Sponsored by AASL
Deadline: February 1
Apply Now
Overview
AASL’s Best Digital Tools are recognized for fostering qualities of:
- Innovation/Creativity
- Active Participation
- Collaboration
- User-Friendly
- Encourages Exploration
- Information/Reference
Eligibility
Nominations may be submitted by developers, school librarians, or the general public. For a tool to qualify as “digital” it must be accessible remotely (website, app, etc.). For the committee to move forward with a review of tool access must be shared free of charge. Download Copy of Application
* Please note: The downloadable version of the application is for informational purposes only. All applications must be submitted online via the Apply Now button that will appear at the top of the page when the next award season opens in early September.
Questions
Allison Cline 
Deputy Executive Director
2021
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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. Privacy Policy Grades: Middle/High |
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Britannica ImageQuest ($) brings lessons, assignments, and projects to life with the best and broadest oering of curriculum-relevant imagery and digital art materials (symbols, educational illustrations, infographics, flags, and conceptual illustrations), all rights-cleared for educational, non-commercial use. Users have access to over 3.25 million images from more than 60 leading collections. Privacy Policy Grades: K-12 |
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Britannica LaunchPacks: Science ($) leverages high-quality, diverse digital content sets to build science knowledge and understanding, enabling educators to make strong cross-curricular connections to help students engage in meaningful learning. It allows educators to build content sets (Packs) that cover each of the disciplinary core ideas outlined in the Next Generation Science Standards and provide a seamless experience for students to think critically. Privacy Policy Grades: K-12 |
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Britannica LaunchPacks: Social Studies ($) empowers blended learning, personalized support for every learner, and student-led inquiry. LaunchPacks: Social Studies integrates SEL into curriculum-relevant lessons and allows students to build critical skills while educators effectively teach subject-area content in social studies. Privacy Policy Grades: K-12 |
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Britannica School ($) offers thousands of curated and curriculum-relevant articles, images, videos, audio clips, primary sources, maps, research tools, recommended websites, and three unique, but connected, databases to meet every reading level. Students can use Britannica School to browse by subject, media type, or weekly rotating content. They can access the world’s knowledge with accurate, nonfiction, cross-curricular multimedia content that’s aligned to the next generation science, common core, and state curriculum standards. Privacy Policy Grades: K-12 |
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Checkology is a current events application that shows middle through high schoolers how to successfully navigate today’s challenging information landscape. Students learn how to identify credible information, seek out reliable sources, and apply critical thinking skills to separate fact-based content from falsehoods. Privacy Policy Grades: 7-12 |
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Copyright & Creativity is a full suite of free K-12 resources that teach the essentials of copyright and fair use and how they work together to encourage creativity. Resources include in-class lesson plans, plug-n-play lesson slides, learning videos, visual aids, and a professional development course for teachers. Rather than just emphasizing what copyright prohibits, the goal is to offer useful and positive information about what copyright allows and how students can successfully navigate and rely on copyright in their own roles as creators. Privacy Policy Grades: K-12 |
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Diverse BookFinder is a catalog of trade picture books published or distributed in the U.S. since 2002 that includes:
Grades: K-3 (target) but picture books can be used widely |
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New American History helps educators and learners preparing to do research (including their National History Day projects!), develop cross-curricular Project-Based Learning opportunities, develop station based learning experiences, teach students skills to evaluate print and digital resources, and recommend high-quality tools and resources for inquiry-based learning. Privacy Policy Grades: 4-12 |
