Well, it's that time of year again for my favorite and most robust list on the top 100 Sites/Apps of the year. As with the previous year's list, more and more mobile apps are making the list as mobile learning continues to be the rising trend in education. However, that's not to say that there aren't plenty of websites and Learning Management Systems showing up as well. Finally, any site or app that was in a previous year's list will not be in this one.
* mobile app
- Been for Education - Innovative site for social learning that allows educators to surf and collaborate on the web with their students in a safe environment where educators create/manage student accounts.
- * Otus - A fantastic and easy to use 1:1 learning solution for mobile classrooms (i.e iPads/Chromebooks). Educators can manage/create student accounts, take attendance, grade, and assess students in real-time, and much much more.
- * Pixel Press Floors - An amazing iOS app for Game Based Learning that allows students to create their own game by drawing.
- Answerables - A super fun and innovative site that brings Game Based Learning together with a Learning Management System to provide a safe environment for students to learn any subject in a 3D virtual world.
- * Stick Around - A great iPad app that can be used for Project Based Learning or Flipping a Lesson by creating puzzles/diagrams and having students label them.
- * Rosetta Stone for Kids - A wonderful free iPad app for kids ages 3-7 learning how to read.
- WordWriter - New learning tool from the award-winning collaborative writing site, BoomWriter. Using BoomWriter's innovative collaborative process, students can develop their reading/writing skills as well as their vocabulary.
- geddit - A fantastic simple to use learning tool where students use their mobile device to answer questions with a tap of button in real-time.
- Glean - A excellent site for finding educational videos/lesson on math and science.
- * TowerStorm - An innovative free iOS game that takes place in a 3D virtual world designed for grades 2nd-10th in the subjects of Math and Literacy.
- Tackk - A great site with educational portal that allows educators to create student accounts where they can create static pages filled with dynamic media.
- ThingLink - Wonderful site/app for students to tag images with multimedia content such as: text, audio, or video files.
- GoNoodle - My favorite site around for giving students "brain breaks" during class through educational and fun activities/videos.
- Gooru - A great place for students to find study guides on a wide range of subjects that are aligned to Common Core Standards and ideal for personalized learning.
- Booktrack Classroom - A excellent site/app for adding a soundtrack to students' writing. Also, a nice place to find Common Core aligned lesson plans.
- Pear Deck - A cool educational tool that interacts with Google Chrome/Drive to create interactive quizzes, slideshows, and presentations.
- News-O-Matic - A terrific free mobile app designed to bring 5 Common Core aligned articles to students.
- Prodigy - A fantastic free online Math game aligned to Common Core Standards grades 1-6th. Best of all this game differentiates instruction and educators can track students' progress as well as generate detailed reports.
- Citelighter - An online Writing platform for K-12 that helps students organize and research for papers and homework. Also, educators can monitor, add assignments, and grade students.
- * Plickers - A unique (free) mobile app that acts as a student response system that uses QR codes and mobile devices to answer/respond to questions.
- * Math w/ Amigos - Healthy Heroes 1 - Two of my favorite educational iOS game that is ideal for Game Based Learning in the areas of basic Math and Health.
- * Chronicle - A unbelievable iPad app for helping teachers with their best teaching strategies by "chronicling" each student through, notes, videos, assessments, and much much more.
- * Voice Dream - The best text to speech app I have ever seen with an abundance of features such as: highlighting, definitions, bookmarking, and more.
- * AR Flashcards Shapes & Colors - Space - Excellent iOS apps that uses Augmented Reality to bring interactive 3D objects to life to teach about: shapes, colors, and outer space.
- * Teachley: Mt. Multiplis - Players build bridges in this computational Math game to help students build their multiplication skills.
- * Book Writer One - A free and easy to use iOS app for creating digital books. This is a great way to introduce digital storytelling to the classroom.
- 30hands Learning Community - A ideal and easy to use cloud based LMS that lets educators assess, collaborate, and grade students in real-time.
