Free Resources to Help with Remote Learning in 2021 — THE Journal

Grants & Funding During the Pandemic

Free Resources to Help with Remote Learning in 2021

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 02/08/21

As the pandemic continues wreaking havoc in education through the current school year, districts, schools, teachers and parents are being more selective about the technology they choose for instructing and engaging students. While hundreds of education companies, nonprofits and other organizations made their software and services free during the immediate switch to remote learning, many have become more thoughtful about how they help educators master online and blended instruction. We’ve winnowed through our original collection and sprinkled additions throughout, to bring you this updated set of free resources to help with remote learning in 2021.

If your organization has a resource that should be added to this list, please send a brief message to [email protected] with “free resource” in the subject header and include a link to your offer webpage.

Abre.io has made Abre Hub available free to schools permanently. The program provides a single place to post news and announcements and give quick access to software tools. Sign-up is intended for district representatives. https://abre.io/free/

The Academy of Active Learning Arts and Sciences and the Flipped Learning Global Initiative have published the “Rapid Transition to Online Learning,” a roadmap for making the rapid shift to online learning during school closures. The resources include a checklist for administrators, another for IT managers, a transition plan and video tutorial for teachers and access to an international team of volunteers who have stepped forward to answer questions. http://aalasinternational.org/rtol/

Achieve3000 is offering free access to resources for differentiated literacy instruction. Educators and parents can sign their students up for Achieve3000 Literacy at Home, for access to non-fiction articles at three reading levels with topics covering science, social studies and current events. For students without reliable or daily internet, the company is offering “Literacy Printable Packets,” a set of text sets with 20 printable articles and questions for grades 1-12.

ACT Academy is offering hundreds of free videos, games, interactive exercises, assessments, lesson plans, homework assignments, audio files and other resources for personalized test practice for the ACT, Pre-ACT, Tessera and Aspire exams. https://academy.act.org/

ActivEd is offering free access to its “Walkabouts,” platform with web-based lessons for students in grades pre-K-2 students that integrate movement with language arts, math and reading content and correlate to state learning standards. Students, teachers, and parents can access grade-level content. http://info.activedinc.com/covid

AdGuard is offering a free personal account to its ad- and tracking-blocker program for three months, valid for three devices. The privacy protection software is available for Windows, MacOS, iOS and Android. https://adguard.com/en/blog/stayhome.html