How are your lesson plans shaping up for the rest of the academic year? Are you struggling to make your classes more interactive? Do you experience any difficulties encouraging students to be engaged with your course content? Have you tried to incorporate multimedia content into your lessons yet?
There are numerous online teaching resources on the Internet for teachers to leverage. However, an endless stream of resources also means that it can be overwhelming for teachers to curate enriching content. If you are still scouring the web for online resources to incorporate into your curriculum, this article is for you.
Are all online teaching resources credible?
Writing in the Encyclopedia of Multimedia, Abhaya Asthana recognises the benefit of having a wealth of teaching resources available on the Internet. However, Asthana also notes that:
“There is too much information on the Internet. […] The quality of the information can also be misleading. Students must be taught how to distinguish between quality and unimportant information. Since no rules exist on the Internet in terms of what can and cannot be disclosed, anyone can put any material on the Internet.”
– Abhaya Asthana
Given that students may encounter problems identifying legitimate sources to learn from, teachers must step up and be the gatekeepers of information. Whenever possible, teachers should point students to the relevant sources to help them in their learning, while cultivating students’ instincts to recognise trustworthy sources.
To help teachers narrow down their search for educational resources online, we have identified seven online teaching resources that may supplement your lesson plans:
- TED-Ed
- National Geographic Kids
- Vox News
- Stuff You Should Know, Podcast by iHeartRadio
- BrainPOP
- Duolingo
- British Council’s Learn English website
1. Ted-Ed
You have probably heard of Ted Talks, but do you know of Ted-Ed? Unlike Ted Talks that tend to cover more complicated issues, Ted-Ed caters educational videos that are appropriate for students. Ted-Ed videos explain and breakdown topics in a way that is easy for younger students to understand.
For instance, Ted-Ed videos cover a range of evergreen topics such as systemic racism, hyperbole, and History.
Educators can also customise online lessons on Ted-Ed’s website through a drag and drop system. After teachers select the videos that are beneficial for their students’ learning, they can weave in discussion questions, add additional resources, and track students’ progress.
2. National Geographic Kids
National Geographic Kids simplifies content from its parent magazine into short articles that are approximately 500 to 600 words long. The website also features interactive and printable content such as bingo cards, videos, and colouring pages.
There is something for everyone and it goes beyond reading articles or watching videos. Students are exposed to hands-on and experiential learning materials that engage students and keep them interested in learning.
3. Vox News
Vox is an online news website that specialises in explaining the news. It can be confusing for students to read newspaper articles that report recent developments. These news reports may take for granted that readers are aware of what has transpired before. Vox bridges this knowledge gap by providing extensive background information for readers to put the latest developments in context.
Vox also produces explainer videos periodically for students to understand current affairs. Teachers can leverage Vox as an online resource to help students make sense of the world. Vox is most useful in explaining complicated or controversial topics that may be tricky to flesh out in detail.
4. Stuff You Should Know, Podcast by iHeartRadio
Some students may prefer to listen to podcasts instead of watching videos or reading articles. These students may choose to listen to podcasts on the school bus or leave it to play while they get ready in the morning. In other words, podcasts enable students to multitask while learning.
Stuff You Should Know is an educational podcast that covers topics ranging from ‘How Ultrasound Works,’ ‘How Project StarGate Worked,’ and there is even an episode about hummingbirds. The podcast is available on most audio streaming services such as Spotify and iTunes.
Teachers can assign students podcasts to listen in their free time before coming to class for a face-to-face discussion.
5. BrainPOP
BrainPOP has been producing animated educational videos online since 1999. Some of the younger teachers today may even remember Moby the robot and his teenage sidekick, Tim from their years in school.
BrainPOP videos are usually shorter than five minutes, and they teach elementary students concepts in a bite-sized, easily digestible format. BrainPOP videos cover topics such as Science, Mathematics, and Social Studies. These videos can be used as introductory lessons to ease students into each new topic.
6. Duolingo
Duolingo is an application that guides students to pick up a third language by completing micro classes daily. In 2019, Duolingo reportedly had 300 million daily active users, a testament to its popularity.
On Duolingo, students learn through exercises that require them to fill in the blanks, speak into the microphone, and complete grammar exercises. These short modules will not take more than thirty minutes to finish.
For educators who teach languages or conversational courses, Duolingo can be recommended as a pre-course resource for students to get acquainted with a new language.
7. British Council’s Learn English website
Are your students struggling to write reports and essays that are generally free of grammatical errors? Subject-verb agreement, tenses, and pronouns are just some of the grammar rules that students often get wrong. It can be frustrating for teachers when we want to move on to more advanced writing techniques, but students are still failing to adhere to grammar rules.
To overcome this problem, teachers can introduce their students to the British Council’s Learn English website. This online teaching resource classifies its information into beginners, pre-intermediate, intermediate, and upper immediate. By categorising its tutorials by difficulty level, the British Council caters to students at different stages of their learning.
When learning grammar, practice makes perfect. Fortunately, this website also offers exercises for students to complete after going through each section. By making it a habit to complete grammar drills, students will likely see an improvement in their writing over time.
Create your online teaching resources with HeyHi’s online whiteboard
You have gone through this list of seven online teaching resources, and perhaps, even did some preliminary research on Google. Unfortunately, none of the materials you have found online fit within your desired learning outcomes. What should you do?
Well, you can consider creating your online teaching resource with HeyHi’s online whiteboard. After doing so, share them with your students and teaching colleagues. Who knows? Other teachers may thank you for creating an online teaching resource that they have also tried to search for without much luck!
Even though HeyHi’s online whiteboard is designed for educators to host interactive online classes, the application can be repurposed for teachers to record educational videos. The interface features a shareable whiteboard as its dominant feature with video-conferencing capabilities superimposed over the whiteboard.
HeyHi’s online whiteboard is a blank canvas that teachers can write and illustrate their ideas on. Besides writing with a pen or highlighter tool, the free version of HeyHi’s online whiteboard enables teachers to import PDF documents and images. Since teachers can annotate on these documents, teachers can include other resources to better express themselves.
HeyHi’s online whiteboard is expandable and you will not have to worry about running out of space while teaching and recording your video. Simply swipe to another section of the whiteboard or zoom out to reveal more space to scribble on.
Alternatively, users can also create a new page on the online whiteboard and resume writing without erasing what has been written. After you are done recording the video, you can download everything that you have written and include it as part of your course materials.
At this point of writing, HeyHi has yet to introduce a recording feature for its application. However, there are internal discussions to make online whiteboard recording a feature.
In the meantime, there are ways to leverage HeyHi’s online whiteboard to record and publish your online teaching resource. For more information, please refer to our in-depth guide on how to record your online whiteboard lesson.
Summary
This article has introduced seven online teaching resources for teachers to curate engaging content for students:
- TED-Ed
- National Geographic Kids
- Vox News
- Stuff You Should Know, Podcast by iHeartRadio
- BrainPOP
- Duolingo
- British Council’s Learn English website
The Internet has a wealth of information for students and teachers to tap on. Sometimes, it may be difficult to cut through the noise and to extract accurate and reliable information. Therefore, teachers can and should review and recommend educational resources from credible online sources to students.
If teachers are unable to find an online resource that matches the needs of their learning outcomes, teachers can create a video with HeyHi’s online whiteboard to supplement students’ learning. These videos may also help teachers and students from other classes and schools around the world.
If you are interested in giving HeyHi’s online whiteboard a try, please do not hesitate to request a demo or even experience the user interface for yourself!
HeyHi’s online whiteboard is available in browsers, Google Play Store, and the Apple App Store.