Updated Top 20 Apps for 2017

Finally rounding off our list of vetted “must have” TOP 20 APPS for 2017. While these are in no order, the apps can be categorized into two areas – student voice/design/creativity and productivity. Stay tuned for future posts on how you might use some of these apps. 

Design –*Communication, Creative Competencies		Pic Collage Kids (elementary), Pic Collage (secondary) (free) – Bring creative options to the forefront by layering your images with a variety of tools (draw, highlight, add multiple layers and stickers) to extend your story. Consider using this for Literature Circles or defending your research thesis.
Productivity tool – workflow		Documents (free) – My “can’t do without” app for downloading and saving music clips or other files for import to other apps. Now you know my secret for expanding multimedia options. Tell your story with umph!
Audio/Visual -*Communication Competencies		Tellestory (free) – video creation using the augmented reality camera. Use the themes or choose your own to write and record your story. Sing in a band, report the news, float in outer space, add special effects and costumes. The app has face tracking to offset the costumes. Save to camera library and share.
Applied Design –  *Communication, Critical, Creative Competencies		Scratch Junior (free) – Inspired by MIT’s Scratch, learn how to program an interactive story or game to solve problems or design projects. This is using coding to learn communication skills. Use the graphical programming blocks to snap together to make characters move.
Productivity tool – workflow		Splice (free) – Video editor that adds pizzazz to your videos. Use to trim, adjust transitions, add slow motion effects to create the ultimate story.
Design –  *Personal, Creative Competencies		WeeMoji ($3.99) – Create an avatar to personalize your story, your web presence or your presentations. Many options to bring your essence and bling to projects. Extend by adding voice. Elementary safe (for Secondary try Bitmoji).
Productivity –  *Communication, Personal Competencies		Microsoft Translator (free) – We have many students from many countries. Communication is challenging when there is no one in the room to translate. Translate text or speech (whew!) into other languages. Think of real-time conversation on the device or across devices. Best with single sentences.
Audio –*Communication Competencies		Voice Record Pro (free) – Professional voice recorder that uses visual feedback to show how loud your voice is recording. Possibilities for use might include supporting reading fluency,  self-assessment, speeches, radio show or embed in other videos. Save in standard formats.
Audio/Visual –*Communication Competencies		ChatterPix Kid (free) – Take a photo, draw a line to represent a mouth and record your voice. Teach a lesson, share a story,  sing a song, do a rap. You’re only limited by your imagination. Share it on your class blogs. Stitch a few videos together to make a longer video. Or keep to “shorts”. There’s something to be said for brevity (30 seconds or less).
Audio/Visual –*Communication Competencies		Tellagami-Edu ($6.99) – Create a custom avatar to share your story, lesson or learning. Includes backgrounds, draw your own or take a background picture. Products can be saved to the camera library. Great for oral language development and speeches, explaining processes (records up to 90 seconds). No in-app purchases needed. There is a free version that saves 30-second videos. (*Hint: use other apps to stitch the ‘shorts’ together.)
Image Editor – *Communication, Creative Competencies		PicMonkey Photo Editing Effects ($2.79) – Our favourite web tool is now an app! Use it to resize your images before uploading, and edit using a range of effects. Personalize any image and use in your presentations, photo albums, eportfolios, posters, infographics.
Design/Draw –*Communication, Creative Competencies		Drawing Pad ($2.79) – Everyone needs an art/sketch app to give possibility to your creative self. Use photo-realistic crayons, markers, paint brushes, coloured pencils, stickers, roller pens. An entire box of tools is at your finger tips. Products are saved in the camera library for export or upload. Use to enhance artistic voice, upload to eportfolios or blogs, presentations or smash with other apps like ChatterPix, Pic Collage Kid and WeeMoji.
Design/Draw –*Communication, Creative Competencies		Paper by FiftyThree (free) – Sketch notes are all the rage now. This app gives freedom to design, take notes, create diagrams in detail. A stylus pen is helpful but not necessary. More complex than Drawing Pad.
Video –  *Communication, Creative Competencies		Adobe Spark Video (free) – Create stunning videos with voice, music and images. Add cinematographic motion and share your product. Saves to camera library for easy export. As if this wasn’t enough, use this to illustrate ‘work flow’ in organization. *Requires a login account.
Design/Video –  *Communication, Creative, Thinking Competencies		Green Screen by Do Ink ($3.99) – Use any green coloured background and turn it into your own TV studio. Tell a story, teach an  idea, share your research, be a newscaster and include an interactive weather map or video behind you. Consider how this might access oral speech, critical thinking, sequencing, design, dramatic skills.
Design/Video –  *Communication, Creative, Thinking Competencies		Explain Everything 3.0 ($5.49) – “They know when they can teach it.” Communicate learning by screencasting and using an interactive whiteboard to annotate,  teach, narrate and animate. New feature – collaboration! Incorporate products from other apps. Export to/from anywhere, making this app incredibly flexible.
Design –  *Communication, Creative, Thinking, Personal Competencies		Book Creator ($6.99) – Create stunning ebooks that can be saved, uploaded, or saved as pdf.  Incorporate images, video, audio, music, text. Import your ChatterPix, Tellagami, or Explain Everything files. Turn the pages like a book and see the magic unfold before you. A great tool for a portfolio presentation.
Productivity tool – workflow		Compressor (free) – While using the video camera on an iPad is great, what happens if you want to upload the results to a blog, eportfolio or other web presence? iPads are notorious for huge file sizes. This app compresses a video file size using a target slider – what could be easier? Saves to camera library ready for you to upload to any other site.
Video Editor – *Communication, Creative Competencies		Video Slimmer ($3.99) – While there are many in this category, this one is worth the price if you use video a lot and would like to upload the results to a web presence (eg. from camera, iMovie, Adobe Spark, Book Creator …). Shrinks video files while keeping the quality. Simple editing tools include trim, merge multiple videos, rotate, and customise. Saves to camera library.
Productivity plus –  *Communication, Creative Thinking, Critical Thinking, Personal Competencies		Google Drive (free) – Still at the top of our “go to” list. This suite of tools include Docs, Slides, Drawing, Forms, Sheets allowing for writing, collaboration with teams any time, anywhere, commenting in real-time (*think formative assessment), an accurate speech-to-text synthesizer (imagine having those words magically appear on the page as you speak). The app version has word prediction. Contact your Learning Technologies team for more information. The educational suite is G Suite. (*To apply for a GSuite account > click FORMS. We do the rest to set up your classes. An authentic place to practice digital citizenship and collaborative communication!)

We’d love to hear about your “Must Have” list. Drop an idea in the comment box.