How educators are leveraging digital tools in today’s classrooms.

McKenna Ritz, an advanced placement psychology teacher at Springfield High School in Holland, Ohio, started using Google Classroom during the outbreak. She never looked back.

“Now I have the ability to… constantly connect with my students. I can upload the online tutorial to Google Slides. They were able to turn in their homework that way,” she said. “Technology has taken education to a new level.”

Inspired by the importance of remote communication and backed by America’s Rescue Plan, educational technology, or EdTech, has taken center stage in schools across the country with $122 billion in education funding.

Tech giants led the way with connectivity products like Zoom, CCCC Webex, Microsoft Teams and Google Classroom, all of which leveraged distance learning in the early days of the pandemic.

But it doesn’t stop there: applications like Quizlet (a web-based tool that provides flashcards and study aids), “smartboard” interactive displays, and learning systems like Canvas are changing the classroom.

“Teachers are now more tech-savvy than ever. They’ve had a lot of professional development around technology,” says Adam Gary, Dell’s senior director of education strategy. “The pandemic probably accelerates this more than anything else we’ve tried in education.

According to a survey of more than 32,000 schools by the Learning Council, designed to study the transition to a digital curriculum, 87 percent now provide students with personal computing devices. And 54 percent of educators surveyed feel technology is very important, according to Dunn & Bradstreet Marketing Division MDR.

Analysts predict that demand for edtech will continue to grow, with the market expected to grow from $254.8 billion in 2021 to $604.4 billion in 2027.

The rise of learning management systems (LMS) has been particularly influential. These systems give teachers the ability to plan and deliver educational content, monitor student participation in the work, and evaluate performance.

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“Teachers are using LMS to allow students to have a more personalized approach to the learning process,” says Gary.

In his classroom, says first-grade teacher Kirst McGraw in Montgomery, Ala., public schools, every student is given a Chromebook. McGraw uses Amira, an artificial intelligence (AI) tool to teach reading. Amira recommends stories, listens to children read aloud, assesses progress and provides supportive interventions.

“Kids this age are very hands-on. With Chromebooks, they’re clicking sounds, clicking words to get the meaning, instead of sitting there listening to me talk,” McGraw says.

“The technology gives them a chance to move around. They come to the smart board and write letters and sounds. It all helps them bond,” he said. “With AI, Amira helps them build comprehension and vocabulary, and gives me ways to track their progress.”

At Reitz School, all teachers use Google Classroom, which allows teachers to create assignments and grade students.

Thanks to technology, she says, “we are able to provide different resources to our students in different ways.” “From verbal to auditory, to kinesthetic and everything in between — and edtech helps us meet those diverse needs, we have students who learn in every way.”

This article originally appeared in USA Today: These digital classroom tools are shaping how teachers teach.