I recently attended the NHSTE Workshop on Apps for Education. Wow! I had the chance to look at and explore a lot of wonderful apps that would enhance education here at Underhill School. I'd like to share some FREE ones with you here, but be aware I have not tried out every single one. If you find one here that you like, let us know through comments! If you have a great app that is not on this list, let me know and I will add it. More apps will follow in future blog postings!
Idea Sketch
A useful app for:
-brainstorming
-outlining/note
taking
-planning
-organizational
charts
Phonics Tic-Tac-Toe
This app is a game of identifying
vowels, syllables, letter sounds, digraphs, etc.
Audio Book
It is a recording app with
unique URL for sharing podcasts, narrating
Doodle Buddy
With this app, students can paint, draw, sketch;
import photos or use supplied backgrounds; other tools: stickers,
stencil, text box, paint brush, chalk, glitter, smudge; save to iPad’s
camera roll or send in an email
Screen Chomp
Use this app to explain the how/why of a
concept, create a screencast, teach other
students or assess student understanding. It is a recordable whiteboard,
can record using blank screen or import picture from Photos, email link
to video view - a unique URL is provided
http://www.techsmith.com/labs.html#screenchomp
QR Codes
Create your own QR codes and use them to link to audio
recordings, student created digital stories, websites, images and more
http://www.scoop.it/t/qr-codes-in-the-elementary-school-classroom
Photo Card
Students can design a postcard with
photos, stickers, voice message, then email it
http://www.billatkinson.com/aboutPhotoCard.html
Great app for sending a post card from a
place/landmark studied
Toontastic
This app allows students to create a quick 5-minute cartoon complete
with music, pre-made or creatable backgrounds, and characters. Students
narrate the cartoon. Toontastic provides a platform that lets students develop the set-up, conflict,
challenge, climax, and resolution of a story.
Stack the States (Lite is free)
The app asks trivia questions about a state, or asks you to identify the
shape of the state. If you answer correctly, you'll earn that state to
add to your platform. The goal is to stack as many states on the
platform as necessary to reach a goal line without the stack tipping
over. When you reach the goal, you are awarded a state to add to your
collection.
National Geographic Explorer
This is a robust classroom resource that
connects students to the world. It supports common core science and
language arts standards. Highly interactive content with videos, audio,
photos, and leveled text gives students an authentic learning experience
that engages while it teaches.
Scribble Press
Scribble Press allows kids to combine their own writing and artwork (or
clip art or imported images) into a book and even includes some "starter
books," which work sort of like Mad Libs, to help inspire them.
Miss Spell
This app will test the spelling ability of your students by offering up a
variety of words that the students need to decide whether they are
spelled correctly or not. Speed and accuracy score the best points as
you decipher the 20 words on offer for each level. American English is
the standard spelling format, and there are over 10,000 words tested.
Story Kit
Story Kit is the International Children's Digital
Library App. It allows students to create their own stories, complete with
pictures. Add text boxes, images and sound clips. Record sounds for stories, and add, reorder or delete pages. Add pictures by drawing
on the screen, taking a picture of something, or drawing something on
paper and taking a picture of it.
Bluster
Players match synonyms, prefixes, or rhyming words in
this interactive vocabulary game with single player or team mode
Counting Bills and Coins
This is a great app with five different activities that are customizable
by skill level. Kids can do simple activities with just beginner
knowledge of currency, all the way up to more complex word problems
making change at a cash register. Here are some recommended websites that also review and list educational apps:
Digital Wish's
Apps Center for Education Helps Teachers Identify Android Apps for the K-12
Classroom! Funded by a grant from the Motorola
Mobility Foundation, Digital Wish has just launched the Digital Wish Apps
Center, the newest tool designed to help teachers find the best educational
applications designed for the Android. operating system. http://www.digitalwish.com/dw/digitalwish/apps_center
TCEA-Recommended
iPad Apps
This Google
spreadsheet is publically available and contains hundreds of apps listed by
over 50 different categories – the matrix is color-coded to easily identify
FREE resources and prices are listed for those with a cost. http://tinyurl.com/TCEA-iPad-Apps-Matrix
From
eSchoolNews ~ 10 of the best apps for education
As iPhones, iPads,
and iPod touches become more integrated in classrooms, educators, and students
are looking for new ways to apply them to the learning process. Applications on
all of these devices can help automate current classroom processes or present
new ways to learn that previously had been unexplored. In this collection,
eSchoolNews’ Assistant Editor, Jenna Zwang assembled a list of education “apps”
for Apple devices of note, five are free, and the other five range in price
from $0.99 to $9.99. http://www.eschoolnews.com/2011/01/07/10-of-the-best-apps-for-education
The Best
Education Apps at FETC (Florida Education Technology Conference)
Mobile learning was a
cornerstone of the FETC conference in Orlando last month (Feb. 2012) and the
buzz culminated with the conference's closing session: An App Shootout where
ed-tech pros Gail Lovely, Hall Davidson, and Jenna Linskens shared some of
their favorite apps for Apple devices. This link includes 11 apps shared by
Jenna and links to the two Google spreadsheets compiled during the “shootout”,
one list from the panelists (37 apps) and one from the audience (over 50
additional apps)! http://thejournal.com/articles/2012/02/06/the-best-education-apps-at-fetc.aspx
Top 20
Must-Have Educational iPhone & iPad Apps Used By Real Teachers in the
Classroom
From the Appolicous Advisor, educators share their lists of the best education apps for elementary,
middle school, junior high, and high school. http://tinyurl.com/Top-20-Must-Have-Apps
