This document summarizes 10 free apps that can be used in the classroom: Epic!, Quizlet, Kahoot, Edmodo, Brainly.com, Cram.com, Brainpop ESL, English Grammar Ultimate, Newsela, and Google Classroom. For each app, the document provides a brief description of its features and capabilities, as well as potential disadvantages of each app.

1. Ten Inexpensive
Apps for the
Classroom
Tracy L. Jack

2. Epic!
• This app is free for educators.
• Teachers can download the app to their classroom devices, create
an account for themselves, and create accounts for up to twenty
students.
• The students can log onto their own reading page and add personal
touches by earning reading rewards.
• Parents can also download the app for their children, but there is a
subscription cost for non-educators.
• Disadvantages: limited number of student accounts, students can
only log on at school because they need your password to log into
the main account.

3. Quizlet!
• This is a free app for educators and students.
• This app allows teachers or students to create quizzes, flashcards, and
learning games to help them learn/review vocabulary terms.
• Teachers can upgrade their account for $24.99 per year to receive unlimited
classes, picture uploads, etc.
• Disadvantages: the app is much more effective if you use the pro version,
but it is a costly app.

4. Kahoot!
• This is another free app for teachers and students.
• Teachers can create a game show environment in the classroom,
encourage discussions, and make learning fun.
• Students download the app to their phones, enter the code given by
the teachers, and they turn their devices into digital response tools.
• Disadvantage: students have to have their own device, or you will
have to have a device for them to use.

5. Edmodo
• This is a cool app that allows teachers to create a Facebook type
community for the classroom.
• It is free for teachers and students, and it is closed, so it’s a safe
environment for students.
• The teacher sets up a classroom page and gives the students a code to
enter in order to be part of the community.
• The best part of the app is what the teacher can do. It’s not just about
communication. The teacher can post assignments, and the students
can submit their assignments.
• Disadvantage: students have to “buy into” this app. If they don’t log
on daily and discuss and add content, it becomes useless.

6. Brainly.com
• This is an app that teachers can encourage their students to use
for homework help.
• The app is designed to be used continuously. Students can
earn points by answering other students’ questions correctly.
• It creates a fun community learning experience for students.
• The app is free.
• Disadvantage: it could be used for purely for cheating. I’m not
sure how useful it would be in a math class setting because the
temptation to just get the answers might be too great.

7. Cram.com
• This is another flashcard and review site. The fun thing is
that there are flashcards already created, or the user can
create their own flashcards.
• The app is free, and it could be used by either the teacher or
the students.
• For math teacher, there are already Common Core flashcards
for grades K-8.
• Disadvantage: there do not seem to be a lot of pre-created
flashcards for ELA classes. This means that the teacher has to
create the Common Core flashcards for their class.

8. Brainpop ESL
• Brainpop has three downloadable apps for teachers or students, but this is
the app I found most useful for the classroom.
• This app gives students access to free BrainPop videos that help ESL
students.
• There are so many wonderful videos available on the BrainPop webpage.
However, that is a costly subscription.
• This app allows students to watch videos for free that are designed to help
those students learning English.
• Disadvantage: the videos are chosen by the company, not by the teacher.
This means that, unless the teacher wants to pay a large subscription price,
they have to be happy with the videos that are available.

9. English Grammar Ultimate
• This app is a learning game that helps students with
their grammar skills.
• The app has levels for parts of speech, affixes, verb
tenses, etc.
• It would be a great app to use for reviewing topics that
students should know in middle school, but have
forgotten or missed.
• It would also be a great app to use for reviewing
concepts that will be covered in high stakes testing.
• Disadvantage: this is not an app that allows the teacher
to “check in” on the student’s progress. You have to
trust the student to stay on track and work through the
levels.

10. Newsela
• This is a wonderful site and app. There is a subscription cost for the
advanced features. However, the basic features are free.
• The teacher assigns newspaper articles that have been written about the
hot topics of the day, and the articles are leveled, so the teacher can
differentiate based on reading levels.
• The students sign in using a class code, read the article, and take a quiz
that is designed like the current high stakes test questions.
• The results are emailed to the teacher.
• Disadvantage: the best way to use this app is to use it in the pro
version, but again, that is a costly subscription for the teacher, so
although it is great free program; it is better as a paid app.

11. Google Classroom
• The Google Classroom app allows teachers to create a virtual classroom
for students and parents.
• The teacher creates a classroom, adds students, and then gives students a
code to use.
• This app allows teachers to create a flipped classroom. The students can
watch pre-loaded video lessons at home, take quizzes, do online
activities at home, which gives the teachers time in class to work on
project-based learning.
• Disadvantage: this app only works if you can get the parents and
students sold on the program. They have to log into the app
independently and do the work, or it’s worthless.