Explore practical strategies for differentiating instruction with tech tools in 1:1 classrooms. Learn how Trafera supports educators with professional development and resources.
In today’s 1:1 classrooms, where every student has access to a device, differentiating instruction has never been easier to achieve. By identifying what the students each need, providing them with the content in the way they learn best, and also including options for alternative assessments, technology can help the educator easily adjust lessons and methodologies to ensure each student acquires the content knowledge being taught.
Differentiating Instruction with the TECH Model
When teachers develop technology-based strategies for differentiation, it’s helpful to have a model to guide their planning. My favorite is Jen Roberts’ TECH Model. It’s practical, attainable, and offers a helpful framework that makes conversations with administrators (and students!) easier after a lesson or classroom observation.
Here’s a quick breakdown of the TECH Model:
- Traditional: The teacher designs the task using traditional pedagogy, with some technology support.
- Enhanced: The teacher integrates multiple tech tools to enhance the learning experience.
- Choice: The teacher sets broad goals and gives students choices for how they demonstrate learning, offering a range of tools and tasks.
- Handoff: Students take the lead, driving their learning experience with guidance from the teacher. They have flexible choices in tools and technologies to create authentic, high-quality products.
I’ve found this model makes it easier to differentiate instruction with technology, especially when the goal is to give students more ownership of their learning. It’s a helpful way to think about moving from more teacher-led activities to student-driven projects over time.
Differentiating Through Student Products
In a blog post from the Resilient Educator site, Cathy Weselby curates pedagogical and practical information from experts in the field of differentiation of instruction. She outlines Carol Tomlinson’s widely recognized “Four Ways to Differentiate Instruction,” which include the categories of Content, Process, Product, and Learning Environment.
Of these, I’m particularly passionate about focusing on products. Educators can use the TECH Model to guide students in creating personalized, creative demonstrations of their knowledge, helping them showcase their learning in ways that align with their strengths and interests.
Weselby states:
“The product is what the student creates at the end of the lesson to demonstrate the mastery of the content. This can be in the form of tests, projects, reports, or other activities. You could assign students to complete activities that show mastery of an educational concept in a way the student prefers, based on learning style.”
On the Iris Center site, a site dealing with assistive technologies from Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College, they provide another overview of a product when considering to differentiate instruction.
When teachers differentiate instruction and products, they assess the same concept or skill for each student at the end of a unit of study; however, teachers offer their students a variety of ways to demonstrate their knowledge. When doing so, the teacher strives to:
- Make the product assignment challenging but not so difficult or complex that the students are unable to complete it on their own
- Provide clear directions
- Create a task that reflects real-world application
By embracing these principles, educators can create meaningful opportunities for students to engage with the material in personalized ways.
Online Tools to Support Student Products
Technology expands what’s possible in the classroom by offering versatile suites of tools and specialized applications. Educators often choose between two approaches:
- Use a core “suite” of tools that students learn deeply and use consistently.
- Encourage students to explore single-purpose tools to find the best fit for their project needs.
Tools That Can Be Used for Many Products
One of the most versatile suites of online tools is Adobe Express for Education (formerly Adobe Spark). This suite includes three product-creation tools—Adobe Express Video, Adobe Express Post, and Adobe Express Page—that are available at no cost for school districts or individual classrooms. And, in addition to being a useful set of tools for students to use, the Adobe Express tools also work within Google Drive, Google Classroom, Flipgrid, Microsoft Teams, and OneNote.
Adobe Express Video
Adobe Express Video allows students to create animated videos with photos, video clips, and narration. They can add soundtracks, transitions, and voiceovers, making it easy to produce polished, engaging video presentations. Students work one slide at a time, which makes re-recording sections simple if they need to revise.
Some ways students can use Adobe Express Video:
- Book trailers
- Digital stories
- Oral presentations
- Reflections
- Advocacy videos
- Oral history projects
- Field trip reflections
- Video lab reports
- Goal setting videos
- Animated explainers
- Documentaries
Students of all ages can create videos with Adobe Express Video. Younger students may need some support from the teacher, though. Here is an example of a student project created with Adobe Express Video:
Adobe Express Post
Adobe Express Post helps students design professional-quality graphics. They can upload images or use ones provided in the platform, then add text, icons, and backgrounds. It's simple enough for quick classroom activities but robust enough for detailed projects.
Some ideas for using Adobe Express Post:
- Six-word stories
- Motivational posters
- Unit summaries
- Annotated images
- Classroom memes
- Infographics
Here’s some examples of using Adobe Express Post:
Here is a simple Spark Post I created using the image assets in Adobe Spark.
Another sample of a student product created with Adobe Spark Post. | Oh! The Places You’ll Go!: Created by Claudio Zavala
Adobe Express Page
Adobe Express Page makes it easy to build simple web pages that integrate text, images, and videos. Students can create presentations, reports, or digital portfolios that are visually engaging and easy to share.
Some uses for Adobe Express Page:
- Essays
- Book reports
- Online stories
- Digital portfolios
- Travelogues
- Instructional guides
- Business pitches
- Photo essays
- Coding project overviews
Here are some great student examples of products created with Adobe Express Page:
A student project created with Adobe Spark Page, titled "The Colorado River."
