Category Archives: Tech

School Media Specialist, Tech

AASL Recommended Apps: Sites in VR

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. “

“Sites in VR is an interactive virtual reality experience where learners can immerse themselves in places around the world! From tourist attractions to landmarks to cultural and religious centers, there are SO many options that learners can explore.”

As a reminder, CMLE has ClassVR headsets you can bring to your school library FOR FREE! More information and the application can be found here.

Platform: iOS & Android
Cost: FREE
Grades: All

The site Free Tech for Teachers featured the app on their website along with a presentation for using AR/VR in the classroom. Sites in VR is included in this article about virtual reality field trips. Since the app allows students to “visit” famous landmarks, it was included on this list of the top VR apps that are changing education.

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.

School Media Specialist, Tech

AASL Recommended Apps: Khan Academy Kids

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. “

The interactive app Khan Academy Kids “allows kids to manipulate shapes, letters and numbers throughout. Kids can learn reading, language, writing, math, social-emotional development, problem-solving skills, and motor development. Open-ended activities like drawing, storytelling, and coloring encourage creativity and self-expression.”

Platform: iOS & Android
Cost: FREE 
Grades: PreK-2

Khan Academy has a Teacher Guide on their site with ideas for incorporating the app into classroom activities. Common Sense Education has this review of the app and Arapahoe Libraries shares this positive review. The education blog Maneuvering the Middle has this post with seven ideas for using the app in the classroom.

Watch this 2 min video to see how the app works (bloopers at the end)

School Media Specialist, Tech

AASL Recommended Apps: Novel Effect

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. “

This app looks so cool, I’m going to give it a try during storytime!

“Novel Effect uses voice recognition to complement read alouds with sound effects and music. Novel Effect features a catalog of over 200 popular and well-loved titles for children, with new titles regularly being added. Parents, teachers, and librarians can use it to spice up their read alouds or revisit old favorites by adding a new soundscape. Students can practice their reading fluency as the app responds to their voice.”

Platform: iOS
Cost: FREE
Grades: All

The Novel Effect site has this page for educators that includes several ideas for using the app in the classroom. This article from the Techie Teacher gets in-depth with using the app and includes a video and a downloadable checklist. This post from Tech Notes shares several of the available titles on the app and also offers suggestions for classroom use.

Watch this 1 min video to see the app in action:

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.

School Media Specialist, Tech

AASL Recommended Apps: Stop Motion Studio

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. “

The app Stop Motion Studio “helps you to create terrific stop action movies with a whole host of unique features like the frame-by-frame editor, the never get lost timeline and the sound editor. Add backgrounds, foregrounds, sound effects, use paintbrushes, and more to make your stop motion video.”

Platform: iOS & Android
Cost: $4.99 (although it looks like there is a free version available)
Grades: All

Check out teacher reviews of this app on Common Sense Media. The site Educational Tech and Mobile Learning includes Stop Motion Studio in their list of recommended iPad apps for creating educational stop motion animation. The Techie Teacher discusses the app in this article sharing tips for creating stop motion animation in the classroom.

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.

Check it Out:, Tech

Chat with other ClassVR Users in our Google Groups

Woohoo!

Sharing ClassVR headset devices has been the best start to our school year! Find more resources and information about this program here.

It’s been really wonderful to hear back from our school members that have been using the devices. Keep up the great work!! And thank you for the pictures!! 🎉🎉📷

If you haven’t had the devices yet at your school, or are unsure about how others have been using them in their curriculum, we invite you to join our Google Groups. We have two groups available and hope that you will be able to connect with each other for general VR discussion and also to share/solve tech issues and solutions.

Email us at admin @ cmle.org (no spaces) and we will invite you to join the groups, otherwise you can request membership below:

General ClassVR Discussion:

Tech Help ClassVR:

If you have any questions specifically related to VR, please email vr @ cmle.org (no spaces) and we will do our best to help! These devices are new to us too, so we are also in the process of learning how they work.

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).