Tag Archives: AASL Best Apps for Teaching & Learning

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.

School Media Specialist, Tech

AASL Recommended Apps: Equity Maps

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 Equity Maps allows educators to “chart & record the interaction of students or colleagues to measure and graphically illustrate levels and types of participation. Participants are clearly labeled, and participation can be easily tracked by tapping on the student’s icon. There are also icons for chaos, pair/share, small group breakouts, silence, media, or teacher talk. Analytics are viewable immediately and can be broken down individually for the purpose of conferencing with students and providing feedback.”

Platform: iOS
Cost: $1.99
Grades: All

The Tech Coach site includes Equity Maps in this article about new apps with exciting possibilities for classroom use. This article on Edu-Tech tools shares one tech instructor’s experience working with teachers who have used Equity Maps to help grade their classroom discussions. Finally, this article from the Deerfield Scroll shares one school’s use of the Equity Maps app and opinions about it from both teachers and students.

This video (1 min) shows how the app works:

School Media Specialist, Tech

AASL Recommended Apps: Wolfram Alpha

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. “

“Wolfram Alpha is a credible source for instant expert knowledge and computation, using algorithms and data to compute answers and generate reports for you. This app is so much more than just having an encyclopedia in the palm of your hand, it really is like having someone who will look up what you are wondering about and interpret the available information.”

Their website is seriously impressive and offers information in the areas of math, science and technology, society and culture, and everyday life.

Platform: iOS & Android
Cost: $2.99
Grades: 5-12

This video on the Wolfram website goes into detail explaining how to compute answers, provide practice problems, and other ways the app can be used in the classroom. There are several teacher reviews of the app to read on Common Sense Education. This article from Make Use Of gives a variety of suggestions for ways the app can be used for learning, including using their “Random” button to find new and unexpected knowledge.

Watch this video (1:20) to see how the app works. They also explain how Wolfram Alpha is different than a Google search.

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.