What is a tool?

For our purpose, we can choose the following meanings from the dictionary (Merriam-Webster). A tool is

1. an instrument (as a hammer) used or worked by hand
2. an instrument or apparatus necessary in the practice of a vocation or profession

A tool helps us to perform a certain task more efficiently and faster than what could be achieved without it. Let this be our criterion for identifying technology tools in education.

Some of the tools required in education are

1. Teaching tools
2. Learning tools
3. Management tools
4. Evaluation tools
5. Communication tools

While the first four are tools teachers use with children or for managing school processes, the last one is useful for sharing ideas and forming a community (teachers community or teachers-students community). Whatever the purpose, an ICT tool must

1. be easy to work with
2. save time and hence money
3. achieve things that are otherwise impossible
4. achieve more with less inputs (enhance efficiency)

We will encounter lots of tools that can do all this and more in this course.