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 ChineseSkill makes this hard-to-learn language fun and less intimidating. The app is game-based, so users can complete lessons while playing against the computer or friends. Users are able to practice speaking Chinese into the app, which will offer feedback on pronunciation, and there are multiple tests throughout lessons to help cement words and concepts. The app is very comprehensive and covers speaking, reading, and writing.

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

Check out this review of the app from All Language Resources that includes links to additional resources for more advanced Chinese language study. This article from Startup Living China (scroll down to find the section on ChineseSkill) gives an overview of how to use the app as well as a list of pro/cons. You can check out other resources for learning about China on their page, too!

Watch this short video to get an idea of how the app works:

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: