Best Tech-Creation Tools

Ideal, easy-to-use way to help kids learn basic animation

Bottom Line: This introduction to digital animation offers lots of opportunities for creativity for young students.

Create and edit sophisticated screencasts without breaking the bank

Bottom Line: This is the most flexible screencasting tool, but it requires patience -- and perhaps a subscription -- to unlock all of its possibilities.

Resource-rich video slideshow maker a gem for a variety of classrooms

Bottom Line: Easy-to-use free tool is a must-have for elementary classrooms; just keep an eye on sharing and privacy.

Versatile, easy-to-use moviemaker and photo editor yields great results

Bottom Line: High-quality moviemaker and photo editor has numerous uses for students' projects.

Design and present animated infographics and video with versatile site

Bottom Line: A great media creation tool that could be used all year long for everything from posters to videos, but teachers will need to make learning goals clear.

Create, present, and assess with effortless interactive screencasts

Bottom Line: This intuitive tool is excellent for recording and responding to screencasts of any length.

Screen-recording tool facilitates outside-of-the-box instruction

Bottom Line: This is an instructional tool that could reinvent classroom workflow, especially for classrooms in the Google ecosystem.

Create and edit high-quality screencasts and videos in record time

Bottom Line: This platform is full of features that blend video creation and screencasting, helping teachers expand and differentiate their lessons.

One-stop shop for creating and assigning beautiful video stories

Bottom Line: Set students up for storytelling success with quality content and tools in a safe environment.

Design interactive games and animations with creative online platform

Bottom Line: A great starting place for aspiring creators to design and share engaging content.

Create stylish slideshows and videos with simple, customizable features

Bottom Line: Slick videos and slideshows are easy to make, but it takes a little work to make it fit for classroom use.

Create and share videos with cool effects, tons of language options

Bottom Line: This slick video creation app is fun, empowering, and accessible in lots of languages, but be careful with sharing.

Create and share professional-looking videos from nearly any device

Bottom Line: It's an intuitive platform for video creation that also prepares students for more complex software.

Stellar collaboration tools, controls make Minecraft classroom-ready

Bottom Line: An excellent tool to engage students in learning, collaboration, and critical thinking is now more accessible than ever to teachers.

Storybook creation tool offers cool blend of ELA, art, and coding

Bottom Line: This is a great storytelling tool for younger kids that also offers an entry point into coding and computational thinking.

Creative sandbox opens the door to coding in any subject area

Bottom Line: Scratch draws students of all types into coding and lays a foundation for future learning.

Simple game-design app has endless creative potential

Bottom Line: Letting students design, play, improve, and share their own games opens up opportunities for learning potential in many subject areas.

Top-notch tool empowers kids to invent, build, and control wirelessly

Bottom Line: Easy-to-use, versatile electronic invention set that works wirelessly with your hand-held device.

Kids use block code and wireless blocks to program, design, and create

Bottom Line: With some perseverance, it's a great fit for PBL and STEAM, helping students learn programming skills and engineering concepts through invention.

Approachable and powerful coding curriculum with a lot of support

Bottom Line: Tynker empowers students of all ages and experience levels to create custom coding projects for a variety of platforms.

Create mobile apps with extensive help from start to finish

Bottom Line: Intuitive platform encourages students to engage in design thinking and coding with loads of support.

Middle school CS curriculum has stellar resources, room for creativity

Bottom Line: A high-quality introductory CS curriculum where students can be creative, collaborate with others, and express themselves, in the classroom or at home.

Engaging manga-themed quest to become a game designer

Bottom Line: Game design quests have everything students want but perhaps not everything teachers need.

Ambitious augmented-reality tool engages users, promotes coding skills

Bottom Line: This dynamic tool allows users to create and experience augmented-reality activities while learning 21st-century skills.

Fun and easy game design yields surprisingly complex creations

Bottom Line: With teacher support, a creative introduction to coding and game design.

Modify Minecraft with this fun, applied use of coding

Bottom Line: For students who already know and love Minecraft, this is a valuable way to hook students into coding.

Code-free game development tool helps kids program and publish

Bottom Line: It ups the sophistication of building block coding by connecting student work to major publishing platforms.

