For immediate release | June 24, 2017

AASL announces 2017 Best Websites for Teaching & Learning

CHICAGO – The American Association of School Librarians (AASL) announced its 2017 Best Websites for Teaching & Learning at the American Library Association (ALA) Annual Conference in Chicago. The annual list honors 25 websites that provide enhanced learning and curriculum development for school librarians and their teacher collaborators. Now in its ninth year, with 225 recognized sites, the list is considered the "best of the best" by AASL.

Sites named as Best Websites for Teaching & Learning foster the qualities of innovation, creativity, active participation and collaboration. They offer tools and resources in the categories of media sharing, digital storytelling, managing and organizing, social networking and communications, curriculum collaboration and content resources.

The websites honored in 2017 include:

  • Media sharing:

    Elink.io, Screen-cast-omatic, My Simpleshow, Pixabay, ClassHook
  • Digital storytelling:

    The Learnia, Spreaker, Write the World, Buncee

  • Manage and organize:

    Sugarcane, Google Keep, Baamboozle, Cite This For Me

  • Social networking and communications:

    Vizia, Formative, Flipgrid

  • Curriculum collaboration:

    Wizer, OER Commons

  • Content resources:

    US Holocaust Museum, Arts Edge, CommonLit, MediaSmarts, Listenwise, Poets.org, DuoLingo

Links, descriptions and tips for the 2017 Best Websites as well as previously recognized sites can be found at www.ala.org/aasl/bestwebsites.

"The selection committee spends the academic year culling, testing, and vetting online sites to deliver the best in digital educational tools to our peers in libraries and education,” said Heather Moorefield-Lang, chair. “The committee has selected 25 sites for this year that they hope will become strong additions to the instructional toolkits of librarians and peer teachers. This year marks the ninth year of AASL Best Websites and the committee is excited to offer a new list to use with students and educators.”

The Best Websites for Teaching & Learning provide a foundation to support AASL's learning standards and each website is linked to one or more of the four strands of the “Standards for the 21st-Century Learner” – skills, dispositions in action, responsibilities and self-assessment strategies. Best Websites are free, Web-based sites that are user-friendly and encourage a community of learners to explore and discover.

The Best Websites for Teaching & Learning list is based on feedback and nominations from AASL members. School librarians can nominate their most used websites at www.ala.org/aasl/bestwebsites. Nominations to be considered for recognition at the 2018 ALA Annual Conference must be submitted by March 1, 2018.

The American Association of School Librarians, www.aasl.org, a division of the American Library Association (ALA), empowers leaders to transform teaching and learning.

Related Links

AASL Best Websites for Teaching & Learning

Contact:

Jennifer Habley

Manager, Web Communications

American Association of School Librarians (AASL)

jhabley@ala.org

312-280-4383