Educational and teaching products are the focus of this portion of our web directory.
Throughout history, educators have relied on various tools to enhance teaching and engage students.
Invented by Christiaan Huygens in 1659, the Magic Lantern was an ancestor of the slide projector. It projected glass slides using light from oil lamps or candles. In the classroom, it was used to display detailed anatomical illustrations in education.
Chalkboards (blackboards) and individual slates were common teaching aids in the 19th century. James Pillans created the first front-of-class chalkboard to teach geography with large maps. Before this, teachers used smaller wooden or slate pieces. Teachers wrote lessons on the board, and students practiced writing on their slates.
The modern pencil was invented by Nicolas-Jacques Conté. The pencil revolutionized classrooms when they were mass-produced in the 1900s. Ballpoint pens were invented by John L. Loud in 1888, while László Bíró developed the first quick-drying ink version.
Introduced in the mid-20th century, overhead projectors allowed teachers to display transparencies and diagrams to the entire class. Filmstrips were used for visual storytelling, accompanied by synchronized audio. Projectors were used to display these filmstrips in classrooms.
Later, calculators and computers revolutionized math education, and basic programming languages, like LOGO, introduced students to coding.
Traditional educational tools include pencils, chalkboards, and textbooks, which have been foundational for centuries. While these tools may still be in use in recent years, they have been largely supplanted by computers, tablets, and interactive whiteboards, facilitating personalized learning and engagement. Other important tools include STEM kits and manipulatives, providing hands-on materials for learning science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Many of these tools are designed to facilitate personalized learning and engagement.
Textbooks, workbooks, and handouts are still widely used alongside digital resources, such as e-books, online courses, and multimedia presentations.
Other educational technologies today include learning management systems, adaptive platforms, and academic applications designed to streamline administration and enhance student learning. Virtual and augmented reality provide immersive experiences for history, science, and other subjects, for which they can bring abstract concepts to life, taking students on virtual field trips or enhancing science lessons..
Platforms like Google Classroom, Canvas, and Moodle can streamline course management, assignments, and communication. Teachers create engaging multimedia presentations using tools like Microsoft PowerPoint, Google Slides, and Prezi. Interactive whiteboards combine traditional whiteboards with digital capabilities. With IWB, teachers can write, draw, and display multimedia content.
Mobile applications are available for most subjects and are particularly effective for math and language learning. Students can create videos, podcasts, and animations using tools like Animoto, Audacity, and Scratch.
As technology evolves, we can expect to see further advances in adaptive tools to tailor content to individual student needs, ensuring better engagement and understanding. Tools driven by artificial intelligence will be used to analyze student performance, provide feedback, and suggest personalized learning paths, while virtual and augmented reality will become more accessible, allowing students to explore historical events, scientific phenomena, and distant places.
Appropriate topics for this part of our web guide include products and materials designed to be used in the classroom, at home, or elsewhere. Whether intended for use by teachers or students, these products may be listed here.
Categories
@Educational ToysEssays & Reports |
Recommended Resources
On this site, JourneyEd has offered a wide selection of educational technology products since 1990, sorted into categories for software, hardware, IT network solutions, and brand. The company can assist with everything from gathering requirements, defining specifications, negotiating contracts, fulfillment, billing, and upgrading. Company account manager contacts can be found through an interactive map of the United States. Quotes may be requested online.
https://www.academicsuperstore.com/
Specializing in supplying schools and teachers with educational materials, Discount School Supply also carries products of interest to parents of children of all ages. Its online product catalog allows shoppers to browse through several categories, such as outdoor learning, classroom technology, school supplies, arts and crafts, classroom furniture, STEM, educational toys, infants/toddlers, bundles, by age or grade, or today's deals. Customer service resources are also available.
https://www.discountschoolsupply.com/
Presented by Excelligence Learning Corporation, the website publishes reviews, profiles, and links to websites offering information, products, tools, and ideas for early childhood educators, directors, administrators, teachers, and parents. Although these sites may all be affiliated with Excelligence Learning Corporation, the company posting them and having them all in one place might still be helpful. Links to additional sites are listed at the bottom of the index page.
https://www.earlychildhood.com/
Excelligence Learning Corporation
Established in 2001, Excelligence develops, manufactures, and retails various educational products used by child care programs, preschools, and elementary schools, designed to impact childhood learning by empowering educators to make learning fun. Its Educational Solutions Division provides comprehensive supplies, furniture, and other early education products, while its Educational Content & Technology Division focuses on infant and pre-kindergarten curriculum.