Complete game creation curriculum gives students real-world experience

Bottom Line: It's a slick, fun, and effective way to get students building games right away, with plenty of room for depth.

Teach a vast number of CS concepts with quality, depth, and choice

Bottom Line: Zulama will help any middle or high school implement a comprehensive computer science program.

Authentic AI-powered projects make kids' creations feel like magic

Bottom Line: It takes a topic that would be difficult to teach in any practical way and makes it accessible for the classroom.

Code games or fun displays with mini piece of hardware

Bottom Line: This versatile tool for learning how to program with blocks or text is a nice fit for STEM classes and clubs.

Build a working iOS or Android app, even without coding experience

Bottom Line: Fun, practical way to get kids programming, though teachers will need a clear plan to support them in the process.

One of the best creation tools available for aspiring game developers

Bottom Line: Great choice for a full unit or class on game design; fuels students game-making dreams.

Great interface, flexible publishing options make game-making a snap

Bottom Line: This engaging platform will empower budding game designers, but the price tag could be a deal-breaker for tight school budgets.

3D design and augmented reality merge in creative, interactive app

Bottom Line: A great fit for classroom or makerspace settings as long as students have clear direction and compatible devices.

Minecraft-like 3D modeling (and printing) made super easy for all ages

Bottom Line: This may be the fastest, cheapest route from idea to 3D printing out there, if you don't mind low-res, pixelated designs.

Amazingly simple yet powerful online CAD tool turns kids into makers

Bottom Line: Full-featured site and app make iterative 3D design accessible, social, and relevant.

Magical design tool extracts colors, patterns, and more from images

Bottom Line: The rare combo of "wow" factor and utility, this tool help students recognize and use the designed world around them.

Create professional-looking media with an abundant library of templates

Bottom Line: It's a treasure trove of well-designed templates and features that encourage creativity and collaboration, but expect some growing pains.

Top-notch photo editor helps perfect pics for creative projects

Bottom Line: This is a powerful, free creation tool from the industry leader in photo editing.

Create dynamic visual presentations on flexible storytelling platform

Bottom Line: A seamless transition from design to presentation makes Sway a great fit for presenting carefully curated content.

Make learning meaningful through 3D design

Bottom Line: SketchUp is a fantastic, subject-agnostic tool that does take time to learn but helps students gain truly useful, transferable skills.

Impressive creation tool for teens serious about art

Bottom Line: Gives students easy access to professional tools for creating digital art.

Create sleek media with cool templates, powerful features

Bottom Line: An easy-to-use tool for producing and sharing great visual content in the classroom.

Extremely powerful photo editor will equally delight pros, amateurs

Bottom Line: It successfully walks the fine line of photo-editing features, offering satisfying experiences for those making quick edits and those crafting perfect images.

Amazingly powerful audio workstation unleashes creativity

Bottom Line: There's exceptional functionality in this solid, all-inclusive audio workstation that's fantastic for high-quality, anytime, and anywhere audio recording and sharing.

Loop beats like a pro with stellar music-maker

Bottom Line: A stellar, approachable tool for constructing your very own digital beats and tracks.

Compose, perform, and practice with powerful music education tool

Bottom Line: This digital companion for in-person music study is an excellent tool for beginners and pros alike.

Social storytelling site helps kids create, publish storybooks

Bottom Line: A great fit for teachers looking to develop students' writing and digital citizenship skills through storybook creation.

Popular comics platform centers students' creativity

Bottom Line: Platform can motivate students to share subject knowledge in a way that blends art and literacy.

Build timelines, embed media with cool storytelling tool

Bottom Line: With a super-simple design and tons of flexible features, this is an appealing and intuitive way for teachers and students to organize and share class content.

Cool interactive story creator can both dazzle and baffle

Bottom Line: Twine is a fascinating tool to build interactive stories, but the "function first" interface means it'll take patience and time.

Podcasting app is super easy to use, if you can do it all in one take

Bottom Line: There are few easier ways to publish a podcast, but that ease of use comes at the cost of one-take creation and few tools for post-production.