ANTON is at first glance, a German-based free learning app now available in the United States. The system works on a variety of devices, including Chromebooks. With over 200 interactive exercises for students in grades K-8, you can make your free account now.
“As a teacher, this app is excellent! Easy to use with scaffolded exercises to progress students through a variety of standards and skills. Visually it is not overwhelming while still engaging and has games. I love the multiple response types and organization of content. I highly recommend this app for continued support across learning standards.”
– U.S. Teacher
That’s 200+ exercises for each school subject, from math to language arts to science, and more. Plus, there is multi-language content aligned to state standards, including Texas.
Let’s dig a little into Anton to learn more about it.
Wait, What About Student Privacy?
Worried about creating an account and compromising student privacy? No worries, teachers and students can create accounts without giving out personal information. If you’re a teacher, you can create a classroom and assign exercises to your class. You can even check student progress. It also appears that Anton does not use login authorization through popular services. Those services include Google, Facebook, etc.
What’s more, ANTON meets the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). It also adheres to European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). And, more important for some, it is free from advertising. All data is deleted after 12 months of no use (unless you have an ANTON-Plus school contract).
When I signed up for an account, I provided an email and a password. I did not see an option to skip providing my email address or school location. Students would be asked to provide a nickname, a school, and at which subject they would like to start. Students who are at least 16 years of age may enter their email address or mobile phone number in the Settings of the app.
Aligned to Texas Standards
ANTON is also aligned to Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills. Here’s a quick example as an animated GIF:
Here’s a short video overview (updated):
A Short Introduction
“This app has everything. For a free app, it teaches and lets your student practice and then test what they learned,” said one teacher. You can get started with a free teacher account, choosing from human or monster avatars. Once you create your class, students can connect and start to work inside ANTON. It works as a learning management system, allowing teachers to track student progress. These features make grading and offering feedback easy. This video provides a quick overview of the login process:
You can find more relevant videos about how to use and navigate ANTON online. Here are a few you can explore right away:
Don’t be afraid to explore. Get started now.
Grades and Subjects Available
“I like the way ANTON breaks down a lesson into very small steps but builds the lesson back up with more info with each step taken making it easier to understand the concept,” said a classroom teacher. There are a lot of amazing subjects you can access in Anton. Each is replete with instructional activities that include images and sound, like this science activity for grades 3-5:
Here’s a quick video tutorial:
Subjects addressed for K-8 include:
- English/Language Arts: reading, phonics, the alphabet, grammar, and more.
- Math: numbers, counting, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and geometry.
- Science: plants, animals, the solar system, and more.
- Music: instruments, melody, rhythm, and reading music.
Of course, Spanish and other languages are included, as is social studies.
ANTON Games
Love to share games with your students? ANTON offers quite a few. Every time students finish a lesson, they earn a gold coin. These coins can “buy” games that students can play. A few games from the long list include:
- Hidden
- Sports: Long Jump
- Astro Bang
- Avatar Superstar
- Bat Cave
- Block Puzzle
There are many more games in ANTON that students can play. Of course, they can only do so after completing an exercise.
Is It ALL Free?
While ANTON appears to offer a lot of value at no cost, you can choose to use ANTON-Plus, a paid service. This paid service offers additional functions. In the Terms of Service, you can read:
2.8 Schools can purchase an ANTON school license and thus unlock additional functions that improve their use in school. In addition to the ANTON school license, schools can also activate ANTON-Plus for all school students and teachers.
A teacher could adapt the use of the free activities for the classroom, as well as assign them to students. Given that the activities range from K-6, the content is easy to work through.
“Intuitive app, easy to use, and creative exercises for easy understanding and learning,” reported one educator. ANTON is also available via the Apple App Store, Google Play Store, and/or Amazon Appstore. If you need a cross-platform app that works in the browser, ANTON meets your needs there as well.
Try it for yourself and then watch the fun and learning begin!
This blog entry was updated with new content on 10/14/2024.
