‘Lincoln: Discover the Story’ is a free app that explores the passage of the 13th amendment and takes viewers behind the scenes of the Steven Spielberg movie.
Serving Truth, Justice, and Tighty Whities | The Captain Goes Digital
By on February 7, 2013 Leave a Comment
Dav Pilkey’s Captain Underpants bursts onto the digital scene with full-color illustrations, nifty animation, and activities galore.
BiblioBoard’s Curated Collections for the iPad
By on January 23, 2013 Leave a Comment
With the free BiblioBoard iPad app readers can dip into curated collections of “licensed, open source and public domain materials” on topics ranging from Punk Rock to The Brothers Grimm.
An Arctic Tale for Digital Devices
By on December 28, 2012 Leave a Comment
With snow blanketing the country there’s not much else to do but pour yourself a cup of hot cocoa, grab your iPad, and get ready for a wintery adventure featuring two boys, a whale, and a polar bear or two.
Home-Schooled Florida Teen Creates ‘Jurassic’ App
By on December 27, 2012
Most kids who are obsessed with Tyrannosaurus Rex end up playing with figurines or poring over dinosaur-themed books. Not Evan Frost. Instead, the 13-year-old from Palm Beach Gardens, FL, turned his interest into an app he developed for Android phones.
Global Issues, Digital Perspectives
By on December 11, 2012 Leave a Comment
Population growth, extreme weather, global warming—are all topics of interest to students and digital producers. Here’s a round-up of some recent apps that address these issues.
SLJ’s Top 10 Apps: 2012
By on December 4, 2012 9 Comments
App production has skyrocketed. But curiously, a number of children’s book publishers and app developers are now thinking twice about the format. But that doesn’t mean there hasn’t been a slew of exceptional products this year, and you’ll find a number of them on our list.
Global Education Conference: “Apps Galore”
By on November 19, 2012 1 Comment
The Global Education Conference, held around the clock November 12–16, offered a wide range of sessions by and for educators. In particular, “Appls Galore” emphasized a variety of ways to use this technology with young students.
Touch and Go | Animal Fact and Fiction
By on November 15, 2012 Leave a Comment
It’s no secret children love learning about animals, and picture books about them are some of the most popular titles in libraries. Three apps combining story and facts about animal life have recently been made available. “Touch and Go’s” reviewers took at look at them.
Shakespeare on the iPad
By on October 11, 2012 1 Comment
It’s a boon year for students of Shakespeare and thespians: from Sourcebooks, Inc. and Touch Press come interactive resources that will change the way readers experience the Bard’s works. Sourcebooks has just released three titles in its “Shakesperience” series that promise to “transport readers from the page to the stage”: “Othello,” “‘Romeo and Juliet,” and “Hamlet.” Each iBook provides the text of the play along with insight from actors on their roles, audio and visuals of celebrated performances, and much more. Extensive commentary and notes, and video recordings of famed actors performing each of Shakespeare’s 154 sonnets, are among the highlights of the stunning “Sonnets by William Shakespeare” from Touch Press.
Touch and Go: Countdown to an Election
By on September 27, 2012 Leave a Comment
Given that this is the first U.S. presidential election since apps have made their way onto most electronic devices, you might think there would be dozens of worthwhile products available on the topic designed for students. Think again.
Sure, there are plenty of apps devoted to November’s election, there just aren’t that many that explain the process to those too young to cast a ballot. Those listed here should get the conversation rolling about how we elect a President and the men who have held that the office.
Touch and Go Lives!
By on September 13, 2012 Leave a Comment
After a brief hiatus during the transition to our new website, our app reviews are back—with a few changes. First, you’ll notice they have moved from School Library Journal’s blog roll into a column, pushing out in our Extra Helping enewsletter. Archived reviews can be found on the SLJ website under “Blogs and Columns.” However, to ensure you receive all of our postings, be sure to add “Touch and Go” to your RSS feed.
Online Bookclubs are Facebook for Booklovers!
By on September 3, 2012 Leave a Comment
This summer, I taught a professional development class for our staff. The goal? To each read two novels and one nonfiction book that we could enthusiastically recommend to our students this year. What we ended up with was a lot more than we’d expected, and it’s worth thinking about offering a similar class at your own school.
SLJ’s Best of Apps & Enhanced Books August 2012
By on August 31, 2012
Apps involving monsters, both real and imagined, are among the digital publications examined in School Library Journal’s app review column Touch and Go.
Top Chrome Apps to Help Students Stay Productive Online
By on August 3, 2012
It’s that time. Back to school and an opportunity to investigate some tools for maximizing productivity. Here are the top seven apps for Chrome as selected by Rahul Roy-Chowdhury, “Web Apps Guru” at Google.
News Bites: Nominate the Best Curriculum-based Apps
By on July 31, 2012 Leave a Comment
App-ening
Best apps: The American Association of School Librarians (AASL) Best Apps for Curriculum Task Force is accepting nominations for the best curriculum-based apps. From the ones nominated, the task force will compile a list of the top 25. “Apps and tablet technology add a tremendous value to educators and students, but today there are thousands of apps available with the list growing daily,” said Melissa Jacobs-Israel, task force chair. “Which apps are paramount? AASL’s newly created Best Apps for Curriculum [...]
Summertime and the Reading Is Easy: Kick back with a good ebook app or two
By on July 25, 2012
Handy tools for reading and ebook discovery that you can enjoy using yourself and perhaps put them to use with students in the classroom or library.
Best of Apps & Enhanced Books: July 2012
By on July 23, 2012
Two exquisitely photographed resources documenting the natural world and a digital rendition of that charming creation by Herv√© Tullet are SLJ’s top apps if the month.
Librarians, School and Public, Tap the Best in Kids’ Apps | ALA Annual 2012
By on July 1, 2012
Talking apps at ALA: Gretchen Caserotti, Amy Graves, Travis Jonker, and John Schumacher hosted a session on using apps with kids in the context of library services, both in public libraries and schools.
Best of Apps & Enhanced Books: July 2012
By on July 1, 2012 Leave a Comment
Iceberg in Moonlight, South Orkney Islands (Lynch)©Wayne Lynch with permission of Matchbook Digital LLC.
Reviews in this column first appeared in SLJ ’s blog Touch and Go. After each review, you’ll find the date it appeared online. Online, there are links to related resources, a trailer (if one exists), and a “purchase” button. Please note that later versions of some of these titles may now be available. Visit Touch and Go at slj.com for additional reviews, commentary, and interviews [...]
