Top 40 ed-tech tools: How many are your classrooms using?

Google's digital learning platforms remain in the top 10, but others are gaining ground.

Google’s digital learning platforms remain immensely popular but other products are gaining ground on the top 40 ed-tech tools. Google’s Suite, Classroom and Slides remain in the top 10, with Suite leading the top 40 most used-tech tools as tracked by LearnPlatform, which researches the effectiveness of digital learning products.

With Google Suite incorporating Slides, Drive, Forms and Sheets—tools that previously dominated the top 10 slots on the list—other tools are climbing in the rankings. YouTube and Kahoot! moved into the top 3 on the latest list, which tracked ed-tech usage among 3.2 million teachers and students during the 2021-22 school year.

Not surprisingly, the overall use of ed-tech continued to grow rapidly this past school year. Teachers used 148 different ed-tech tools while students used 143, and districts are accessing an average of 1,400 tools per month. Tech usage numbers are approximately double what the company found in its mid-year 2021 report while overall district usage numbers held relatively steady.

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“These numbers should prompt district leaders to ask not just what ed-tech is being used in their schools or how often it’s getting used, but also whether it is safe, equitable and positively impacting learning,” said Karl Rectanus, CEO and Founder of LearnPlatform.

Classroom engagement and instruction platforms were the most popular types of tools, followed by supplemental platforms, and websites and their related resources.

Here is the top half of the top 40 most-used tools during the 2021-2022 school year:

  1. Google Suite
  2. YouTube
  3. Kahoot!
  4. Google Classroom
  5. Google Sites
  6. Clever
  7. Wikipedia
  8. Blooket
  9. Quizlet
  10. Quizizz
  11. CoolMath Games
  12. Canvas
  13. Encyclopedia Britannica
  14. Zoom
  15. Nearpod
  16. ABCya!
  17. NYTimes.com
  18. Prodigy
  19. Google Meet
  20. History.com

Many of the tools are holding onto a slot on each new version of the list. Seven new products joined this year, including Gimkit (27), Schoology (30), BrainPOP (#31), Grammarly (#34), Canva (37), PhET Interactive Math and Science Simulations (tied at 38), and Math Playground (40). The fastest rising product was Blooket, which debuted on the spring list and rose 28 spots to No. 8.

“With tech-enabled learning here to stay, understanding which tools are both effective and safe will not only improve teaching and learning but help budget decisions as districts face a fiscal cliff as stimulus dollars are spent, too,” Rectanus said.


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Matt Zalaznick
Matt Zalaznick
Matt Zalaznick is a life-long journalist. Prior to writing for District Administration he worked in daily news all over the country, from the NYC suburbs to the Rocky Mountains, Silicon Valley and the U.S. Virgin Islands. He's also in a band.

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