{"id":44181,"date":"2020-09-28T16:07:33","date_gmt":"2020-09-28T16:07:33","guid":{"rendered":"\/us\/en\/blog\/?p=44181"},"modified":"2025-06-27T00:31:32","modified_gmt":"2025-06-27T07:31:32","slug":"online-teaching-tools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/us\/en\/blog\/online-teaching-tools\/","title":{"rendered":"What are the 10 best online education tools?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the last six months, the role teachers play has changed. There\u2019s a new approach to how students learn that extends well beyond the four walls of a classroom. It\u2019s no longer standard to hold discussions in front of a row of desks. Instead, in a new virtual setting, it\u2019s not possible or even practical to create the same kinds of one-sided exchange.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Messages bounce back and forth in a virtual classroom<\/a>, and the same types of controls you set in a physical space are unconstrained when gone virtual. Challenges aside, interactivity and collaboration opportunities are plentiful. These new dimensions of learning beg for new types of digital tools to facilitate education<\/a> and drive student engagement.<\/span><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s face it, as a teacher, your role isn\u2019t limited to providing attention just to your students. Outside of classroom management, connecting with parents or collaborating with other teachers and administration is also a big part of your daily routine. Having the right online tools to help improve your experience in each of these areas will not only be beneficial for you, but also for those you work with every day.<\/span><\/p>\n

With so many options out there, how do you know what to use?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s why in this article, we\u2019ll go over 10 online tools geared towards 10 unique situations for the K-12 level that you could benefit from as a teacher to improve connections with students, peers, parents, and administration. The ability to stay in communication with your community members is integral to any teaching environment, and at RingCentral, we get that.<\/span><\/p>\n

In this post, we’ll look at different types of online teaching tools for 10 different scenarios that teachers might find themselves in:<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. For teachers who want to stay accessible and responsive to students, parents, and faculty members<\/a><\/li>\n
  2. For teachers looking for a learning management system that can be a hub for all other online educational tools in use<\/a><\/li>\n
  3. For teachers who want to create beautiful, easy-to-follow online learning courses<\/a><\/li>\n
  4. For teachers who want to get immediate feedback on their students\u2019 knowledge<\/a><\/li>\n
  5. For teachers who want to encourage social-emotional development<\/a><\/li>\n
  6. For teachers who want to gamify the classroom experience and promote teamwork<\/a><\/li>\n
  7. For teachers who want to empower their students to read more and grow their vocabulary<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n
  8. For teachers who want to create quick and easy whiteboard videos<\/a><\/li>\n
  9. For teachers who want to make it easier for students to learn a new language<\/a><\/li>\n
  10. For teachers who want to personalize learning math for their students<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The 10 best online tools educators need for 10 different scenarios<\/span><\/h2>\n

    <\/a>
    \n1. <\/span>    RingCentral<\/span><\/a>: For teachers who want to stay accessible and responsive to students, parents, and faculty members<\/span><\/h3>\n

    \u201cDuring our legacy phone days, we primarily communicated with parents by email, but those parents clearly wanted other ways of contacting us. Thanks to the RingCentral app, our teachers can now communicate with parents from their own mobile phones, whether by phone call or even text message, using their school phone numbers.\u201d<\/span><\/i>
    \n<\/span><\/i>
    \n<\/span><\/i>Teaching is more than just providing direct lessons to students. Sure, grading and assessments are a big part of the job, but when you zoom out of that, it\u2019s the teachers job to lay an inspiring foundation of curiosity in academics\u00a0 and engage them to make an impact in their local community. Working with faculty to create events and extracurricular programs or communicating regularly with parents to develop the best targeted approach for unique situations is all part of the role.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Having one place to manage all those exchanges is vital to your productivity, and allows you to keep track of all the various communications happening in and out of the classroom.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Enter RingCentral. <\/span>
    \n<\/span>
    \n<\/span>RingCentral is an encrypted communications platform with bottomless storage that allows you to share secure information. With RingCentral, you can use a dedicated school phone number that\u2019s separate from your personal number to make calls using your desktop, laptop, iPhone, Android, or iPad. This means that without sacrificing your privacy, you can still be reliable and flexible when reaching out to your learning community while keeping your personal life, well… personal.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    More than just a phone, RingCentral is also a video conferencing<\/a> software (that can be used to tutor individuals or teach a virtual class through<\/a>), a messaging system that allows you to share documents (like homework and assignments), as well as a messaging platform (to make announcements to a network of parents at once). It also has integrations with tools teachers use every day like Google, Microsoft, and Canvas<\/a>:<\/span><\/p>\n

    \"canvas<\/a><\/p>\n

    Plus, busy parents often don\u2019t have the time to communicate through just email. That’s why having the option to connect by shooting a quick text or dropping a brief instant message just makes sense. It\u2019s how we all communicate these days, so why not allow that same flexibility in school?<\/span><\/p>\n

    \"instant<\/p>\n

    Set up students on RingCentral to allow them to form study and project groups to collaborate with one another. Giving them the space to cooperate and work towards a shared goal, as well as help their peers along the way helps to foster a sense of community that a virtual classroom on its own doesn\u2019t provide.<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n

    \ud83d\udd79\ufe0f<\/span> Get a hands-on look at how teachers and schools are using RingCentral by booking a product tour:<\/p>\n