https://www.excelligence.com/
Specializing in STEM skills, the company offers Gizmos (virtual math and science simulations for grades 3-12), Reflex (a system for mastering basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division for grades 2+), Frax (a game-based system for understanding fractions for grades 3+), and Science4Us (offering thousands of online and offline science activities for grade K-2). Its products, research, and resources are set forth, along with career opportunities and contacts.
https://www.explorelearning.com/
In business for over twenty-five years, HST products have been developed by teachers, scientists, engineers, and homeschoolers with decades of science education experience. Although homeschooling is at the core of what HST does, its customers include classroom teachers, school district curriculum directors, at-home or distance learning programs, after-school programs, college professors, students, parents, and grandparents. Its online catalog is sorted by product.
https://www.homesciencetools.com/
Initially designed for reading education through phonetics, Hooked on Phonics is a commercial brand of educational materials that encompasses a wide variety of media, including books, computer games, music, videos, and flashcards, in addition to books in its materials, as well as to include other subject areas. Its target audience is individuals and home-schooling parents. A trial subscription is available for one dollar, and a full catalog of its products can be viewed.
https://www.hookedonphonics.com/
Klinger Educational Products was founded in 1955 by Dr. J. Klinger, a physics professor who designed and constructed his own apparatus and experiments to teach and inspire students in what he felt was the most important branch of science—physics. Headquartered in Roslyn Heights, New York, the company features an online product catalog, clearance items, and catalogs and manuals in PDF format. Contacts, an information blog, and videos are also available.
https://klingereducational.com/
Lakeshore Learning Materials is a chain of educational supply stores based in Carson, California. The company employs more than 2,000 people and has more than 60 stores in 29 states. Lakeshore is a retail and online supplier of educational materials to teachers. On its online store, shoppers can browse by age, furniture, learning materials, play, arts and crafts, and teaching supplies, as well as through featured and sale categories. Its rewards program is included.
https://www.lakeshorelearning.com/
Operated by LeapFrog Enterprises, the educational and electronics company is based in Emeryville, California, where it designs, develops, and markets technology-based learning products and related content for the education of infants through the grade school years. An introduction to the company is provided, along with a product catalog and app center, and an introduction to LeapFrog Academy, an interactive learning program with thousands of games and activities for 3-6-year-old children.
https://www.leapfrog.com/
Longo has been planning, building, and renovating laboratory facilities across the United States for more than a half-century. Founded in 1964 as a laboratory furniture provider for the educational market, the company has grown to become a major laboratory design consultancy. Its product catalog features descriptions, features, finishes, and other details for its commercial, educational, and quick-ship products. The company's address, phone numbers, and an email address are posted.
http://www.longolabs.com/
Headquartered in Tonawanda, New York, the company was founded in 1942 as Edmund Salvage Company. Edmund Scientifics began as a monthly newsletter for its customers. The company began developing optics products, including an affordable telescope and a lens used to record the Apollo landings. Renamed Edmund Scientifics, the optics company was a source for unusual science activities, toys, gifts, and demonstrations, and its products are available through its online catalog.
https://www.scientificsonline.com/
Showboard specializes in manufacturing science fair project display boards, header boards, titles, and other science fair products, including ribbons, medals, buttons, wristbands, dog tags and pins, project folders, and certificates. Showboard has the experience and resources to fill large orders, and its product lines are designed to meet state and national science fair exhibit standards. Over 98% of orders are shipped the same or the next day for quick delivery.
https://showboard.com/
Long before STEM, STEAM, and STREAM became a thing in education, the product development team at Steve Spangler Science was creating products that integrated multiple disciplines into the learning experience, the idea being for students to use their writing skills to record their observations and express their ideas, to use technology to make new discoveries, and to be motivated by design challenges that push the limits. Science kits, STEM, experiments, and clearance items are featured.
https://www.stevespanglerscience.com/
Founded in 1999 on the idea that reading and writing skills are the foundation on which every child's educational success is built. The company uses its long-time affiliations with respected educational supply wholesalers to bring what they consider to be the best of the best. General educational products, teacher resources, active play items, arts and crafts, audio-visual equipment, bulletin board sets, charts, children's books, creative play, and other items are available.
https://www.teachchildren.com/
Teachers Paradise offers teacher supplies, worksheets, and educational applications. They carry a collection of over 35,000 teacher supplies for grades pre-kindergarten to the twelfth grade, including classroom decorations, student incentives, teaching aids, and school supplies, like name plates, file folders, summer bridge activity worksheets, and themed supplies featuring TV, movie, and cartoon characters. Product categories and brands are featured on its site.
https://www.teachersparadise.com/
