Corgi

Corgi is a cloud-based tool for creating collaborative digital graphic organizers. Teachers can select one of the available graphic organizer templates (Cause & Effect, Question Exploration, Comparison, or Claim, Evidence, Reasoning) and build it out to support their lesson. Corgi's graphic organizers can help teachers to create essential questions, define important terms, and provide multimodal instruction. Teachers can add instructions to each section, along with photos and videos. There are also accessible built-in options like a text reader, a dictionary, and an English-to-Spanish translation tool. Once teachers have completed the template, they can share the link with students or assign it through Google Classroom. 

Not only can students benefit from multimodal instruction, but they can express and organize their learning with the same tools. Providing multiple means of expression is one of the pillars of Universal Design for Learning (UDL), and Corgi puts this front and center by allowing students to upload or find pictures, video, or audio that will help them understand concepts and organize information in ways that support their learning profiles. 

Corgi integrates with Google products and behaves in much the same way that a Google document does. This means teachers can view graphic organizers and offer supportive feedback, and multiple students can collaborate on a single Corgi graphic organizer. Students can export their completed graphic organizer into Google Slides, although embedded media doesn't always appear in the export.

With enough experience using Corgi, students will develop their higher-order thinking skills. Currently, there is no way for teachers to create their own structured template; they must use one of the four mentioned above. Teachers limited by this could create their own digital graphic organizer in another tool, such as Google Slides, which could offer students similar support. The templates that are provided, as well as the sample lesson plans, lend themselves to science and social studies.