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Best personalized learning apps for the 2017-2018 school year

Stephanie CarmichaelOctober 18, 2017

Personalized learning can be a lot easier with good tools to help you manage it. But with all the personalized learning apps out there, how do you choose the best one for you?

We’ve narrowed down the field to four of the best personalized learning apps that you can use this school year across all subjects. In no particular order, they are …

1. Mindprint Learning

Mindprint Learning helps teachers create a personalized learning plan by assessing individual student strengths and needs, creating a learner profile for them, and then making recommendations for teachers and parents about strategies that will help the student succeed.

Mindprint Learning

These strategies, supported by psychologists and child development experts, can improve learning outcomes by helping students develop better study skills and receive more tailored in-school support according to their learning needs.

Great for: Aligning students, teachers, and parents through research-backed learner profiles

2. Classcraft Quests

Quests are a feature within Classcraft that enable teachers to transform their existing lesson plans into fun personalized learning adventures with different (“branching”) learning paths to accommodate each learner.

Quests Classcraft Personalized Learning

Teachers overlay lesson objectives onto fantasy-style maps, stringing them together to form a “quest” path. Each time students progress to a new objective they must complete a task, which can take the form of an in-class activity or assignment, for example. Teachers also have the choice of adding a narrative, where students unlock a new piece of a fictional storyline each time they progress.

Because quests can have branching paths, teachers can “guide” students to different activities or assignments based on how they’re doing and progressing in their learning. If the teacher chooses, students can also participate in online discussion around the lesson with their peers or submit an assignment digitally. Integration with Google Classroom is on the way.

Great for: Using games to make lessons fun and personalized without adding to teachers’ workloads.

3. Explain Everything

The Explain Everything app takes a different approach to personalized learning: It enables students to teach and present ideas in the manner they choose and understand best.

Explain Everything

This makes it a nice tool to use in the classroom because it puts the focus on students teaching other students in different ways to help deepen their comprehension. For example, students can create animated and narrated videos, annotate or record feedback on presentations, and even design interactive templates for learning activities.

Great for: Getting students to more deeply understand a lesson through different perspectives.

4. DIY

While Mindprint focuses on research-backed recommendations, DIY is a personalized learning app that lets kids direct their own learning through gamification.

DIY for Kids

DIY is like the Skillshare for students. It’s a safe online community where they can browse subjects they want to learn about, such as “Astronaut” or “Biologist,” learn the skills involved by trying challenges, get peer feedback on their work, and earn “patches” (think badges) for their accomplishments.

Great for: Empowering kids to develop their interests and discover their unique learning style.

Photo credit: Monkey Business Images / Shutterstock.com


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