One of the biggest challenges with traditional tech guides has been their tendency to become outdated almost immediately. As much as we all love a good teacher’s book, the ones focused on introducing tech tools can barely make it off the printing press before needing an update.

TESOL recognized both the need for a solid resource for language teachers and the fact that tech changes at lightning speed, which is why we worked to make the ELT Edtech Toolkit a dynamic digital guide that grows and adapts as technology evolves. While the content is just as robust and thorough as any book, because of its flexible nature, we can (and will!) update it whenever new tools emerge or existing ones change. This ensures you always have access to current, relevant information.

The ELT Edtech Toolkit makes discovering the perfect tool quick and easy.

You can search and filter based on nine different categories such as Assessment & Feedback, Skills Development, Productivity & Organization, and much more. Further, you can fine tune your search with all sorts of filters based on things like language skills, platforms, and price range. Whatever your parameters are, you’re sure to find a way to search for what you need!

Every tool in our toolkit comes with everything you need to hit the ground running:

• Clear explanations of what each tool does
• Quick-start guides to save you time
• Specific suggestions for implementation in your English language classroom
• Similar alternatives for each tool, recognizing that different teaching contexts have varying resources available
• Curated lists of additional resources for those who want to dive deeper

You’ll see that I put an emphasis on saving you money and time. I’ve avoided tools that make you request a demo and a meeting with a sales rep just to play with it. Teachers are too busy to listen to endless sales pitches, so although there may be some wonderful tools out there, if you can’t log in and start exploring by yourself, it didn’t make the cut.

The first question is always “Can this help teachers?” I approach this question with a creative mindset, so what helps one teacher may not help another. Still, I aim for tools that help in one of two places: the teacher’s desk and/or the classroom.

At the teacher’s desk, I keep an eye on tools that can help with productivity, lesson planning, grading, and even administrative work. If I find something that’s going to save you from getting buried under emails, letting you reallocate that time to helping students, I want to share it with you.

In the classroom, I’m sharing tools that you can either use directly when running lessons, or those that you can share with your students to help them build their language skills on their own. Some of these tools are specifically built to support language skills like pronunciation or reading, and others can be slightly adjusted from their original intention with a little creativity.

Pricing is a sensitive topic, and each person has different reactions to various prices. Personally, I am a big believer in paying for services that provide value, and I have no problem with paying for something that will save me hours at my desk or provide expertise in areas that I don’t have time to learn about. Where possible, I’ve tried to focus on tools that have good value and are generous with teachers and students.

There are a number of excellent tools that I considered including, but that were ultimately cut because the free versions are overly restrictive and barely allow users to explore the tools before they have to commit to handing over their wallet.

Other tools were not featured because they have made it exceedingly difficult to understand what the value of the paid version is compared to the free version. Sometimes, I’ve included these options in the Similar Tools sections. Other times, even though one of these tools might be really great, it didn’t make the cut because it hasn’t proven itself to be teacher friendly.

For paid services, pricing notes are generally for individual teachers. Premium upgrades often have different pricing models depending on things like access to features, how many students will be using the service, and so on. When marking a tool as Freemium (a tool with a free version and then options to upgrade) and including the upgrade price, I generally chose the option that makes sense for an individual teacher. Please keep in mind that your needs may vary, so the price I indicated may not match exactly, or the pricing models may have been updated from the company’s side.

Finally, what good is a tool if it can’t be used relatively quickly? Every tool includes a quick Getting Started guide, which is meant to launch you into the first steps within a couple of minutes. Some are super simple and don’t require much to get going, but of course there are plenty of edtech tools that have a large learning curve and so many robust features that you could probably earn a PhD in the time it takes to master every aspect. In these cases, I opted to share one approach to getting started, leaving it to you to explore and decide what more you want to do with it. 

In addition to the getting started guide, I’ve included some ideas on how to use the tools in other creative ways. The Diving Deeper section offers insights into extra features or twists on traditional approaches to using the tool.

I also recognize that not every tool will work for every teacher. If you work for a private school that isn’t recognized by Canva to give you a free account, perhaps your school already pays for Adobe accounts, giving you access to Adobe Express. Very few tools are the only ones that do what you need, so I tried to give a few options should one suit your needs better than another.

Last, many edtech tools have wonderful communities of teachers who want to spread the word about how they’re using different features in their classrooms. Other companies have built out their own useful tutorials, videos, and even training courses to get you up to speed. Still others have been discussed around the TESOL website, or maybe I’ve featured them on the DIESOL podcast. If I was able to find extra resources that can help, I’ve included them.

I’ve built this toolkit to benefit you and the TESOL community. At the end of the day, we all work together to make learning easier for our students. If you think I missed something, or happen to catch that a link or a service has changed before I notice it, let me know! At the bottom of each resource, there’s a Feedback button where you can let me know what’s going on. Let’s be real—no one person can stay on top of everything, but we get by with a little help from our friends. Just like we tell our students: Sharing is caring!