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The News Literacy Project is a nonpartisan national education nonprofit, provides programs and resources for educators and the public to teach, learn and share the abilities needed to be smart, active consumers of news and information and equal and engaged participants in a democracy. Privacy Policy Grades: K-12 |
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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. Privacy Policy Grades: 3-12 |
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Scratch allows learners and educators to program interactive stories, games, and animations — and share creations with others in the online community. Privacy Policy Grades: 1-10 (Scratch Jr. K-2) |
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Sora ($) allows learners to access popular and educational ebooks and audiobooks on any device from any location. Sora allows school librarians to curate their own collections and change the titles during the school year to align with their school’s curriculum and students’ needs. Sora also enables school librarians to support all kinds of readers by providing access to graphic novels and audiobooks paired with text. Sora also enhances reading with a dyslexic font as well as highlights and notes features students can use to complete their tasks. Privacy Policy Grades: K-12 |
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Typing.com is clean, colorful typing practice for any level with Common Core and ITSE standards correlations. Scope and Sequence curriculum engages students with gamification opportunities to self-direct towards achievement with class competitions and other games to participate in and badges, stars, and certifications to achieve, print, and share with friends, parents, or colleagues. Class level settings and customizable lesson modules allow educators to differentiate instruction to accommodate students at any level and pace. Privacy Policy Grades: K-12 |
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Untold is a free collection of short, compelling, history videos and animations designed to engage new audiences in a new conversation and shine a light on the stories that don’t always make it into the classroom and question what we think we know about those that do. Not everything worth knowing exists inside the cover of our history textbooks. Untold is here to fill in the gaps and bring new stories to life. Privacy Policy Grades: Upper Primary/High School |
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Wakelet is a free to use tool that educators you to create visual, engaging learning environments for learners. With Wakelet, educators can quickly display any kind of content found on the web, through beautiful looking collections that can be presented and shared with whoever you like. School Librarians can use Wakelet to increase engagement with their students through book reviews, assignments, digital storytelling, reading lists and much more. Privacy Policy Grades K-12 |
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Wild Classroom contains a variety of resources that educators and librarians can use with youth to inspire them to help protect the planet. The platform contains activity plans, digital reference materials (including videos and kid-friendly scientific articles), virtual engagement opportunities with World Wildlife Fund experts, online games, and project ideas of ways to get involved in their community. All of the materials are free to access and integrate a range of educational standards, including Next Generation Science and Common Core ELA/Math. Privacy Policy Grades: K-12 |
2020
codeSpark Academy is an app and website that wordlessly introduces young users to the world of coding through games. Parents and children can use it on their own, and educators can create classes to manage student use. Privacy Statement
EmotionalABCs Classroom is a teacher-led, research-based Social Emotional Learning (SEL) curriculum that provides teachers (K–3) with 20 sequential Workshops, support materials, and a flexible structure for classroom instruction. Privacy Statement
FabuLingua is an interactive story app that teaches students Spanish as they interact with the text. Vibrant illustrations engage students as they read the story and practice their Spanish skills. Privacy Statement
Facing History is geared for educators in social studies and ELA. This tool offers a wealth of resources for use on topics that address racism, anti-semitism, and prejudice throughout history. Teachers can find professional development opportunities here, and those who attend can borrow materials for free from the collection. There are a variety of lesson plans that include learning objectives and activities as well as links to text and video resources to be used in the classroom. Privacy Statement
KidLit TV offers in depth interviews with authors and illustrators. On this website you will find book trailers, how to draw videos and other literacy related activities. This website offers curated resources for books geared toward PK-3rd grade. Privacy Statement
Masters of Tradition is an interactive story map that 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. Privacy Statement
Parlay Ideas’ is a robust discussion tool, fostering deep understanding, equitable collaboration, and mindful reflection, in both live and asynchronous learning environments. Privacy Statement
TalkingPoints is a free messenger tool for educators that helps remove barriers in language communication. The TalkingPoints app creates easier connections with parents via text messages directly to mobile devices and in their native languages. Privacy Statement
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. Privacy Statement
World 101 offers information from an independent non-partisan sources about international relations. The world is divided into regions and information is provided for each region on politics, economics, etc. From essays and discussion questions to glossaries and up-to-date reading lists, World101 provides comprehensive teaching resources for each of our modules. Privacy Statement
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. Privacy Statement
Best Apps and Best Websites Recipients
2019
Apps: Chatterpix Kids, EarthViewer, Equity Maps, Figment AR, Green Screen by Do Ink, iCell, iCivics - Suite, Khan Academy Kids, Mixerpiece, Nearpod, Novel Effect, Object Viewer for Merge Cube, PBS Kids Scratch Jr., Quizlet, Sites in VR, Sora App, Stop Motion Studio, Tynker, Wakelet, and Wolfram Alpha
Websites: Anchor, Bootstrap, Brush Ninja, CS First, Deck.Toys, Edpuzzle, Elementari, Empatico, Explore, Genially, GeoGuessr, Knightlab, Storytelling, Libraries Ready to Code, National Geographic Education, NCMA Learn, NowComment, Pulitzer Center, Storyline Online, Teaching Tolerance, Thunkable, Tour Creator, Unite for Literacy, and Wakelet
2018
Apps: Clips, Complete Fairytale Play Theatre, Engaging Congress, Google Spotlight Stories, Google Translate, GooseChase, Hopscotch: Make Games, Human Anatomy Atlas 2018, Incredibox, Libby, Metaverse – AR Browser, Office Lens, PBS KIDS Games, PBS KIDS Video, Periodic Table, Pixie, Procreate, PuppetMaster, Recap, RelationShapes, Science Journal, SDG in Action, Seeing AI, Signed Stories, and Swiipe: News That Knows You
Websites: AllSides for Schools, App Inventor, Be Internet Awesome, BioInteractive, Book Creator, BoomWriter, Classcraft, CoSpaces Edu, EarSketch, edWeb.net, The Global Goals, Global Oneness Project, Kapwing, The Learning Network, Loom, Metaverse, NewseumED, Pencil Code, Prodigy, Recap, Science Friday, Stanford History Education Group, Time.Graphics, Tinkercad, and Typito
2017
Apps: Radio Jones And His Robot Dad, Shakespeare’s Sonnets, Heuristic Shakespeare – The Tempest, Goldilocks and Little Bear, Swift Playground, Disaster Detector, Cosmic Watch, Lifeliqe, Desmos Graphing Calculator, IFTTT, Quizizz, Google Keep, MeisterTask, National Museum of African American History and Culture Mobile Stories, Google Arts and Culture, The New Immigrants: NYC 1880-1924, English Central, ChineseSkill, Bloxels, CoSpaces, Flipgrid, TouchCast Studio, Toontastic 3D, andGoogle Expeditions
Websites: Elink.io, Screen-cast-omatic, My Simpleshow, Pixabay, ClassHook, The Learnia, Spreaker, Write the World, Buncee, Sugarcane, Google Keep, Baamboozle, Cite This For Me, Vizia, Formative, Flipgrid, Wizer, OER Commons, US Holocaust Museum, Arts Edge, CommonLit, MediaSmarts, Listenwise, Poets.org, and DuoLingo
2016
Apps: Epic! Unlimited Books for Kids, Ryan North’s To Be or Not to Be, The Voyages of Aladdin and Sinbad, Metamorphabet, Professor Astro Cat’s Solar System, The Foos, The Everything Machine, Attributes by Math Doodles, Earth Primer, Map of Life, OneNote, Three Ring, Post-It Plus, Google Classroom, Newsela, StoryCorps, Homes, Spies of Mississippi: The Appumentary, MoMA Art Lab, MusiQuest, Canva, Plotagon, Adobe Spark, Office Sway, and Comic Life 3
