Free platforms

Canva 

An amazing tool packed with templates for non-designers to create graphics, presentations, flyers and more.  Both you and your students can find a myriad of uses for this eye-catching technology.  It is free to use, though they do also have a paid option with additional features.

Adobe Spark

It’s easy to make science fair posters, social studies infographics, math flashcards, and so much more with Spark Post. Pick a template or start from scratch.  You can also create web pages and videos.  U.S. teachers with a G Suite for Education (Google) account and supported email domain can set up a Spark classroom account for free, as can licensed educational institutions and nonprofit educational organizations providing school- or district-wide access.  

GIMP 

This is a completely free photo manipulation program similar to Adobe Photoshop.  It is definitely not a plug and play technology, but if you’re looking to get some serious work done with older students this is a great option and there are tutorial videos available.

Blender

Blender is the free and open source 3D creation suite. It supports 3D modeling, rigging, animation, simulation, rendering, compositing and motion tracking, video editing and 2D animation pipeline.  It is another tool that has a pretty steep learning curve, but you can get a lot done with it!

SketchUp 

3D modeling software, free with a G Suite or Microsoft education account.  This one is usable as early as the primary grades, and has a great bank of curriculum to get you and your class inspired.

Vectr, Gravit & Inkscape 

These platforms are all free, fully functional & fantastically rated design apps that specialize in creating vector graphics.

Piskel 

Piskel is a free online editor for animated sprites & pixel art.  You and your student can create animations in your browser or download free desktop & offline applications for Windows, OSX and Linux.  You can export your work as animated GIFs for sharing, spritesheet PNG/ZIP for bigger projects, and you can choose to make any of your sprites public or private.

WordArt.com

A free online word cloud art creator that enables you to easily create amazing and unique word cloud art with your students. 

Designsta

This is a monthly subscription, but I have been using it for nearly 3 years and it is FANTASTIC. Create amazing designs in minutes from easily editable templates. Choose from social media graphics, workbooks, worksheets, printables, planners, documents, web graphics, cards, posters, stickers, magazines, menus and more. 

ThingLink

An education technology platform that makes it easy to augment images, videos, and virtual tours with additional information and links. Teachers and students can use ThingLink to create accessible, visual learning experiences.  There are yearly subscription options for individual teachers or whole districts that allow course and assignment creation,  as well as enabling both you and your students to create content.  There is also a free plan for teachers to use, it just doesn’t include any student seats.

• Tens of thousands of free ebooks are available at websites like Project Gutenberg, free audio books at Open Culture, and even story books read aloud for younger students at Storyline Online.

• You can let even elementary kids read and interact with age-appropriate poetry at websites like Poetry4kids and the Academy of American Poets’s kids section.

• When you’re writing poetry with your class, an online Rhyming Dictionary , RhymeZone is super helpful to get students thinking with a broader vocabulary.

• Scholastic Story Starters or lists of prompts in articles such as this one will help your students think of things to write about in a variety of genres.

• For vocabulary practice (and more) there are many traditional dictionaries and thesauruses online, including ones like Learner's Dictionary that feature definitions worded in a way children can understand.  Vocabulary.com can make studying new definitions fun, and even revolutionize how you and your students treat vocabulary learning if you sign up for a teacher account.

• Khan Academy and HippoCampus have educational videos on a variety of subjects.  Your students can study independently, you can use content for your lessons or you can create playlists for your students to review.  Students can equip themselves with learning tools and flashcards to help them study for almost any topic with Quizlet, or try Grammaropolis for a 21st century Schoolhouse Rock.  

• BibMe will help your middle and high school students get their citations correct in APA, MLA and Chicago Style.  Meanwhile, Grammarly can help your students eliminate writing errors and find the perfect words to express themselves.