- * WeLearnedIt - An excellent free iPad for the mobile classroom, ePortfolios, and Project Based Learning.
- NameCoach - An interesting free site for teachers wanting to learn student names and the proper way to pronounce them.
- * Word Clouds by ABCYa - A terrific free iPad app for creating word clouds.
- * Drawp for School - A wonderful free iPad app with educational portal and cloud storage for creating beautiful looking projects.
- * Grid Lines: Ordered Pair Game - One of my favorite iOS apps for Game Based Learning that uses a familiar Battleship style game to practice plotting points on a graph.
- RoomRecess - A excellent site for finding free educational games for El Ed students.
- * Ask3 - One of my favorite free iPad apps for adding narration to an image to visually explain any topic. This is ideal for creating a flipped classroom.
- * GuidedVideo - A wonderful iPad app for Guided Learning where educators create questions with images as the answers that students tap on.
- Kahoot - Is a fantastic free tool that combines Game Based Learning and a Student Response System to bring a fun and easy to use real-time assessment tool to the classroom.
- Edventure Builder - An innovative new site that is perfect for sparking student creativity by providing an online platform to create: scavenger hunts, interactive stories, or "choose-your-own-adventures".
- * Write on Video - A great iPad app for digital storytelling that allows users to upload a video and then annotate, draw, or add images over it.
- Photos for Class - The easiest way to find safe Creative Common licensed photos for the classroom that are cited appropriately.
- Flashcard Monkey - A fun way to learn vocabulary with cartoon based flashcards.
- * Magical Mental Math - A super fun iOS game designed for grades 2nd-6th working on their basic Math skills.
- * TeleStory - An amazing new iOS app for digital storytelling that lets kids star in their very own TV show.
- * Write to Read - A iPad app designed for kids 3-10 yrs old to help develop their Reading and Writing skills by creating a digital book. Also, this app is ideal for introducing digital storytelling and aligned to Common Core Standards.
- Modern Chalkboard - A wonderful free site for finding free interactive SMART board lessons for your digital whiteboard.
- * Exam Elf - A fantastic free iOS app that helps students develop basic Math skills while developing test taking skills as well.
- * Tell About This - A great iPad app for digital storytelling that lets students record their voice to visual prompts.
- * Xnote - An innovative iOS app for geocaching that takes going on a scavenger hunt to a whole new level.
- * Tocomail - An excellent site/app that provides a safe "filtered" email environment for kids.
- * PICME - A nice free iPad app where kids "star" in their very own digital story by replacing their face with the main characters.
- * Quiz Dungeon - A wonderful iOS game that helps students learn basic Math through an RPG style adventure.
- * Hideout: Early Reading - A great iOS app for young readers looking to develop their Reading skills in such areas as: word recognition, sounding out words, finding the letter, and more.
- * Zeus vs. Monsters / Math vs. Dinosaurs - Two excellent Android apps for learning basic Math skills by fighting off mythical creatures and dinosaurs.
- * Tynker - A free iPad app that teaches students how to program/code by assembling blocks together (i.e Scratch).
- * Letter Battle - A super fun iOS app for learning how to Spell in a RPG setting.
- * Bluster - A free iPad app that helps students develop their Vocabulary by playing a multiplayer game.
- * Chromville - A fantastic mobile app that uses augmented reality to have students complete a fun filled 3D adventure.
- EverySlide - A great way to take a presentation and make it interactive by sharing a unique access code.
- * Kid Screen Time - A excellent schedule/timer for an iOS device that alerts parents when their child's time is up.
- Ginkgotree - An innovative way to take any kind of print media (textbook, website, etc) and digitize it to make it their own.
- Penzu Classroom - A wonderful safe site where educators and students can create an online journal and track/grade assignments and more.
- * ZooKazam - Bring 3D animals to life is this beautiful interactive augmented reality iOS app.
- Hooda Math - A great site with over 50 Math games for grades K-12th.
- FlipSnack Edu - A new Web 2.0 site with educational portal that allows educators and students to create and deliver online content in a safe way.
