Test Digital Resources

https://www.brainpop.com/

SCUSD: Approved


Approval Decision: Approved - If students are under the age of 13, parent permission is required.

Description:  Animated Educational Site for Kids - Science, Social Studies, English, Math, Arts & Music, Health, and Technology.






Common Sense Media Review - Find Pros, Cons, Video Tutorials and Lesson Ideas for Brain Pop

SCUSD: Not Approved

Approval Decision: There is a cost and SOL privacy laws are violated - social media platform.

Description: Toondoo lets you create comic strips and cartoons easily with just a few clicks, drags and drops.

SCUSD: Not Approved

Approval Decision: This app is out of compliance for student use because they sell P.I. to 3rd party vendors.

Description: TalkTablet is the #1 speech app for autism, stroke, cancer, laryngectomy, ALS and other conditions.

SCUSD: Conditional

Approval Decision: Free version for teacher use only. Conditionally approved, because Screencastify has not signed California Student Privacy Alliance Agreement. A letter has been sent to the vendor and is pending vendor response.

Description:  Screencastify is Chrome's screen recorder. Lite version is free forever, while Premium version unlocks all features.

SCUSD: Conditional


Approval Decision: This application requires parent approval before a student can use it.

Description: Math & ELA standards aligned adaptive learning for grades K-8. Loved by students, parents and teachers.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

SCUSD: Conditional


Approval Decision: Conditional acceptance based on the fact that this is a paid app and free download for PC is temporary. Another concern was that there were no references to compliance with state or federal student privacy laws.

Description: Every student in every school should have the opportunity to learn computer science.

SCUSD: Conditional

Approval Decision: This is an excellent digital book resource for many of our students with IEP's. The accounts must be set up with pseudonym for student accounts. Shalla will train the classroom teacher how to assign books to the student. email Shalla at; smirkhani@scusd.net

Description: Cignition transforms the way students learn mathematics while maximizing the potential of every child.

https://www.wevideo.com/

SCUSD: Approved


Approval Decision: We Video is approved as of 11/14/16 for the Ed Tech TOSA team to pilot with various student projects.

Description: Make and share videos using WeVideo's cloud-based online video editing software. Available on Android, iPhone, iPad, Mac, PC and Chromebook.

Grades: 4-12

Common Sense Media Review - Find Pros, Cons, Video Tutorials and Lesson Ideas for WeVideo

Tutorial:

https://www.spellingcity.com/

SCUSD: Approved


Approval Decision: Free version only - is approved

Description: Build vocabulary, literacy, phonics, & spelling skills with SpellingCity. Improve vocabulary, a core reading skill, with gamified context-rich. SpellingCity is a fun way to learn spelling and vocabulary words by playing engaging learning games using any word list.

Common Sense Media Review - Find Pros, Cons, Video Tutorials and Lesson Ideas

https://www.remind.com/

SCUSD: Approved


Approval Decision: This application has earned the iKeepSafe certification. Students and parents have to agree to provide their cell phone numbers.

Description: Remind, formerly Remind101, is a communication tool that helps teachers reach students and parents where they are using texts without revealing teacher's personal phone number. Schedule announcements to all parents or send individual texts to parents with photos or attachments. At Elementary and Middle School teacher's can use it to communicate with parents.

Grades: 1-12

Common Sense Media Review

https://quizlet.com/

SCUSD: Approved



Approval Decision: Quizlet has earned the security badge from iKeepSafe.

Description: Quizlet allows students and teachers to makes simple learning tools to study concepts, vocabulary and phrases using flashcards, games and other learning tools. It does not require a student login to use it.  Teachers can create their own study sets and provide their students with the link to the sets.  Teachers can also search from the thousands of already created sets and use them as is or modify them to suit their classes.

Grades: Teacher 4-12  Student Independently: 6-12

Common Sense Media Review

https://newsela.com/

SCUSD: Approved


Approval Decision: Free version is approved. Newsela Pro version is now approved as of 2/1/17.

Description: Free leveled news, primary sources, and more, with standards-aligned formative assessments. Each Newsela text is offered at multiple tiers, for every student, no matter their level. Now students can study the same content and learn at their own pace—while teachers save time and headaches.

Newsela Pro Version can only be purchased by site. Pro version allows teachers to assign texts to students and monitor their quizzes and writing assessments.

https://www.mosamack.com/

SCUSD: Approved


Approval Decision: Mosa Mack and Mosa Mack Pro Version are both approved.

Description: Your NGSS Solution. For students in 4th through 8th grade. Animated Mysteries + Hands-on Labs + Engineering.

Common Sense Media Review

https://www.makewonder.com/

SCUSD: Approved



Approval Decision: Free version is okay for teacher use only.

Description: Make Wonder teaches kids how to program with Dash and Dot, toy robots that make coding fun using apps on iPads, iPhones, Android tablets and phones.

https://www.khanacademy.org/

SCUSD: Approved



Approval Decision: Khan Academy was approved as of 11/14/16. The access to YouTube videos associated with Khan Academy are accessible through the use of Google Classroom.

Description: You can learn anything. Expert-created content and resources for every subject and level. Always free.







Common Sense Media Review - Find Pros, Cons, Video Tutorials and Lesson Ideas