This 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 National Museum of African-American History and Culture (NMAAHC) is a story driven app. It allows the user to experience the museum virtually through images, audio/text transcripts, and video clips. “Designed to be used during a museum visit, students can virtually experience the museum by viewing the exhibitions online and seeing artifacts like Harriet Tubman’s shawl, James Baldwin’s passport, and a segregated railway coach.” For questions and activities that can be used with students, check under the “For Families” section.

This article from Clearly Innovative gives a detailed description of the app and its capabilities. For videos and to learn more about the National Museum of African-American History and Culture, check out their Youtube channel here. 

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

This 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 IFTTT stands for “If This Then That” and it is used to create applets. Applets (also called “recipes”) have the ability to link two services (your apps or devices) together as conditional statements which then automate certain tasks.

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

Some of the examples of ways to use the app include “get an email when a new bestseller appears on the NY Times list; save favorite tweets to a Google spreadsheet, get an email whenever the President signs a bill into law; back up photos to Google Drive. The opportunities are endless!” Get more ideas for ways to use the app by visiting their blog.

PCMag has a review of the app, and they awarded it Editors’ Choice for productivity services. Digital Trends also has a great review of IFTTT and they include some tips on ways to get the most out of the app.

Watch this video for a tutorial specifically for teachers using IFTTT:

This 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.

Heuristic Shakespeare: The Tempest is the product of Sir Ian McKellen and Professor Sir Jonathan Bate working together to bring the plays of Shakespeare to life. “Shakespeare wrote his plays to be seen and heard, not read. Heuristic Shakespeare apps put you face to face with his characters at the heart of each play. It makes his language and references easily accessible and helps you understand each play from the inside out.” The app includes in-depth notes on the text, the history of The Tempest, and historical background on Shakespeare.

This review of the app from PC Mag gives an overview of the app as well as a pro/con list.

Level: Middle School
Platform: iOS
Cost: $5.99

Watch a behind-the-scenes video of the app being created here: