First of all, I would just like to say that outside of drawing, photo editing, and coloring, there aren’t a lot of quality art apps out there (at least based on my searches). I chose to try out and review the following apps: Sketch by Sony Mobile, Photoshop Express by Adobe, DailyArt by Moiseum, Crayola Create and Play by Crayola, and the Newsela app by Newsela. All five apps seem to be good at what their intended uses were and I will discuss each more in depth below.

Sketch by Sony Mobile

Sketch was a good all-around drawing application. I used it on my Android phone, but it is also available for iOS. The biggest limitation I found with this app is that it is definitely geared for a tablet, rather than a cell phone. I thought that trying to draw with accuracy was possible, but difficult when using my fingers on such a small screen. The app had a variety of drawing options including different brushes and nibs, special effects such as smudging, and the ability to add ‘stickers’ to your drawing. You could also use a photo as the basis for your drawing or stickering which was a surprise as I thought this was an app for drawing only, not photo editing. This app would be good for promoting critical thinking and creativity skills, just as a regular art class would through the decision-making skills needed to create. I would consider this app to be ‘constructive’ but also a ‘knowledge and skill building’ app because it would allow for the discovery and experimentation described in the article Educational Apps Ontology (Notari, M. et al. 2016) while also asking a user to practice their drawing skills. There is another feature of the app that allows the user to share and view their art with other users. Someone viewing a work of art can favorite it or add a comment. While there is some level of communication going on with that feature, I personally do not think it is enough to consider it a ‘communication’ app according to the research in Educational Apps Ontology (Notari, M. et al. 2016). I think the best age group for this app would be 6th grade and up due to the slight challenge of navigating the different menus. However, with enough practice, students as young as grade 2 could probably use this app to create art. This is a free app.

Photoshop Express by Adobe

I was pleasantly surprised by how many functions and options this app had. I haven’t used Photoshop in almost 10 years so it’s possible that the number of features is typical of photo editing software today. There honestly were so many features that in some cases it was hard to see the difference that each filter or effect was making. This would be a great application for adding mood to a photo that is otherwise ordinary. In addition to the photo editing portion of this app, you can also add borders, text, and ‘stickers’ to liven up any photograph. This would be another good app for fostering creativity and problem-solving skills, although not quite as much as creating your own art from scratch. I would consider this app to be in the category of ‘other’ because its use is so specific, however, I feel that one could argue that it also falls into the ‘knowledge and skill building’ category due to the construction of knowledge via a creative activity (Notari, M. et al. 2016). This app would be best suited for grades 5 and up due to the subtleties involved in photo editing. I don’t really think a younger student would appreciate the slight variances in mood and tone of an image based on just the filters. Younger grades might appreciate the stickering and text editing portion, but I think the multiple menus they would have to dig through to find those features would throw them off too much for them to enjoy it. This is a free app.

DailyArt by Moiseum

This app is very simple and has one main feature of sharing a work of art with the user. The work of art is accompanied by a brief article about the piece and its significance. This would be a good supplemental activity for early-finishers to learn more about art and art history. The free version of this app has advertisements at the bottoms and every 4 or so artists, which is a little annoying but bearable. Also, the app lets you scroll through the previous artworks and articles one day at a time for more than a month’s worth of ‘daily’ information. You cannot select a reading level or language with this app so it further limits the grade level and type of students who could successfully use the app and learn from it. This app would fall under the category of ‘knowledge and skill building’ because it offers art history information that students could learn about (Notari, M. et al. 2016). I think this app would be best for students in grades 5 and up because the language might be too difficult for the ‘average’ fourth grader or younger. This is a free app with an option to pay for other features (no cost listed).

Crayola Create and Play by Crayola

This app was fun to play with and had a lot of features for kids. You could draw, color, create a coloring page of your face by using the camera function, raise a pet, and play games. The only downside to this app is that it only has a 24-hour free period and then you are billed $5.99 a month through your Apple Store or Google Play account. This app definitely fosters creativity and problem solving not only through its drawing and coloring features but through its educational games and puzzles. I would categorize this as a ‘knowledge and skill building’ app as well as being ‘instructive’ and ‘constructive’ (Notari, M. et al. 2016). This app is geared for young children and would only be useful for PreK through 4th grades.

Newsela app by Newsela

I went out on a limb a little with this app in the hopes that it contained art-related articles. I was pleasantly surprised to find not only articles about art but options to change the reading level based on a reader’s Lexile number and change languages on some articles. You can also take quizzes for each article and give an open-ended written response. As an educator, you can assign articles and assignments, too. This app improves global awareness, social and cross-cultural skills, and information literacy through its articles and quizzes (IMLS 2009). This app would fall into the ‘knowledge and skill building’ or ‘other’ category due to the ability of the user to construct new knowledge and gain information from it (Notari, M. et al. 2016). This app would be good for ‘early finishers’ as an enrichment activity or an activity for a substitute if you didn’t want the students using art supplies while you were out. Its limitation as a news application is that it isn’t as interactive or engaging as some of the other apps I reviewed. This is a free app.