Expanding teaching, exploring technology

Apps- what works? What doesn’t?

What are the best educational apps? Which apps will be embraced by students? Which apps are recommended by others but turn up not useful? Why are there so many lists circulating of helpful apps?This post will explore how I learn about and implement different apps in the classroom.

I’d like to see how my use of apps changes as the school year progresses. Of course right now I’m thinking in terms of apps for reading but I know the iPad is much more than an ereader.

ICDL International Children’s Digital Library was recommended and I have done a brief exploration of the app. I’m not thrilled with the graphics and I’d prefer to use a real copy of the book The Three Little Pigs than the scanned copy in the app. I do like the idea of getting books in different language and I see that might be an area that could be explored further.

Teacher’s Pic is an app I used on my iPhone this spring. It’s a virtual popsicle stick system. Each student’s name is written on a stick and when you are calling upon someone to talk you hit the button and names come up randomly. This is built in accountability because kids know there’s a chance their name will come up and then don’t have their hand up. Of course they have the right to pass in my room, but it does get kids who don’t volunteer their answers to speak up more during large group discussions. The app tracks who responded and there is a setting so it won’t pick the same person again in the discussion.

Evernote is an app that I’ve downloaded but haven’t explored yet. I think students will be able to compile their thoughts easily through voice recording, pictures and words. I am looking forward to learning this app with another person. Hopefully my colleague Angelo will share his learning with me in the fall.

Art is an app that will be very useful for teaching art history. Unfortunately I’m not schedule to teach art but I’m hoping to rearrange the timetable to do some art teaching. This app is a dream come true. It downloads famous paintings so you can display them for students. For example, Rembrandt-it gives a full bio, a full gallery of his work and links to view other things about Rembrandt on the web. I haven’t figured out how to set the privacy settings on this app. There are a lot of nude paintings and sculptures and depending on the age of the students settings might need to be added.

Dictionary is a good app. I used it with my students in the spring. It reads aloud the word and provides definitions. It’s free which makes it much cheaper than having dictionaries in the classroom!

Word Lite is a word of the day app that is good for late primary-through to intermediate students. It can be used to expand student’s vocabulary. Our school focus is on million dollar words and this app gets the students’ attention and they are eager to read the word of the day. I think I’d purchase the app Word instead of Word Lite because there is advertising on the free app.

Here are some educational apps recommended on the site http://onlineultrasoundschool.com/2009/50-fun-iphone-apps-to-get-kids-reading-and-learning/ At first glance they look like flashcard style apps which is not what I’m looking for in an app. I’ll post later when I’ve had a chance to do a true review.

Here are some Apps recommended by Sheri Burkeen from her link Using iPod Touches in Kindergarten Poddy Training.

Kid Whiteboard

by NBR Soft

iWriteWords

by gdiplus

Bathtub Letters

by Steve Glinberg

Wheels on the Bus

by Duck Duck Moose

Kid Calc

by Steve Glinberg

StoryKit

by University of Maryland, International Children’s Digital Library

My questions:
Hmm, I’m also wondering how we will set up accounts and purchase apps at school. Will we have iTunes cards or school accounts? This is another one of those logistics questions we need to work out for educational use.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 26th, 2010 at 12:24 pm Filed under Uncategorized and. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.