, and thinking level. During the match day, PenPal schools will connect students with PenPals from different classrooms around the world. Students are matched based on their skills and levels. They will read texts together, watch videos, share perspectives, and collaborate to do their project -based assignment.  PenPal Schools is a great tool to engage students by offering a unique way to connect students around the world and by connecting them to the real-world events and problems. Students will understand and respect other students’ cultures and backgrounds. They will be engaged by logging in to connect with their PenPals and study with them. 

PenPal Schools is good for asynchronous learning, as students don’t have to be with their teachers. They can do their lessons and projects at any time, any place using internet connected device. They can connect with teachers by sending messages. Teachers can add feedback to students’ projects to help them improve their skills in reading, writing, and digital literacy. 

A project-based unit when PenPal schools can be applied is culture unit. Students will work on a project related to different cultures around the world. Some students will choose the Hispanic culture for example. Teachers will assign lessons related to this culture. They will answer lesson questions and comment on other students’ answers, they will look for PenPals from Hispanic countries to discuss their cultures and know more about it and collaborate on creating their projects. Students will use learning material they found in PenPal Schools, videos, images, and pictures to add them to their project that will be submitted for teacher to review and give feedback. 

PenPal Schools is a digital tool that can help students become digital citizens (ISTE Standards Students, 1.1). Teachers before start using PenPal should teach students how to use this website safely and appropriately by protecting their personal information and not sharing their last name and their email address. They should also connect with students around the world appropriately and safely by respecting them and respecting their privacy. 

Students will also become global communicators (ISTE Standards Students, 1.7) as they will broaden their understanding and enrich their knowledge by collaborating with other students around the world. 

Project Pals engage students and enhance their passion to collaborate in a global community to do problem solving and project-based learning activities.  Teachers can assign project-based learning activities related to scientific explorations, virtual trips, research projects, literacy, and critical thinking. Teachers can plan students’ projects, add team members to collaborate in a visual workspace, access rich data to monitor student’s work and respond to them, create, and use rubrics for evaluation, and share students’ projects digitally with their families. Teachers will start a project-based learning process by adding a driving question. Students will start a self- directed journey to solve the problem and submit their project-based work. They will work and collaborate with their team members to compile resources and assign tasks to each member of the team. Students will work in a collaborative workspace updated in real-time. They gather information to create knowledge about the topic of the project-based assignment and support their ideas by incorporating media and creating visual representations.

Project Pals tool engages students to collaborate to find a good plan that will work to solve problems and answer their project- based activity. They have to communicate and collaborate with their team members to get this project going, and they have to stay committed to this project until it is done. For differentiation, teachers can differentiate the content of the projects, based on students’ levels, problem-solving skills, and their needs. They can assign high level project to higher thinking students, and easier projects for students with difficulties. 

Project Pals is a good technology tool that can fit in a synchronous learning environment. Students learning synchronously can collaborate synchronously and use this tool to work on their project-based learning assignments. 

For a project-based learning unit using Project Pals, a science teacher can choose to work on photosynthesis. Teacher will create this project, include aligned standards, and add students as collaborators. Students will start working together on this PBL. They will first create tasks for each member and start searching for information, adding texts, images, charts and graphics to their workspace. Some students will have a task to add the knowledge learned about photosynthesis, another student should organize this information in order of the photosynthesis process, another student should search for material like images and videos to explain this natural process, others should add graphics like charts related to the percentage of oxygen created by a photosynthesis process. Teacher can monitor the work progress and students’ collaboration levels because Project Pals permit to the teacher to see who did every activity, who added each information and who edit it to. 

Project Pals helps students to become knowledge constructors (ISTE Standards Students, 1.3) Students will plan effective strategies to solve problems and answer the project given by the teacher. They will build their knowledge based on real- world project-based learning activities. 

Students will also become computational thinkers (ISTE Standards Students, 1.5) as they formulate given problems, break it down into tasks and make decisions to produce a collaborative project. 

 Students to be able to collaborate on an idea should demonstrate that they can execute on that idea. When working on a PBL activity, teachers can take ideas generated in mind map branches and transform them into tasks and start assigning them to students, give them a certain priority, then add due date to each particular task to be done, and they can also keep tracking students’ work. 

Teachers can also use MindMeister tool for project-based learning activities in a different way. They will let students create their own MindMeister and let them collaborate to make connections between different learned topics, information, concepts, facts, and ideas collected in order to solve a problem and produce a project on a given topic. 

