Test Digital Resources

Tinkercad - Not Approved

SCUSD: Not Approved

Approval Decision: This application targets advertisements to students. This violates the student privacy laws and therefore cannot be approved.

Description: Tinkercad is an easy-to-use 3D CAD design tool. Quickly turn your idea into a CAD model for a 3D printer with Tinkercad.

Nearpod - Not Approved

SCUSD: Not Approved

Approval Decision: Because some of Nearpod's safety features have the potential of violating federal FERPA laws, this app is not approved until a letter is written regarding the violation of FERPA.

Description: Nearpod is an interactive classroom tool for teachers to engage students with interactive lessons.

Letter School - Not Approved

SCUSD: Not Approved

Approval Decision: The app is free because they subject the user to advertisements; tracks  IP address and ad choices.

Description:LetterSchool makes handwriting incredibly easy to unravel. Just pick a letter, kick back and enjoy the show.

LAMP Words for Life - Not Approved

SCUSD: Not Approved


Approval Decision: Recommend our other language program that is already in use with ipads.

Description: LAMP Words for Life is designed to meet the communication needs of children with autism. Furthermore, it was created to use in conjunction with Language Acquisition through Motor Planning (LAMP), a proven-therapeutic approach that uses consistent motor plans for accessing vocabulary.

Kidblog - Not Approved

SCUSD: Not Approved


Approval Decision: Not COPPA/FERPA compliant.

Description: Kidblog provides K-12 teachers with tools to safely publish student writing. Teachers can monitor all activity within a community of authors.

Instagram - Not Approved

SCUSD: Not Approved


Approval Decision: Denied 9/26/16. Violation of FERPA.

Description: A simple, fun & creative way to capture, edit & share photos, videos & messages with friends & family.

Hapara - Not Approved

SCUSD: Not Approved


Approval Decision: Do not recommend because this is an LMS for a fee. Suggest Google Classroom for now.

Description: Clear and simple visibility into learning. Hapara helps schools make the shift to digital learning by making it easier to view and manage learner work in the cloud.

Haiku Deck - Not Approved

SCUSD: Not Approved


Approval Decision: There is a fee and this is an LMS - our district is researching possibilities for LMS.

Description: Presentations that inspire. Meet Haiku Deck, a completely new kind of presentation software. We make telling your story simple, beautiful, and fun.

FreshGrade - Not Approved

SCUSD: Not Approved


Approval Decision: Fresh Grade has the potential of allowing student evidence or learning samples that include student identifiable information to be shared with other parents that are not the students' parents - the app is denied. The app does provide public forums and message boards that also reveal student identifiable information. Student content can also be used by third party vendors. The personal data in transit is encrypted but there are no details whether the data is encrypted in storage.

Description: FreshGrade is the digital portfolio & assessment platform that makes learning visible for leaders, teachers, parents, and students. Available on any device.

Epic! - Not Approved

SCUSD: Not Approved


Approval Decision: There is a cost to parents to join. We cannot require parents to pay for a subscription to have access to the teacher's classroom activities.

Description: Discover the Leading Digital Library for Kids.

Dictionary.com - Not Approved

SCUSD: Not Approved

Approval Decision: The privacy policy states they will use the personal information to provide fund raising for schools, use cookies to capture and remember certain information to understand your preferences based on site activity. The privacy policy also states the non-personally identifiable visitor information may be provided to other parties for marketing, advertising, or other uses. They have not enabled Google AdSense on their site but may do so in the future.

The privacy policy does not supply a contact email or phone number to ask specific questions, therefore I was not able to ask the questions and/or raise the concerns about our schools use of this application.

Description: Dictionary.com is the world’s leading online source for English definitions, synonyms, word origins, audio pronunciations, example sentences, slang phrases, idioms, word games, legal and medical terms, Word of the Day and more. For over 20 years, Dictionary.com has been helping millions of people improve their use of the English language with its free digital services.

Book Creator - Not Approved

SCUSD: Not Approved

Approval Decision: The reasons for not approving:

1. There is a cost of $2.99
2. The privacy policy explicitly states: "We will collect and process personal data to make specific offers, to send you offers, and we can lease your data to third parties."

Description: Book Creator is a simple EdTech tool to create ebooks on iPad, Android and Windows tablets. Create a book and publish it to Apple's iBooks Store.

Animoto - Not Approved

SCUSD: Not Approved

Approval Decision: Animoto appears to be a video editor. The district already has approved some video editing software for computers (MovieMaker and Adobe Premiere, etc.). We would recommend seeking video editing software that does not compromise student privacy, etc.

We see three barriers for this website:
1) Cost: monthly cost
2) Appears to be focused on serving Business clients, not educators and students
3) Terms of use do NOT guarantee ANY compliance with Ferpa and Copa. In fact the language says our district would agree to PAY for their attorney fees if a lawsuit does materialize.

https://animoto.com/legal/education_terms
"You and your School are ultimately responsible for all content and activity on your account and your students’ accounts and for assuring that such content and activities and all Animoto Videos created are in full compliance with all applicable laws, rules and regulations and do not violate any third party rights."
"You and the School agree to defend, indemnify and hold Animoto harmless from and against all claims, liabilities, actions, damages, losses and costs (including reasonable attorneys' fees) that arises from any breach or alleged breach of any of the forgoing obligations, including without limitation from any claims that the use of the Site and the Animoto Services by your students violates COPPA or FERPA."

Description: Animoto is a cloud-based video creation service that produces video from photos, video clips, and music into video slideshows.

Starfall - Conditional

SCUSD: Conditional



Approval Decision: This app is approved for teacher use only. NO students should be allowed to sign up for an account, only teachers can have accounts. It is free, but teachers should be aware their digital activity will be tracked and used to target adds and newsletters their way. Teachers should also beware to advise students to not use their real names, but use an avatar or nickname when using.

Description: Starfall is a children's website that teaches basic English, Reading and Writing skills. The main demographic is Preschoolers, and Kindergarteners. Founded in 2002, the website teaches children how to read by using games and phonics.

Kahoot! - Conditional

SCUSD: Conditional


Approval Decision: If under 13, will require a parent permission form to be COPPA compliant.

Description: Kahoot! is a free game-based learning platform that makes it fun to learn - any subject, in any language, on any device, for all ages!