ABSTRACT
This chapter describes how the app affordances of social interaction and online sharing of ideas serves to address English Language Arts Common Core State Standards. Again, how one employs these apps to effectively achieve the standards depends on their ability to create engaging discussion contexts that foster active student participation. Teachers employ a number of different types of tools for hosting online discussions: course management systems (CMSs), social networking sites, or online discussion apps, tools that support use of both asynchronous and synchronous discussions. Most districts have established guidelines for responsible use of online social media that include 'netiquette' norms for engaging in respectful online discussions. Students use VoiceThread to engage in collaborative audio discussions or text annotations to a slideshow of images or video for posting on the Web. Students can import images or video into VoiceThread directly from Flickr or from an iPad or desktop. There are also numerous world language learning apps for learning world languages.