- Matific - A nice all-in-one site for Math for finding a wide variety of worksheets, videos, activities, and more.
- FlashDecks - A cool and easy to use site for finding and creating digital flashcards.
- * Imagistory - A wonderful free iPad app where students record/narrate their very own "wordless" picture book.
- * Book Builder - A nice free iOS app that acts as a "choose-your-own" adventure where students select how they story is going to progress.
- PortfolioGen Classroom - An excellent site with educational portal that allows students to create digital portfolios in a safe environment.
- * Toonia Storymaker - One of my favorite iPad apps for digital storytelling where the more a student plays the more features they unlock.
- * Math Monsters Bingo - A fun free iOS game for learning basic Math in a Bingo style game.
- * Teachable - A very nice productivity iPad app that helps teachers plan, track, and organize their classroom.
- ClassWallet - An interesting new site that allows educators to electronically manage and organize classroom funds.
- * littleBIG History - One my favorite timeline apps for the iPad that covers areas from the Big Bang Theory to Current Events.
- * Little Story Creator - A wonderful new iOS app for scrapbooking or digital storytelling.
- Wizenworld - Uses Game Based Learning to teach Common Core Math skills in RPG/Action Adventure setting.
- * Angle Asteroids - A fun iOS app that helps students learn how to measure angles in the old "Asteroid" style arcade game.
- * Brainfeed - An excellent iPad app for finding safe and educational videos for students.
- Classcraft - Using the mega-popular PC game World of Warcraft theme to the classroom to promote learning through Game Based Learning.
- * Flipgrid - Kind of reminds me of an "adult" version of Voicethread where educators can ask a question via a video and students can respond.
- Fishtree - An innovative new digital learning platform that allows educators to curate and create lessons for their students.
- * Speaking Times Table - A fun iPad app for students wanting to learn and practice their multiplication tables.
- * Math Hunter - A wonderful iOS game for basic Math skills that has lots of replay value in this adventure filled bow-n-arrow game.
- Bouncy Balls - A great way to monitor classroom noise through balls bouncing on a screen.
- * Common Core Quest - A excellent free Android app aligned to Common Core Standards for practicing Math and LA tests/problems.
- * Reading Raving - A great iPad app for beginning readers where they progress from letters to phonics to reading full sentences.
- * Speech Wizard - A terrific iPad app for ESL, parents, or teachers looking to help students with their articulation skills.
- * Classkick - Interesting new iPad app that allows educators to gather, assess, and provide real-time feedback with students.
- * Door 24 - A wonderful fee iPad app for basic Math skills aligned to Common Core Standards for grades 4th-8th.
- ProcessOn - A great site for brainstorming or mind mapping in real-time.
- ClassFlow - Cloud based learning platform that teachers can use to create digital lessons to be viewed on browser based devices.
- * Sticker Story - A fun iPad app for digital storytelling through the use of stickers.
- * Verso - A great way to flip your class by creating lessons students can view at home and then respond to.
- * Slidebean - A nice site/app for creating beautiful looking presentations with lots of templates to choose from.
- * Elevated Math - An excellent free iOS app for finding animated Math lessons on a wide variety of topics.
- Poindle - A nice free tool for educators to schedule appointments.
- * MarcoPolo Ocean - A wonderful iPad app for young learners wanting to interact and learn about the ocean.
- Comment Bubble - Neat little site where a user uploads a video and then selects what type of feedback others can give (i.e. text, audio, video).
- * Puzzlin Pieces USA - Fantastic iPad app designed for kids 6-8 yrs old for learning the geography of the United States.
- * Piiig Labs - iPad app that teaches young kids about Science by performing different scientific experiments.
- TwistedWave - A nice online audio editor that integrates with Google Drive and SoundCloud.
David Kapuler is an educational consultant with more than 10 years of experience working in the K-12 environment. For more information about his work, contact him at dkapuler@gmail.com and read his blog at cyber-kap.blogspot.com
