Ed. note: App of the Week picks are now being curated by the editors of Common Sense Education [1], which helps educators find the best ed-tech tools, learn best practices for teaching with tech, and equip students with the skills they need to use technology safely and responsibly. Click here [2] to read the full app review.
Bear [2]
What’s It Like?
Bear is refreshing in its simplicity, managing to be useful without being complicated. Use Bear for teacher and student productivity — teaching note-taking and list-keeping skills to help students organize their work and manage assignments. Promote student collaboration by having students share sets of notes to a class document in order to provide more breadth and multiple perspectives, or improve classroom communication by designating a class minutes keeper so that absent students can stay caught up.
Price: Free, Paid
Grades: 6-12
Rating: 4/5
Pros: Quick, easy setup will have you taking notes and using features in no time, and the clean user interface helps keep clutter at bay.
Cons: The lack of voice recording capabilities may frustrate some users, and it will take some practice to become adept at the features.
Bottom line: For an app that doesn’t have a lot of bells and whistles, it’s surprisingly versatile and useful for many types of writing and note-taking.