• Playing educational games using websites, apps or Chrome extensions is an extremely effective way to reinforce learning in an engaging way.  Even if you’re not quite ready to build them into your lesson plans, early finishers can be assigned a game on the topic you are studying as a meaningful reward while you help the stragglers complete their work.  Open up Google and type in “[subject] game for [grade level]“ to find something aligned to your unit (or you can check out our articles on some of the best free reading games out there).  Many sites such as Starfall will not only provide games, but also help your primary kiddos learn to read with interactive “books”.

• There are several creative platforms out there for contributing to online communities that create storybooks and illustrations, such as My Storybook and Storyboard That.  

• You can try video conferencing with an author or expert using a website like Nepris or the Digital Human Library.  Or if you already have a subject matter expert in your contacts, you can just use any video conferencing platform you like from Skype to Zoom or Google Meet.

• Classroom blogs are a great and versatile way to have students post their writing (stories, paragraphs, poetry, etc.), pictures of class projects, or even audio projects (read aloud practice, speech class ventures, etc.).  Many blogging platforms are designed to be very easy to use, like Blogger and Live Journal.  Edublogs was even made just for classroom and school library blogs. 

• Turn your next classroom discussion into a podcast.  You can post your podcast on your class website (or blog).  If you use Macintosh, you can just use the included GarageBand software for recording and postproduction.  If you use Windows, you might use the free software Audacity.  You can also do podcasts as weekly classroom news broadcasts, to document a field trip, share book reviews or review curricular content.

• The internet is also just a great place to find inspiration for lesson planning.  Get new ideas and resources to teach anything from writing haiku for kids to conjugating verbs by simply asking Google “how to teach [subject]”. 

• Smithsonian Open Access lets students can view art, history, culture and science pieces as well as participate in themed activities and games.  They also provide educator resources and digital tools through the Smithsonian Learning Lab and  Smithsonian's History Explorer.

• Google Arts and Culture lets your students explore and interact with art and architecture around the world, with new picks featured every day.  You can also take virtual tours at such prestigious museums as the Louvre and The National Gallery in London.

• Teachers can even lead their students into the realm of virtual reality with digital drawing (see Virtual Reality in the Classroom). VR programs let students draw a 360-degree world around themselves in real time using headsets and motion control hand sensors.

• Digital portfolios are an effective way for art teachers to see what their students are working on, and a place for students to organize their work without taking up any space. Teachers can even host virtual art galleries of their students’ work.

• Technology in the art studio is a great way to let your students experiment with different mediums. There are several apps which students can use to either create their art digitally or manipulate their traditionally made art.  A few favorites include Aviary, Paper 53, Doodle Art, Green Screen, KaleidaCam, PicsArt, and Procreate.

• Create art with graphic design platforms such as Adobe Spark, Canva, GIMP, Blender or Designsta.  

• Pear Deck or Kahoot help you make both learning and review into fast-paced fun.

• Khan Academy has educational videos on a variety of art history subjects.  Your students can study independently, you can use content for your lessons or you can create playlists for your students to review.  Students can equip themselves with learning tools and flashcards to help them study for almost any topic with Quizlet. 

• You can try video conferencing with an artist or expert using a website like Nepris or the Digital Human Library.  Or if you already have a subject matter expert in your contacts, you can just use any video conferencing platform you like from Skype to Zoom or Google Meet.

• Classroom blogs are a great and versatile way to have students post their writing, or showcase pictures of their work.  Many blogging platforms are designed to be very easy to use, like Blogger and Live Journal.  Edublogs was even made just for classroom and school library blogs. 

• Turn your next classroom discussion into a podcast.  You can post your podcast on your class website (or blog).  If you use Macintosh, you can just use the included GarageBand software for recording and postproduction.  If you use Windows, you might use the free software Audacity.  You can also do podcasts as weekly classroom news broadcasts, to document a field trip, share book reviews or review curricular content.

• The internet is also just a great place to find inspiration for lesson planning.  Get new ideas and resources to teach anything from pointillism in elementary school  to basic Photoshop by simply asking Google “how to teach [subject]”.