Top 3 free interactive classroom technology tools

The digital revolution has brought about a profound transformation, reshaping the landscape of learning. Today, if teachers want to maintain student engagement and participation in the classroom, they must be able to implement more interactive teaching methods.

In order to achieve this, it is essential to focus on creating more collaborative lessons and developing innovative teaching strategies supported by tools that encourage interaction. Therefore, interactive technology in the classroom is particularly important and useful.

We’ve prepared an overview of the top interactive tools and technologies to give your classes a twist and engage your audience!

Tool No.1: Wooclap

Wooclap offers a wide range of interactive animations to help you improve your communication, your assessment methods, and boost student engagement (both during face-to-face lessons at school and online). Here are a few of them:

Online quizzes to assess student knowledge

Among the different tools developed over the years to make lessons more dynamic and boost students’ engagement, the online quiz has become a must.

It traditionally takes the form of a multiple-choice questionnaire (MCQ). Participants –students, colleagues, employees– are shown a single question to which they must respond, with multiple answer options available. This relatively simple tool is also very easy to implement. It proves to be a valuable asset for teachers to assess students' knowledge and, if necessary, adjust the focus of learning (in terms of content, resources, platform, activities, etc.).

Wooclap allows you to create customized quizzes to make the activity even more engaging, whether your lessons are face-to-face or virtual. Teachers can choose the results display mode (word cloud or bar chart), and even add a countdown timer to make things a bit more challenging.

This fun and interactive learning tool aims to consolidate knowledge and content memorization ahead of an exam or test.

Online survey to collect your audience’s feedback

If you're looking for strategies to boost student engagement, the online survey is the ideal tool. It’s very simple: one question with endless possible answers!

This tool is highly effective to develop a group's critical thinking skills and foster a collaborative classroom environment. It also is a useful way to test knowledge and gather feedback –on a training session, on a specific experience, etc.

Thanks to Wooclap, easily create polls and share them in real time (during your class) or later, depending on your objectives.

Brainstorming to harness collective intelligence

Brainstorming is a well-known exercise that helps strengthen group bonds and solve problems collectively.

It is a particularly effective tool if you wish to generate answers and new ideas, especially within class projects or activities. Brainstorming stimulates creativity and gives students a broader perspective on processes while developing critical thinking skills.

Use Wooclap, our collaborative platform, to create a brainstorming session in just a few clicks! Other than having a free version, it is easily accessible to both students and educators.

Tool No.2: Kahoot!

Kahoot! is a popular learning platform among schools and educational centers.

It offers 4 types of activities –quizzes, polls, jumbles, and discussion– with one main goal in mind: to provide a new way of learning (and teaching) through play.

Kahoot! relies on a modern and colorful design to make learning a more dynamic experience and create an even more friendly platform.

Fun, interactive, and engaging, Kahoot! is very affordable, which greatly contributes to its popularity.

However, it does have a few limitations, which position Wooclap as a strong alternative to this tool:

• The facilitator cannot manage questions in real time;
• There is no brainstorming functionality;
• The presenter does not have access to slide notes or slide control;
• Live bidirectional interactions are not possible.

Tool No.3: Mentimeter

Mentimeter is an online collaboration platform that allows creating surveys, multiple-choice questions, polls, and live presentations.

This tool is generally used in meetings, classes, or training sessions, in order to collect participants' responses and feedback. Its features are diverse:

• Online polls: Templates are available to design complete and relevant surveys. Questions can be organized by categories, and settings such as multiple-choice responses can be adjusted;
• Word cloud: Students' answers can be displayed as a word cloud with varying sizes and colors to emphasize certain suggestions;
• Interactive quizzes: Some quizzes are already ready-to-use, which is a real time-saver for teachers and educators;
• Live Q&A: Students can ask for help during a session if they feel lost, without disrupting the activity;
• Surveys: This feature allows teachers to ask students for feedback (whether it’s in real time or after the lesson).

Compared with Wooclap, Mentimeter limits the number of participants per session in its free version and offers fewer activities and questions than its counterpart.

FAQ

Interactive classroom technology tools: how to choose?

Student engagement activities have become widely available in our current digital era. In order to choose the right interactive classroom technology tool, adapt the activity to:

• Your audience: age, skill level;
• Your teaching goals: assess knowledge, gather feedback, team building;
• Your means: what technological resources do you have in your classroom, what’s your budget, etc.

Are there any other interactive activities available?

If you want to take classroom interaction even further, you can rely on the use of role-playing games or customized board games: both are simple yet effective icebreakers!