TREND OF 2020: HELPFULNESS

Leading classrooms with Explain Everything

Explain Everything brought home the best parts of in-person learning.

Explain Everything Whiteboard

Teach, record video or present

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From algebra lessons to parent-teacher conferences, even P.E., school largely happened on screens this year. And while video-chat and classroom-management apps provided the foundation for this extraordinary shift, the interactive digital whiteboard Explain Everything Whiteboard restored something essential: a sense of togetherness.

More than a useful tool for teaching multiplication or diagramming a sentence, this education-focused collaboration app founded in 2011 facilitates the accidental inspiration and lively back and forth that fuels those special moments in the classroom.

With Explain Everything, educators can share drawings, text, photos and video with the entire class in real time. The app lets them annotate a map, play a recording of a humpback whale song or a video of a lunar landing, map out the process of photosynthesis and type out ideas as students share them.

Explain Everything made it easy for teachers to create their own educational videos.

Beginner-friendly sketching tools let teachers who might not be artistically inclined create unique visual lessons. And a simple-to-use video editor makes it easy to create custom educational videos, complete with animation and voice-over narration.

The app also helps teachers work one to one with a student by setting up a private whiteboard to review a specific concept or recording custom video feedback on an assignment – more motivating than a gold star! It’s as close as it gets to sitting side by side.

Thanks to the thousands of schools that were already using the service, the app was able to extend its free trial for everyone until the end of the last school year. To help educators get the most out of the app for their students, the company organised free ongoing Q&A webinars during lockdown.

In 2020, Explain Everything helped make learning less about screens and kept the focus where it belonged – on the teachers behind them.

Best Of winners will receive a newly designed award, precision-milled from a recycled aluminium alloy with diamond-cut edges.

Best of 2020 winners