When working on a PBL, MindMeister helps students explore the ideas and understand the different concepts related to the project by finding connection between them. They will use this tool to brainstorm their ideas related to the project, create a mapping presentation that will help them to create engaging presentation related to their projects.

This MindMeister tools engage students as it helps them break out the difficult concept of the PBL into smaller ideas easy to understand and to remember. It will improve their productivity and boost their creativity during their PBL. It is also a good tool for differentiation, as it is a great organizational tool that helps students with low analysis skills understand PBL’s complex ideas or topics. As a graphic organizer tool, it put the PBL concepts into categories and visual spaces that make them more easily identifiable and definable. It helps all students regardless their ability levels to organize information. 

MindMeister is a tool that can be used in synchronous learning environment. Teachers working synchronously with students on a project-based activity, can ask students to start making their Mind Map during their live session, to make sure students understand their project concept. 

Teacher can choose the unit of health to do a project-based learning activity. Students have to create a mind map using MindMeister to find ways and solutions that keep human being healthy and productive in life. Students branch the health idea into different component like stress, diet, exercise, and sleep. For each component they will find problems and solutions. They will search for videos related to healthy diets for example, search for life situations that can cause stress and find solutions to overcome stressful situations. They should search for links that can explore kind of experiences. All of these ideas should be added to the mind map until they cover all this PBL components. 

Using MindMeister, students will be knowledge constructors (ISTE Standards Students, 1.3) and computational thinkers (ISTE Standards Students, 1.5) as they are planning for their project-based activity and formulating the problem by creating a mind map.

Google Classroom used as a Learning Management System can be used to create and organize project-based learning. Teachers can add their PBL driving question at the top of the digital project folder and use the LMS communication tools to facilitate discussion between students, as they might discuss prior knowledge about the PBL topic or they might ask questions about the topic. Teacher can add some helpful resources and few sentences or a paragraph as outline of the project to give students big picture view of the project. They can also include specific instructions for each step, due dates or timelines and a rubric for the assessment in an organized folder in the LMS. This way, students can feel that they are carefully directed, and well prepared for their project. Teachers can spend time facilitating students’ collaboration, monitoring their work and their progress instead of wasting time answering students’ questions.

Google Classroom used for PBL can engage students by organizing learning materials and assignments in a visual appealing way. It can also engage students by providing clear instructions, consistent expectations, positive reinforcement, and deadlines for each part of the project- based assignment. Google Classroom can help in creating differentiated project-based learning. Instead of assigning the entire class the same PBL work at the same pace, teachers can assign different tasks to specific students using individualized assignments in Google Classroom. They can assign different parts of the project based on students’ reading levels, they can also provide extra scaffolding materials for students in need or share next-level practice for students who are ahead. Through this individualized project-based work, students get personalization, support, and self-esteem boosts. 

Google Classroom fits in both synchronous and asynchronous learning environments. Leveraging a tool like Google Classroom during a project-based in a synchronous session can help teachers and students stay organized and ready. It will serve as a launchpad for the creative and innovative PBL activities. Teachers can use the meet feature in Google classroom to create live videoconferencing sessions. 

Google Classroom in asynchronous learning can be leverage for organization of assignments, resources, materials, and time management to create self-paced learning projects that can engage students. Teachers can create creative, self-contained lessons and projects by using Google for Education tools. Those lessons and projects can be added to Google Classroom with assignments and due date for students to access from home.  

The environment unit is a good project-based learning to do using Google Classroom and Google suite applications. Teachers can start by posting this real-world problem as a project assignment in Google Classroom. They can add instructions, helpful links, due date, assessment, and grading rubric. Students will use Google Meet to meet up and discuss PBL ideas. They will use Google to search for information, images, videos that are related to environmental issues and how they can be solved. Students can create Google Slides where they can add images and videos about different environments and different issues. They can create Google Docs to write information about how these environmental problems can be solved. They can also create surveys about people awareness related to environmental issues using Google Forms. All these documents created will be added into a Google Site to finalize their project. The link to this Google Site project will be submitted into Google Classroom under the assignment section. 

When using Google Classroom and Google Suite applications for project-based learning, students become creative communicators (ISTE Standards Students, 1.6) as they know how to choose the appropriate platforms and tools from Google Suite that meet their projects objectives. They create a variety of digital content using different digital tool in the order to find solutions for the environmental problems.  

