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CHICAGO – The American Association of School Librarians (AASL) announced its 2017 list of Best Apps for Teaching & Learning at the ¾«¶«´«Ã½ (ALA) Annual Conference in Chicago. The list of apps provides technology resources for school librarians and their teacher collaborators. Now in its fifth year, the list is considered the "best of the best" by AASL.

The selection committee developed evaluation criteria for vetting apps in distinct categories connected to pedagogy – books; science, technology, engineering and math (STEM); organization and management; humanities and arts; and content creation. Chosen for their embodiment of AASL’s learning standards and support of the school librarian’s role in implementing career and college readiness standards, the apps honored in 2017 include:

• Books:
  
  Radio Jones And His Robot Dad, Shakespeare’s Sonnets, Heuristic Shakespeare – The Tempest, Goldilocks and Little Bear

• STEM:
  
  Swift Playground, Disaster Detector, Cosmic Watch, Lifeliqe, Desmos Graphing Calculator

• Organization and Management:
  
  IFTTT, Quizizz, Google Keep, MeisterTask

• Humanities & Arts:
  
  National Museum of African American History and Culture Mobile Stories, Google Arts and Culture, The New Immigrants: NYC 1880-1924, English Central, ChineseSkill

• Content Creation:
  
  Bloxels, CoSpaces, Flipgrid, TouchCast Studio, Toontastic 3D

• Off the Beaten Apps:
  
  Google Expeditions

Descriptions and tips for the 2017 Best Apps can be found at .

“The AASL Best Apps for Teaching & Learning committee reviewed all of the apps submitted for consideration this past year, plus many more that our members have used themselves in an educational setting,” said James Allen, chair. “After many discussions and meetings, the committee decided to recognize 24 apps. There are so many apps that are released and updated each year, and so difficult for us, as individuals to keep up. We believe this list is a great place for school librarians and other educators to start when they are looking for the highest quality apps to use with their students.”

The apps recognized as Best Apps for Teaching & Learning are of exceptional value to inquiry-based teaching and learning as embodied in AASL's “Standards for the 21st-Century Learner.” Recognized apps 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 Best Apps for Teaching and Learning list is based on feedback and nominations from school librarians, content teachers, students and developers. Nominations can be submitted at . Nominations to be considered for recognition at the 2018 ¾«¶«´«Ã½Annual Conference must be submitted by March 1, 2018.

The American Association of School Librarians, , a division of the ¾«¶«´«Ã½ (ALA), empowers leaders to transform teaching and learning.

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