AASL announces 2014 Best Websites for Teaching & Learning

CHICAGO – The American Association of School Librarians (AASL) announced its 2014 Best Websites for Teaching & Learning at the American Library Association (ALA) Annual Conference in Las Vegas. The annual list honors 25 Internet sites that provide enhanced learning and curriculum development for school librarians and their teacher collaborators. Now in its sixth year, with 150 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 2014 include:

• Media sharing:
  PowToon, VideoNotes, Thinglink, HaikuDeck, Canva

• Digital storytelling:
  Glossi, Recite This, Meograph, Metta, Figment

• Manage and organize:
  Droptask, Gibbon, Kaizena

• Social networking and communications:
  Pearl Trees, Kahoot, TodaysMeet, Storify

• Curriculum collaboration:
  Alchemy Learning, Stoodle, MixedInk, EduCanon

• Content resources:
  RemixT, Media History Digital Library, Why Files, Vocabulary

Links, descriptions and tips for the 2014 Best Websites and previously recognized sites can be found at www.ala.org/aasl/bestlist.

“The Best Websites committee reviews over one hundred amazing sites every year,” said Heather Moorefield-Lang, chair. “Best Websites offers a multitude of online learning opportunities for students, librarians, and their peer educators. We hope everyone enjoys this year's list, and that members of AASL as well as their fellow educators and administrators will continue to submit nominations via our webpage for future review.”

“The American Association of School Librarians is thrilled to be announcing the 150th site recognized as a Best Website for Teaching & Learning,” said Gail Dickinson, AASL president. “The selected sites are an invaluable resource to school librarians. The committee employed an intensive review process to ensure that the 2014 websites provide exceptional value for instruction.”

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/bestlist.  Nominations to be considered for recognition at the 2015 ALA Annual Conference must be submitted by March 1, 2015.

The American Association of School Librarians, www.aasl.org, a division of the American Library Association (ALA), promotes the improvement and extension of library services in elementary and secondary schools as a means of strengthening the total education program. Its mission is to advocate excellence, facilitate change and develop leaders in the school library field.