In an asynchronous learning environment, when teachers want to create a project-based learning activity related to a real-world situation, they can’t monitor students work and progress. Students working asynchronously at their own pace may work with procrastination. To avoid procrastination, monitor students’ progress and make sure students are working correctly step by step on their PBL projects, teachers can create prompts in Flipgrid where students will record videos to post their progress update, show their work, record their experiences, talk about their strategies related to the project, share their projects goals or request help and suggestions from teachers and peers. 

Flipgrid engages students effectively as it is easily accessible and gives them the ability to speak out loud to answer a prompt, share an experience or give their opinion in their own words. It is a way to honor students’ voices and choices. It also has built-in ways to develop connections between educators and students around the world by using GridPals that is a great part of Flipgrid. It allows teachers to find other classrooms that they can connect with in a safe environment. Flipgrid is a good tool to integrate differentiation especially for students that struggle with writing activities, or students having dysgraphia. Instead of writing, students can record videos to share their thoughts and express themselves. 

Flipgrid can be used in asynchronous learning environments. Teachers can create prompts using Flipgrid and post the prompt link into the LMS so students can access it. Students working at home at their own pace can use the link and answer teachers prompts by recording videos and post them to the grid.

For a project-based unit to work on using Flipgrid, teachers can choose a PBL project that can be done asynchronously like reducing the use of plastic and finding alternatives to it. Teachers can start by creating a video prompt on Flipgrid to explain the PBL project to students and let them understand what they should do. Students will go out to pick up trash and plastic bags, and they take them to any recycling location. They will also do some research on how they can reduce the use of plastic and what are the alternatives of using plastic. During different stages of this PBL unit project, students will record videos to talk about what they saw when they were picking up trash, or when they were at the recycling center and kind of materials that are accepted at the recycling centers. Thy will create another video to talk about how they felt when they found plastic and other trash from people littering. Teachers can create other prompt to talk about recycling advantages. At the end, students will also create videos to share their overall experience and to find solutions and alternative of using plastic. Students will watch their peers’ videos to learn more about this PBL project, share experiences and create other videos as feedback for their classmates. 

Using Flipgrid in project-based make students empowered learners (ISTE Standards Students, 1.1). Students use Flipgrid to empower and share their voices, ameliorate their learning outcomes, and seek feedback from teachers and peers. 

Twitter can be used for educational purposes. It can be used by teachers as a part of their Personal Learning Network (PLN), by following other teachers, technology coaches and education experts. They can learn a lot by interacting with each other and supporting each other. Teachers can also integrate Twitter in their classroom to create new meaningful learning opportunities. They can create a Twitter account for their class. Students using their smart phones can follow this account and turn on notifications option. Teachers can use Twitter to post class announcements, reminders about tests or due dates. They can also post tweets to discuss any learning materials or any learning ideas, where students can add comments by replying to this tweet. Teachers can also use it for project- based learning activities, where they can post the project as a tweet with a hashtag. Student will read the tweet and use the hashtag to look for more information and more tweets about this topic. They will find other tweets with comments and new ideas that broaden their research. They will do their research to collect different materials and comment to the PBL tweet by adding links to external sources or by submitting their project links. They can also use the PBL topic hashtag to create new tweet and host new discussion opportunities with different people and experts from around the world. 

Twitter engages students effectively as students like to surf the net, and they are familiar with the use of social media platforms. It gives them the opportunity to explore the social work outside of classrooms. It is a way to communicate with topic experts around the world, follow their accounts and learn from them. 

Twitter is good to be used in an asynchronous learning environment. Students at home learning asynchronously would benefit from Twitter notifications to know announcements, due dates and project or assignments deadlines. They can also use it to participate in educational discussions by using hashtags or by commenting on educators’ tweets while they’re learning at their own pace.

 For a project-based learning unit using Twitter, teachers can choose to work on digital citizenship project. Teachers will post a tweet to introduce this project. Students working on this project will use digital citizenship hashtags to find more tweets and more information, and to follow experts in digital citizenship. They will read these tweets, collect information then use other digital tools to create their content. Students can use Wakelet to organize different resources about digital citizenship, or they can use Thinglink to create interactive content about digital citizenship by adding images, and YouTube videos that explain how students can be digital citizens. To collaborate to the PBL, they will share their Wakelet or Thinglink links into the comment section of the PBL tweet. 

Using Twitter in education and to create project-based learning opportunities can help students to become digital citizens (ISTE Standards Students, 1.1) as they will use this social media platform safely and appropriately by commenting on teacher and on other users tweets appropriately. They won’t post any personal information. They will also become global collaborators (ISTE Standards Students, 1.7) as they will collaborate with others to broaden and enrich their learning experiences and opportunities.