4 Educational Apps That Schools Love
Educators weigh in on their schools’ favorite Google Play for Education apps.
Tablets and other tech have become staples in the classroom, but some educators still need help incorporating devices into their lesson plans.
During the free, recorded webinar “Getting Started with Google Play for Education,” four K–12 experts discuss ways their schools linked Google Play for Education apps with existing curricula.
Read up on panelists’ favorite apps, and then register for the free recorded webinar to learn more about Google Play for Education.
WeVideo Video Editor
This hands-on tool lets students capture or import photos and video clips for use in visual storyboards that can be customized with voice-overs, captions, music overlays and other effects. Because WeVideo is based in the cloud, it offers the type of flexibility that schools require.
“It is great for the classroom because the students can start a video and then pick up from where they left off,” says panelist Julie Stewart, the team lead for grades 2 and 3 at Colorado’s Challenge to Excellence Charter School. “This is perfect when more than one class period is needed to work on a project.”
Wonderopolis
According to panelist Jeremy Pearson, the supervisor of IT for Fort Dodge Community School District in Iowa, this multidisciplinary app feeds students’ curiosity. Every day, it asks a question — dubbed the Wonder of the Day — then, presents the answer through text, images, videos and more. Wonderopolis identifies vocabulary terms related to the topic, offers a quiz to test students’ knowledge and suggests activities to foster greater learning. Content aligns with Common Core State Standards, the STEM Educational Quality Framework and Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy.
Light-Bot
With this app, K–12 students use commands and programming logic to guide a robot toward specific destinations within the game. Light-Bot teaches loops, if-then statements and other concepts without the use of a keyboard or actual code.
Panelist Bobby Lehman, an educational technology specialist with Boulder Valley School District in Colorado, says the app is “great for students who are entry-level coders, and for younger students who are practicing sequencing.”
Explain Everything
A screencasting tool and interactive whiteboard, Explain Everything lets students design slides complete with videos, images, annotations and more. It relies on simple finger commands and features easy import and export capabilities. Stewart and Lehman both say the app is great for classroom use.
“The students can create just about anything from drawing pictures, adding text, inserting photos, recording voice-overs, adding shapes and more,” Stewart says. “It is a go-to app for creation.”