Tag Archives: AASL Best Digital Tools

Check it Out:, School Media Specialist, Tech

AASL Best Digital Tools 2021: Pixton EDU

AASL released its list of Best Digital Tools for Teaching and Learning 2021! This year’s list took into special consideration how well these tools work for remote/distance students. The resources enhance learning and encourage the following qualities:

  • Innovation/Creativity
  • Active Participation
  • Collaboration
  • User-Friendly
  • Encourages Exploration
  • Information/Reference

We share these resources every year and you can explore our archive of past recommendations here.

This week we’re exploring the digital comic creation resource Pixton EDU! Pixton EDU “is a web-app that gives educators and students a unique way to create stories, demonstrate learning, and enhance writing assignments – in any subject – through digital comics.”

Grades: 3-12

Common Sense Education reviews Pixton EDU here. Ed Tech Impact gives more info about the app in this article which also includes reviews from teachers who have used the app in their classrooms. This article from The Learning Counsel gets into detail about the ways Pixton is useful for educators and includes user reviews as well. And this series from What Binder Education has instructions for using Pixton plus links to downloadable resources!

Watch this one minute video preview of the Pixton resource!

https://youtu.be/nu0-VkR9ra0
Check it Out:, School Media Specialist, Tech

AASL Best Digital Tools 2021: Bites Media

AASL released its list of Best Digital Tools for Teaching and Learning 2021! This year’s list took into special consideration how well these tools work for remote/distance students. The resources enhance learning and encourage the following qualities:

  • Innovation/Creativity
  • Active Participation
  • Collaboration
  • User-Friendly
  • Encourages Exploration
  • Information/Reference

We share these resources every year and you can explore our archive of past recommendations here.

This week we’re exploring the resource Bites Media!
“Bites Media is a news and information platform for middle and high school students that connects current events to civic and social principles. Librarians often use the platform as a research supplement for students, as each article contains 10-12 primary sources in one place. “

Grades: Middle-High School

The founders of Bites Media believe: “news is an educational tool and it is our civic duty to be informed and engaged citizens.” Their website has evaluated this entire page of news sources based on several factors including published ethics, history of journalistic integrity, consistent commitment to the truth, and more.

This page has several strategies and stories that link to tons of examples of how to include teaching about current events into the classroom.

And Bites Media has partnered with ADL to provide this free curriculum for high school students with 80 lesson plans that . You can see the standards the curriculum fulfills and download the curriculum and support materials here!

School Media Specialist, Tech

AASL Best Digital Tools 2020: Zoom

The American Association of School Librarians (AASL)  has announced their top choices for “electronic resources that provide enhanced learning and curriculum development for school librarians and their educator collaborators.” These resources were formerly separated into the Best Apps and Best Websites for Teaching and Learning and are now combined into the Best Digital Tools for Teaching & Learning.

You can check out our archive of past recommended apps here.

“Zoom is an easy-to-use tool that provides video and/or voice meetings, conference rooms, webinars, and chats with file sharing abilities using desktops, mobile devices, and phones.”

Shared foundations: Collaborate

We’ve been using Zoom so much this year so there are tons of articles out there about how to make the app more useful for your students or for teaching! The University of Nevada Reno has this article about best practices when teaching with Zoom, and Hooked on Innovation shares this article full of ideas for engaging your students while teaching via Zoom. We Are Teachers shares the basics Zoom 101 to help you get started and Santa Rosa City Schools provides Zoom etiquette for students which is always a smart idea.

This ten minute video shows how Zoom can be used successfully for online learning:

School Media Specialist, Tech

AASL Best Digital Tools 2020: Masters of Tradition

The American Association of School Librarians (AASL)  has announced their top choices for “electronic resources that provide enhanced learning and curriculum development for school librarians and their educator collaborators.” These resources were formerly separated into the Best Apps and Best Websites for Teaching and Learning and are now combined into the Best Digital Tools for Teaching & Learning.

“This interactive story map allows students to explore the great diversity of cultures, communities, and artistic traditions that enrich the United States. Through abundant photographs, audio, video, short text, and first-person quotes, the story map addresses a variety of key themes, including immigration, migration, identity, heritage, and community.”

Shared foundations: Inquire, Include, Explore, Curate

A screenshot of the map that shows all the options across the country for learning more about a specific cultural heritage


This article from the Smithsonian site gives a brief overview of the tool and this page includes downloadable lesson plans and ideas for activities.

Check out the Masters of Tradition Video Gallery for a great variety of quick videos that feature music and interviews from the project.

Check it Out:, School Media Specialist, Tech

AASL Best Digital Tools 2020: TeachingBooks

The American Association of School Librarians (AASL)  has announced their top choices for “electronic resources that provide enhanced learning and curriculum development for school librarians and their educator collaborators.” These resources were formerly separated into the Best Apps and Best Websites for Teaching and Learning and are now combined into the Best Digital Tools for Teaching & Learning.

“TeachingBooks introduces students and teachers to authors and teaches them the correct pronunciation of their names. It also includes book guides, activities, lesson plans, and readings and is the perfect resource for teachers and librarians looking to bring authors and their work into classrooms and libraries.”

Shared foundations: Explore, Curate, Inquire

Read a review of TeachingBooks from Common Sense Media and the Mendocino County Library has this article about the app on their website.

Watch this four minute video to get an introduction to the TeachingBooks resource:

https://youtu.be/dWQm-C_m3pw