A student project created with Adobe Spark Page, titled "Gardens by the Bay."
A student project created with Adobe Spark Page, titled "The Supreme Court."
A student project created with Adobe Spark Page titled, "Graffiti and Street Art."
Specific Tools That Can Be Used Alone Or With Online Tools
There are many online tools that serve a single, specific purpose. When students are selecting which tools to use to create their products, it’s important they first consider their audience. From there, they can decide which tool—or combination of tools—will best showcase their content and learning. In many cases, students may use several single-purpose tools to bring together their final product.
Back in 2008, Andrew Churches developed Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy, an update to the Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy by Anderson and Krathwohl (2001). Churches applied this revised framework to learning activities using technology, and it’s still a helpful guide today. At the Creating level of Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy, students are encouraged to generate new ideas, create new products, and develop innovative ways to show their learning.
In the graphic below, you can see some of the key action verbs that represent tasks at the “Creating” level—things like designing, animating, planning, and composing. These verbs can serve as a guide when students are deciding how they want to demonstrate their understanding or mastery of a concept.
With these actions in mind, here are some suggestions for online tools that support different types of student-created products. These tools can be used on their own or in combination with other platforms, depending on what the student wants to accomplish.
Online Video Creation Tools
Best for: Assembling, Explaining, Summarizing, Synthesizing, Telling
These tools help students create videos to explain concepts, tell stories, or present projects in a dynamic and engaging way.
Online Screen Recording Tools
Best for: Explaining, Formulating, Summarizing, Telling
Great for tutorials, demonstrations, and capturing step-by-step processes students can explain in their own words.
Online Mind Mapping Tools
Best for: Planning, Designing, Rearranging, Reorganizing
Helpful for brainstorming, organizing ideas, and visualizing complex topics or workflows.
Online Animation Tools
Best for: Animating, Explaining
Perfect for students who want to bring concepts to life with animated sequences or explainer videos.
Podcasting Tools
Best for: Explaining, Summarizing, Telling
Let students create audio narratives, interviews, or reflections that showcase their learning through spoken word.
Online Infographic Tools
Best for: Arranging, Explaining, Summarizing
Help students convey data and concepts visually, turning complex information into easy-to-understand graphics.
Online Word Cloud Tools
Best for: Synthesizing, Relating
Simple tools for capturing key terms, ideas, and concepts in a visually impactful format.
Online Publishing Tools
Best for: Explaining, Formulating, Relating, Summarizing, Synthesizing, Telling, Writing
Let students share their work as articles, blog posts, or e-books—ideal for showcasing research, creative writing, or reflective pieces.
Online Ebook Tools
Best for: Explaining, Relating, Summarizing, Synthesizing, Telling, Writing
Give students the option to create longer, more in-depth works—like digital storybooks, how-to guides, or research compilations.
Online Audio Editing Tools
Best for: Explaining, Relating, Summarizing, Telling, Writing
Useful for polishing podcasts or creating audio projects that support storytelling or narration.
Online Image Editing Tools
Best for: Combining, Designing, Explaining, Planning, Preparing
Allow students to enhance visuals for use in presentations, infographics, reports, or digital portfolios.
Online Presenting Tools
Best for: Animating, Arranging, Assembling, Categorizing, Combining, Composing, Constructing, Designing, Devising, Explaining, Formulating, Generating, Inventing, Planning, Preparing, Rearranging, Reconstructing, Relating, Reorganizing, Revising, Summarizing, Synthesizing, Telling, Writing
These tools bring it all together—whether students are creating a live presentation, recording a narrated slide deck, or building an interactive project to share with others.
→ For even more tool suggestions and categories, check out Kathy Schrock’s Guide to Everything. It’s a fantastic starting point for exploring tools to support student-created products.
Ready to Bring Differentiated Instruction to Life?
Trafera offers professional development designed to help educators use technology to support every learner. If you’re ready to take the next step in differentiating instruction with tools and strategies that make an impact, we’re here to partner with you.
About the Author: Kathy Schrock
Kathy Schrock has been a school district Director of Technology, an instructional technology specialist, and a middle school, academic, museum, and public library librarian. She is currently an online adjunct graduate-level professor for Wilkes University (PA) and an independent educational technologist.
She has been involved with technology to support teaching and learning since the early 1990’s, and is an Adobe Education Leader, a Google Certified Innovator, an Amazon Teacher Innovator, an Apple Teacher 2016, a ThingLink Certified Educator, a MakerBot Curriculum Creator, and a Discovery Education Guru.
In 1995, Kathy created the award-winning site, Kathy Schrock’s Guide for Educators, to help teachers easily wade through the many resources on the Web. In 1999, she partnered with Discovery Education and maintained the site until late 2012 when the site was retired. Kathy’s current online resources may be found on her blog.
In addition to teaching online, Kathy writes, speaks, blogs, tweets, and conducts professional development workshops, presentations, and keynotes both nationally and internationally. She is known for her practical presentations dealing with pedagogically-sound practices for the embedding of technology seamlessly into teaching and learning. Kathy’s passions are online tools to support classroom instruction, the role of emerging technologies in the classroom, infographics, tablets in the classroom, assessment and rubrics, copyright and intellectual property, and gadgets of any type! You can find her on Twitter (@kathyschrock), LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Bluesky.
