Essential ICT Tools for Interactive Learning in 2023

In the new age of technology, children need more mental stimulation than before, especially in ICT. The use of technology in education has grown. There are many tools, physical and online, that can be used to do so. From laptops to websites, interactive ICT tools for teaching are growing by the year at an expansive rate, and for good reason. ICT is necessary for a child’s education. No matter your opinion on technology, it is a class that allows students to be engaged and enhances their interaction. Unlike other lessons, ICT is accessible at all times, depending on the student’s availability and resources, hence why most young people now have phones and laptops.

Technology is constantly changing. Sites and models mentioned below have a job to keep up with the times and changes. Teaching our students to learn how to use these things helps them adapt as individuals to the ever-growing technology used for everything nowadays. Aside from that, the ICT tools for teaching benefit not just the students, but also you, the teachers. These tools are sure to cut down your paperwork and workload, making your job easier and more efficient. The application of ICT in education is therefore more important than ever, so we’ve decided to gather some of the essential ICT tools for interactive learning in your classroom that will keep your students as engaged as possible.

Acer Laptops

Starting with arguably the most essential ICT tool of all; a laptop. Specifically, an Acer Laptop. There are multiple models and versions of these available for around 40,000 on IndiaMart, making it very accessible and affordable. Laptops, in general, are an everyday item of use for most people these days and children will need to adapt to this for environments such as university or work, where they are a necessity.

On IndiaMart there are leading suppliers of Acer laptops as well as some models for half the price mentioned before. In addition, if you have any concerns the distributors have great customer service. But why is a laptop necessary in ICT for a student? For starters, it’s almost impossible to lose compared to a piece of paper or book where they would make notes. If your students aspire to share their notes or have group projects, a laptop makes it much easier to do. Accessing videos, links, and images the teacher needs them to access will also be ten times easier.

Allowing your students to learn about technology will further their knowledge and curiosity towards ICT. In the process, they also learn how to be self-sufficient and gain skills they will need in the future that employers, for example, will find necessary and significant for those applying to their roles. Other models that are equally as good and accessible on IndiaMart are Dell, Hp, NXI,

Microsoft, ASUS, and Lenovo. It’s best to evaluate which of these is going to be the right decision for your students, or which you can advise them to get themselves if possible.

Blackboards

In one of our recent blog posts, we made a list of interactive blackboards that would be fantastic for your classrooms. After reading this blog post, we suggest going to it and reading the list to find your best personal fit. If you haven’t read that blog post, why is a blackboard necessary?

Not all students learn the same way, some are only able to maintain knowledge visually, which is where the blackboard comes in. It can communicate with students in such a quiet and simple way. Adding on to our previous point, it aids students in getting acquainted with technology and the skills they need to acquire. The visual aspect of blackboards helps

Blackboards and whiteboards, digital or not, are essential for ICT as it allows access to all the sites, links and information they’re going to need for the class, including the ones we have listed next.

Trello

According to Trello, their ‘learning templates help students stay on top of their assignments or work together to organise and deliver on group projects’. Although there are many sites out there that allow students to organise things, Trello is one of the easiest to navigate and is visually more appealing to students of a young age. This site is also commonly used amongst teams and those working together, meaning that if it comes to it, they will already have the skills necessary to use it.

Not only is Trello a good organising tool, but it also has features to help students with revising and homework management with elements like files, checklists and even automation. With colour coordination, personalisation and more, Trello is ideal for students learning how to be organised and navigate their classes, like ICT.

However, if Trello isn’t working for you, here is a short list of alternative sites that seem to be crowd favourite alternatives and are all free; Asana, Proofhub, JIRA, Airtable, Avaza, ClickUp, MavenLink, Dapulse, Basecamp, Active Collab, Taiga, Wrike, Workzone, and finally, Teamwork. All of these sites have a similar focal point and usage but differ in their ways of course. It will be worth trying them all and seeing which you best adapt to or believe your students will fit best with.

Google Classroom

A site both beneficial for students and teachers, in and outside of the classroom, is Google Classroom. Google Classroom allows you to share work, homework, and lessons, and manage or organise more but also allows students and teachers to communicate, submit work, keep files they need throughout the academic year, and collaborate on assignments. Similar to Trello, this site gives students exposure to working online with the knowledge they’ll find they will need in the future.

Although some people may prefer the traditional way, using a site like Google Classroom is beneficial for another reason; it’s sustainable, meaning it saves paper and won’t let anything go to waste, including time. Students need to learn how to balance all aspects of their life from home to school so that in the future doing this is less overwhelming. By saving time with Google Classroom, this becomes an easy attribute. Finally, a reason we wanted to suggest Google Classroom to you is its feedback feature. Despite several sites slowly adapting this feature, it’s easy to say that Google Classrooms’ layout for feedback is by far the most convenient, obvious, and straightforward. ICT tools like this site used in the classroom are a gateway to ease a student’s future knowledge and skills.

Microsoft Teams

The pandemic was a time that forced both students and teachers to come together and virtually proceed with their classes. In a singular call, it’s possible for teachers to share slides, links, videos, and images, and put students into groups. Unlike our other sites listed here for ICT use in classrooms, this one encourages supercharged communication and productivity and allows teachers to show students how to use certain apps, sites, and more.

Microsoft Teams makes it hard for students to feel or be singled out, therefore including all students equally and forcing them to be beneficially involved. It is a trustworthy tool that has sincere reviews, is all positive, and works with all hardware and software, so no one can be left behind. In comparison to our other suggestions, Microsoft Teams may be the most complicated or rather has the most tools. For students, it can be a learning process, but the more they adapt to such sites, the more ease they’ll have with it in the future when they will need to be on calls, meetings, or host some themselves.

A great aspect of ICT is that it’s also immediately adapted to children with special needs. Whether they need voice assistance, things to be verbally explained and described, or a lesson plan personalised to them, everything in this list can do so. Low-income students also wildly benefit as loans are common in most countries to aid them in having the right up-to-date technologies and software to ensure they can learn exactly what everyone else is learning.

There are also subject-specific sites that can be helpful for students. For geography, google maps and google earth. For most subjects, Microsoft Powerpoint and Youtube. For mathematics, CanFigureIt

Geometry and CueThink. For English, Grammarly is a site that not only enhances your students’ grammar and spoken language but also is a tool good for essays, assignments and more. It is free but also has a premium paid version that is accessible. A site that’s specific to organisation and productivity that can be used for time management, homework management, and more, is Notion –however, this site is slightly more complex than the others and may be best for older students. So, what do you think of our suggestions? Are they the ones you’ve used before? If you have, or will, then let us know how you get along with them!