Category Archives: School Media Specialist

AASL Recommended Apps: Organization and Management: MeisterTask

Last summer, the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) announced their Best Apps for Teaching and Learning 2017. The apps encourage qualities such as creativity and collaboration, and encourage discovery and curiosity.

The app MeisterTask is a way to manage tasks and projects in a visual way that allows easy collaboration. Students and teachers can make project boards for group tasks, where the group members can see tasks in progress and also ones that have been finished. Members of the group are able to assign tasks, get notifications when tasks are finished or edited, and use widgets to see active tasks. Plus, if your school uses Chromebooks, you can use the Chrome extension to access your dashboard. In addition, “if a school has purchased the mind mapping tool MindMeister, maps can be exported directly into MeisterTask to create a connected project with task synchronization. MeisterTask is an intuitive tool to help streamline collaborative projects, keeping groups organized and on task.”

Level: Middle School +
Platform: iOS and Android
Cost: FREE

Looking for reviews of this app? Finances Online has this favorable review, and this post from GetApp includes testimonials from real-life users.  And if you are interested in using MindMeister in your classroom, here’s an article from the Focus blog that has some useful suggestions!

Watch this video to learn how to use MindMeister and MeisterTask!

AASL Recommended Apps: Content Creation: Bloxels

Last summer, the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) announced their Best Apps for Teaching and Learning 2017. The apps encourage qualities such as creativity and collaboration, and encourage discovery and curiosity.

The app Bloxels is “a hands-on platform for kids to build, collaborate, and tell stories through video game creation.” Their site proclaims “You don’t need to understand fancy code and own super expensive computer programs to make video games anymore. All it takes is your Bloxels Gameboard, some blocks and a mobile device and, of course, your imagination to take the guesswork out of building your own video games!”

Level: All
Platform: iOS and Android
Cost: FREE app, the Bloxels Gameboard is $34.99 (CMLE has one available to lend to our members! Contact us for more info!)

Orville wants to share his Bloxels with CMLE members!

Tech Age Kids has this pretty detailed review of the app that includes tips and a parent perspective. This article on the site Makerspace for Education breaks down the app with links to tutorials, lesson plans, and videos.

Watch this quick overview video of how the app works:

AASL Recommended Apps: Humanities and Arts: Google Arts and Culture

Last summer, the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) announced their Best Apps for Teaching and Learning 2017. The apps encourage qualities such as creativity and collaboration, and encourage discovery and curiosity.

The app Google Arts and Culture “offers a smorgasbord of art related topics for the “culturally curious”. From art stories to art exhibits, users can explore the world of art by reading the latest feature stories, or by going on a 3D tour of a museum.” You are able to zoom up close for a detailed look at artwork, browse the art by time period or color, or filter your search by artist or medium. To generate classroom discussion, use the “Experiments” feature.

Level: High School +
Platform iOS and Android
Cost: Free

School Library Journal has this review of the app that describes it as a “versatile tool that can be integrated into many classroom activities.” And Business Insider has a detailed description and how-to for the app that you can read here.

Watch a trailer of the app below:

AASL Recommended Apps: STEM: Cosmic Watch

Last summer, the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) announced their Best Apps for Teaching and Learning 2017. The apps encourage qualities such as creativity and collaboration, and encourage discovery and curiosity.

This app is a celestial watch based on a 3D model of the solar system as experienced from earth, and is a world and astronomical clock.
“It shows time as what it really is – our position and motion in the cosmos. Students can learn more about astronomy and our solar system, watch the real time movement of sun, moon and stars or simply enjoy the beautiful design of the celestial sphere.” The app’s website features tutorials as well as some educational resources that  feature images from NASA missions.

Level: Middle School +
Platform: iOS/Android
Cost: $4.49

Read this review from PC Mag for a detailed description of the app as well as pro/con items. You can also read a review by a teacher here, from EducationalAppStore.com.

 

AASL Recommended App: Books: Shakespeare’s Sonnets

Last summer, the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) announced their Best Apps for Teaching and Learning 2017. The apps encourage qualities such as creativity and collaboration, and encourage discovery and curiosity.

The app Shakespeare’s Sonnets features all 154 poems performed by an all-star cast, background analysis, and shareable videos. Users can “dig deeper with commentaries by the Arden Shakespeare and Don Patterson. In addition to the performance videos, there are expert interviews that take closer looks at Shakespeare and the sonnets.”

Read this review of the app from Common Sense Media, or preview the app with this detailed review here.

Level: High School
Platform: iOS
Cost: $13.99

Watch this short video to get an idea of how the app works: