Category Archives: Tech

School Media Specialist, Tech

AASL Recommended Apps: ICivics Suite

The American Association of School Librarians (AASL) announced their picks for Best Apps for Teaching & Learning 2019. “Apps recognized foster the qualities of innovation, creativity, active participation, and collaboration and are user friendly to encourage a community of learners to explore and discover. “

If you are interested in the best apps for your library, media center, or classroom, you can read our 2019 series here or find all past apps discussed in our archives.

“iCivics is a suite of apps ranging from “Win the White House” and “Your Bill of Rights” to “Immigration Nation” and “Executive Command”. There are a total of 11 apps in the iCivics Suite. “Win the White House” will help students to explain the electoral process, identify the influence of the media in forming public opinion, and analyze how parts of a whole interact to produce an outcome in complex systems.”

Platform: iOS & Android
Cost: FREE
Grades: 6-12

The app has a specific page for teachers with curriculum units and a way to search lessons by state standards.

Check out this article from their blog about how to use iCivics to teach the 2020 election. Tech Learning has this article about using the app in the classroom. Finally, read a review of the app from Common Sense Education.

Watch this trailer to get an idea of the ways this app can help your students learn about democracy:

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Tons of Fun at our Welcome Back Event!

We were so excited to see so many members at our Welcome Back Event last week! Thank you all so much for taking the time to come learn about our VR kit program!

There was so much enthusiasm to try out the headsets and we appreciated the practice guiding people through the controls. As many of you found discovered, sitting down was definitely a smart move 🙂

We were also so happy to share the resources available on the ClassVR Portal. The Portal provides pre-made lesson plans to go along with the VR experiences, and when you reserve a VR kit for your school, you’ll get Portal access!

Just a reminder that this is a FREE program available to our member schools! You can read more about the program and find FAQs on our main VR page. To reserve kits for your school library you can apply right here! 

It was so fantastic to connect with so many of you in person! Thank you for coming!

This program is funded in part with a grant from the Minnesota Department of Education using federal funding, CFDA 45.310 – Library Services and Technology Act, Grants to States Program (LS-00-19-0024-19). 

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Apply Now! Free program! CMLE has VR kits for our member school libraries

Maybe you’ve heard the exciting news that CMLE has VR kits to share with our member school libraries! And you can apply for them RIGHT HERE!

APPLY NOW!

Thanks to an LSTA grant from the MN Department of Education, the State Library Services, with money from the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS),  CMLE has purchased VR kits.

Each kit contains 8 sturdy headsets. You are able to check out one or two kits for 4 weeks. When you receive a kit, you will also gain educator access to an online Portal that contains hundreds of curriculum-aligned lesson plans that incorporates the VR/AR technology.

We are pretty excited about this for our members. Remember, you can apply right here! Right now this is just a program available for CMLE member school libraries.

Get more information on our main VR page here.

School Media Specialist, Tech

AASL Recommended Apps: EarthViewer

The American Association of School Librarians (AASL) announced their picks for Best Apps for Teaching & Learning 2019. “Apps recognized foster the qualities of innovation, creativity, active participation, and collaboration and are user friendly to encourage a community of learners to explore and discover. “

If you are interested in the best apps for your library, media center, or classroom, you can read our 2019 series here or find all past apps discussed in our archives.

“EarthViewer allows students to visualize changes to Earth’s surface over its four billion year history. Students can interact with a moveable globe, similar to Google Earth, and animate four time scales – modern, ice age, paleo, and ancient Earth. Overlays can be added to show the locations of current borders and cities, important fossil finds, and impact craters. Animated charts comparing temperature, oxygen, carbon dioxide, day length, luminosity, and biodiversity allow students to investigate relationships between these variables over geologic time. EarthViewer also features in depth articles and videos as well as a detailed list of external references and a teacher quick guide are also included.”

Platform: iOS & Android 
Cost: FREE
Grades: 6-12

Read teacher reviews of this app on the Common Sense Education site. EarthViewer is included in this article sharing some of the best free Android apps for STEM and in this article describing ways to incorporate science apps for the classroom by Fizzics Education. It is also included in this article about suggested apps to use when teaching geography from Supporting Education.org.

Watch this one-minute video to see how one educator incorporates the app into her lessons about plate tectonics and continental drift:

Check it Out:, School Media Specialist, Tech

CMLE Has VR Kits For You! Apply Today!

The grant is funded in part with a grant from the Minnesota Department of Education using federal funding, CFDA 45.310 – Library Services and Technology Act, Grants to States Program (LS-00-19-0024-19).

This year, we are so excited about our Year of STEAM at CMLE! And we’re especially excited because we received a grant  LSTA grant from the MN Department of Education, the State Library Services, with money from the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS), we were able to buy VR/AR kits we will be sharing across our member school libraries!! These headsets are sturdy and meant to be used in schools. When you receive the headsets in your school you will also be given access to an online Portal that contains hundreds of curriculum-aligned lesson plans that incorporates the VR/AR technology.

We will have an application ready soon, but for now, if you would like to request a kit, just email admin @ cmle.org. We’ll have some questions for you and will work out the details! (Please keep in mind these kits must be coordinated through your school library).

We are holding a Fall Welcome Back Event on Thursday, Sept. 26th from 4-7 at the St. Cloud Public Library and will be happy to bring kits along to distribute to members that have contacted us and applied ahead of time.

Otherwise, we’ll have signup sheets and more information available at the event. Plus, you can try the VR headsets for yourselves! (They are seriously cool).

We are working with the vendor to schedule formal in-person training sessions and will announce them when we know more. In the meantime, you can get started on our vendor’s website – browsing around to get some ideas you might want to try when your kit arrives.

Also, browse this document! It’s the setup and user’s guide. You also NEED to show this to your IT people before your kit arrives, so they have time to make any modifications. (Show them page 27: Technical Guidelines.)

Watch this video to see what the headsets look like, and watch our website all year for updates from schools that are using the headsets in their libraries and classrooms! Of course, email admin @ cmle.org with any questions.