Appy Hour

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