June APP ED REVIEW RoundUp – Get Creative with Art Apps This Summer!

Highly Rated Rubric-Assessed Art Apps For Your Classroom or Just for Fun!

With summer right around the corner, it is time to relax, decompress, and then start thinking about next year (when you’re ready, of course J). Once ready, we here at App Ed Review encourage you to start thinking about ways to incorporate art into your instruction! Whether you’re an English, social studies, P.E., or math teacher (or another subject area too!), art can be used to expand student learning and allow them to demonstrate their learning. We hope the apps below provide you with some ideas.

And remember, each and every app that is reviewed by App Ed Review includes an original app description, a comprehensive evaluation, and 3-5 instructional ideas explaining how to use the app in your classroom.

1. Vango Art is an unorthodox app for the art classroom. With it, students can view art created by amateur artists. Students can critique, model, and recreate art found in this app. Additionally, short bios for each artist are included in this app. The bios often explain that the artist creates his or her works during spare time while maintaining another career. That way, students who may be interested in pursuing art in addition to another field following high school can see examples of other individuals who have successfully accomplished that feat. Vango Art earned high scores in multiple dimensions on our rubric for is design; however, as it is not a “traditional” educational app, teachers can read more about Vango Art and view instructional ideas for using it in their classroom by clicking here.

2. Some times art speaks to you after viewing it, but if you want to wear it, YoShirt is the app for you. With it, students can design a range of apparel – shirts, pants, sweatshirts, and more – using their own original artwork. Students can choose to create their art on the clothing template provided by this app, or they can import an image from their camera roll. That way, if students created artwork using another art app, they can save it or take a screenshot of it, which automatically saves it to their camera roll. YoShirt earned very high scores for its design, usability, and potential to engage students. For ideas about how to use YoShirt in your classroom, click here.

3. Do you want your students to have the image editing capabilities of Adobe Photoshop but don’t have money in the budget for a classroom of software licenses? Try Adobe Photoshop Express. This app accesses students’ photos and has cropping, clarity, exposure, contrast, red eye elimination, and other touch-up options. Students can add borders and frames to their final products and save them and share their creations across social media, email, and more. This app is perfect for having students create artwork to accompany almost any assignment! Check out the possibilities here!

4. Vivid, painted pieces can’t be made on a tablet, right? Wrong. Brushes 3 gives students the tools to create rich artwork – without the mess of paint – all with the swipe of a finger. Brushes 3 has a variety of different brushes, colors, and paint options. Students can even mix their own paint color, just as they would in the studio! Layers can be stacked on top of each other to create advanced pieces. Students can also curate a “how to” presentation about their pieces with the time-lapse function. Scoring a 9.3 in Design on our comprehensive rubric, Brushes 3 will introduce your students to graphic design while moving your classroom into the future!

That’s all for this month’s Roundup. If you would like more information about any of the apps mentioned here or that are on the App Ed Review website, please contact us at info@appedreview.com. And remember, just because you may not be an art teacher does not mean you can’t use art in your classroom.

By the way, did you know that App Ed Review is rating Android apps now too?!