Websites: Movenote, Vibby, Bunkr, PicMonkey, Piktochart, Photos for Class, Adobe Spark, Biteable, Office Sway, Seesaw, Jeopardy Rocks, Trello, Creatubbles, Edueto, Quizizz, Bloomz, Google Cultural Institute, Google Maps Street View Treks, Digital Compass, DK Find Out, Go Noodle, Actively Learn, Zoom In, Epic!, and Smithsonian Tween Tribune
2015
Apps: David Wiesner’s Spot, Incredible Numbers, Loose Strands, Seamus Heaney: Five Fables, The UnStealer, Adobe Voice, Buncee for Edu, Glogster, LEGO Movie Maker, Pixel Press Floors, Kahoot, Remind, Seesaw, Skitch, Spider Scribe Jr., Amazing World Atlas, Digital Public Library of America (DPLA), Ripped Apart: A Civil War Mystery, Think Like Churchill, Touch Van Gogh, Algodoo, iBiome: Wetland, Motion Math: Educator Suite, My Incredible Body, and WWF Together
Websites: TouchCast, Tackk, Pear Deck, Apps Bar, Soundtrap, Storyboard That, My Storybook, Booktrack Classroom Beyond Pad, Google Classroom, FlipQuiz, Bookopolis, Answerables, DIY, Beenpod, IFTTT, Gooru, Molecular Workbench, Knowmia, Hstry, Engineering is Elementary, What Was There, Code, BioDigital Human, and PhET
2014
Apps: A Day in the Market, Audubon Guides: Butterflies, Brian Cox’s Wonder of Life, Disney Animated, War Horse Interactive Edition, Dragonbox Algebra 5+, Kodable Pro, Monster Physics, NOVA Elements, Water Cycle HD, Easy Portfolio, GoodReader, instaGrok, Pocket, Subtext, Civil War by KIDS DISCOVER, Duolingo, Historypin, Umano, US Geography by Discovery Education, Notability, Photo Editor by Aviary, RWT Timeline, Shadow Puppet, and Tellagami
Websites: PowToon, VideoNotes, Thinglink, HaikuDeck, Canva, Glossi, Recite This, Meograph, Metta, Figment, Droptask, Gibbon, Kaizena, Pearl Trees, Kahoot, TodaysMeet, Storify, Alchemy Learning, Stoodle, MixedInk, EduCanon, RemixT, Media History Digital Library, Why Files, and Vocabulary
2013
Apps: Bats! Furry Fliers of the Night, Al Gore - Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis, Cinderella, Shakespeare in Bits - Hamlet, Fam Bam: Got to Have Music, Science 360, NASA, Operation Math, Simple Physics, Tinkerbox, EasyBib, Dropbox, Evernote, Schoology, Socrative, Ansel & Clair’s Adventures in Africa, Barefoot World Atlas, Britannica Kids: Ancient Egypt, MyCongress, News-O-Matic: Daily for Kids, Educreations, Toontastic, Kidblog, Garageband, and Videolicious
Websites: Pinterest, smore, easel.ly, inklewriter, myHistro, FlipSnack, BiblioNasium, LitPick, padlet, edcanvas, WorkFlowy, socrative, QuadBlogging, Marqueed, 19Pencils, iCivics, Wonderopolis, Youngzine, Garbology, Seriously Amazing, Edudemic, Science NetLinks, TEDEd, Codecademy, and The Digital Public Library of America
2012
Websites: Projeqt, Gamestar Mechanic, Vialogues, Popplet, Jux, Comic Master, My Storymaker, Inanimate Alice, Quicklyst, Spidercribe, Stixy, Remember the Milk, Celly, Wiggio, Collaborize Classroom, Study Ladder, Historypin, Learn it in 5, ARKive, DocsTeach, IWitness, How to Smile, StudyBlue, NASA Kids Club and Springnote
2011
Websites: Aviary, CK-12 Flexbooks, Conduit, Digital Vaults, Dipity, Edistorm, Edmodo, Exploratorium, Geocube, iCyte, i-Earn, i-nigma QR codes, Kerpoof, Khan Academy, Lingt Language, Microsoft Tag Codes, Myths and Legends, Nota, PicLits, SpicyNodes, Symbaloo, Tagxedo, Yolink Education, You Are What You Read, and ZooBurst
2010
Websites: Creative Commons, debategraph, Edsitement, Evernote, Exploratree, Glogster, International Children's Digital Library (ICDL), The Jason Project, Jing, jogtheweb, Learn Central, Live Binders, Masher, MuseumBox, The National Archives' Digital Classroom, National Science Digital Library, Pageflakes, Prezi, Professor Garfield, SchoolTube, Scratch, Storybird, TED, WatchKnow.org, and Weblist
2009
Best Websites: Diigo, Google Reader, Simply Box, Mindmeister, Polleverywhere, Wikispaces, Zoho, Curriki, Primary Access, SOS for Information Literacy, Partnership for 21st Century Skills, Animoto, Our Story, Teacher Tube, VoiceThread, Wordle, RezED, Second Life, Classroom 2.0, Edublogs, Facebook, Good Reads, Ning, Skype, and Twitter
Landmark Sites: ALTEC; Annenberg Media Learner.Org; Apple Learning Interchange; Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD); Discovery Education; Edutopia; EduWeb; Field Trip Earth; Global School; Google Earth; Library of Congress; MIT Open Courseware; Merlot; Moodle; NASA; Our Documents; PBS Teachers; Read, Write, Think; Smithsonian Education; Thinkfinity; and WebQuest