Tag Archives: AASL Best Apps for Teaching & Learning

School Media Specialist, Tech

AASL Recommended Apps: Libby

The app Libby (yay, a library app! Yes, we are slightly biased) is “an app that simplifies digital ebook borrowing from Overdrive with a public library card. Easy taps and swipes get you to the ebooks and audio books you want. If you belong to several public libraries, you can enter cards for each of them and easily switch back and forth between collections. But there’s more: the app includes an impressive built-in ebook reader and an audiobook player. You can set up wishlists and you can opt to send books to your Kindle for reading.”

Platform: Android, iOS
Cost: FREE
Grades: All

This article features twelve tips to help you get the most out of the Libby app. If you are curious about how Libby works, you can read this list of FAQs on their website.

Watch this video to see how to use the Libby app!

School Media Specialist, Tech

AASL Recommended Apps: Clips

In June, the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) announced their Best Apps for Teaching and Learning 2018. The apps encourage qualities such as creativity and collaboration, and encourage discovery and curiosity.

The app Clips allows you to “turn your iPhone into a video production studio with Clips. Create and edit dynamic videos with the ability to add subtitles, animated stickers, filters, and music, all within the app. Videos are easy to make and share via text or social media.” 

Platform: iOS
Cost: FREE
Grades: All

This article from Ed Tech Team covers both the app and also instructions on how to flip your classroom by creating Clips videos. The author is a high school teacher and believes this app can be extremely useful to students. “By having videos that prepare them for lectures, engage and entertain them, reinforce instructions, and highlight key concepts, our students are being set up for success.”

Common Sense Education has this review of the app, which contains pro/cons along with ideas for ways to use the app for teaching like for recording book reports or making presentations in foreign languages.

Watch this quick video to get an idea of all the cool capabilities that come with Clips:

 

Resources, School Media Specialist

AASL Recommended Apps: Engaging Congress

In June, the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) announced their Best Apps for Teaching and Learning 2018. The apps encourage qualities such as creativity and collaboration, and encourage discovery and curiosity.

The app Engaging Congress is a “fun,  interactive game that uses primary source documents to explore the basic tenets of representative government and the challenges they face in contemporary society.”

Level: Middle and High School
Platform: Android and iPhone
Cost: FREE!

According to this article from the National Council for Social Studies, the goal of the app is to “inform students about the legislative process and to do so in a format that is consistent with how young people today receive information.”

This article from School Library Journal gives a more detailed explanation of the app and highlights the resources for educators available at the Engaging Congress site.

 

School Media Specialist, Tech

AASL Recommended Apps: Content Creation: Toontastic 3D

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 Toontastic 3D lets your students create cartoons that are animated and narrated. Pick from their existing characters and settings or draw your own. Add some background music to your story, then export your creation as a video to a mobile device. For answers to common questions about the app, check out their Tips page.

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

This review of the app from Common Sense Education gives the app four out of five stars and includes some lesson and activity ideas. Tech Crunch has this article about the app which includes an interview with one of Toontastic 3D’s product managers.

Watch this quick video demo to see all the fun you can have with this app:

School Media Specialist, Tech

AASL Recommended Apps: Content Creation: Flipgrid

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.

 

Website 

The app Flipgrid is an extremely useful platform for video discussion, storytelling, or performance. “There’s virtually no learning curve and teachers control the visibility of the videos.  Teachers post topics in grids and students respond in video of prescribed lengths under three minutes. Responses now include transcripts and individual responses have their own hyperlinks and may be embedded. Flipgrid is now free for teachers and allows them to create one grid with unlimited questions and unlimited responses.”

Level: All
Platform: iOS | Android
Cost: FREE

This review of Flipgrid from Common Sense Education has pros and cons as well as some lesson and activity ideas. This review of the app from Ed Tech Roundup goes through how the app works along with helpful commentary.

Take a look at this quick video overview to see how Flipgrid works in the classroom: