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 Expeditions works together with a mobile device/tablet and a viewer, and allows teachers to share 360 virtual reality experience with a whole classroom of students at the same time. The teacher’s device is the “guide,” and the other devices that are connected are the “explorers.” The explorers can see all the images for a large collection of prepared expeditions, which also include written details of the images being shown. A quick tip from the app: “On the guide’s device, the teacher can see where all of the students are currently directing their attention. The teacher, or guide, can direct students’ attention to a specific part of the image by holding their finger on that spot. Students will then see an arrow in their viewer indicating the direction they should look.”

Level: Elementary +
Platform: iOS | Android
Cost: FREE

This review from Common Sense Education includes feedback from teachers as well as lessons ideas to use with the app. Or check out this review from an educator who writes about his experience trying out the app in his classroom!

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 Touchcast Studio allows students to “produce broadcast quality projects on an iPad, like having a TV studio in your hands!” Students can create interactive videos that can be annotated or layered with elements from online or the cloud, like websites, images, polls, and more. “Built in tools include whiteboard, green screen, a multi-camera switcher, a teleprompter and video editing features. Users interact with elements from within the video by touching or clicking without leaving the video. Analytics are available for interactive elements.”

Level: Middle School +
Platform: iOS
Cost: FREE

Read reviews from educators and get ideas for incorporating the app into classroom activities from this post on Common Sense Education’s site. CNET has this detailed review of Touchcast, which includes some examples of the capabilities of the app.

Here’s a video (under 4 min long) with some tips for using Touchcast Studio in your classroom:

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 The New Immigrants: NYC 1880-1924 “explores the immigrant experience through a carefully curated collection of over 100 artifacts that includes photos, documents, newspaper articles, political cartoons, oral histories, videos and much more. This is a comprehensive collection of primary and secondary sources and images related to the second wave of U.S. immigration. The “Teaching Immigration” section provides sample lesson plans, teaching strategies to develop historical thinking skills, and document based performance tasks.”

Level: Elementary +
Platform: iOS
Cost: FREE

School Library Journal has this detailed review of the app, or check out this review from a social studies teacher who has used the app in the classroom.

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.

Level: All
Platform: iOS | Android
Cost: FREE

The app CoSpaces lets students create their own virtual reality worlds! Students can choose from a “collection of characters and objects which can be adapted and animated.” Once their world is created, they can view it with a mobile device and headset. Some quick tips include importing your own 360 photos to make custom stages for your VR world, or have more advanced users incorporate Blockly code to bring their world to life.

This review from EdShelf breaks down CoSpaces and includes some highlights of the app. Common Sense Education has this article about the app which features a Pro Con list as well as classroom activity ideas.

Watch this quick video for a glimpse into the world of CoSpaces: