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Educators who aren’t well versed in mobile technology
instruction on how to manipulate the device.
Here are some of our favorite educational apps:
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Curriculum
Art/Music
Band
Le Louvre
Virtuoso Piano Free
Language Arts
SAT Vocab Challenge (free)
Spel it Rite (free)
Word Warp (free)
Math
ArithmeTick
Brainz
Cloud Math Free
Coin Flip
Coin Math (free)
iMaths
Kids Math
KidsMathFun
Mad Math Lite
Math Cards
Math Drills Lite
MathKingdom
Math Magic
Math Step123
Multiplication Genius
Number Line (free)
PopMath
Science
Molecules (free)
Star Walk
Social Studies
Constitution
Google Earth
Google Maps
Historical MapBlarij Lite (free)
Today in History Lite (free)
Special Education
Proloquo2Go
Wheels on the Bus
Comic Touch Lite
Corkulous
DoodleBuddy
Draw 4 Free
Filterstorm
Google Docs
iDoodle2 lite (free)
iThoughts
iWorks
Keynote
Kid Animation (free)
Magic Drawing Pad
Numbers
Pages
Photo Frames
Photogene
Puppet Pals (free)
Qvik Sketch
StoryKit (free)
Strip Designer
Teacher only. Eliminate the need for a projector in your
classroom by using the iPad as a digital display for instruction. The teacher can hold the iPad while circulating
around the room, or students can pass it to each other
(invest in a sturdy case to reduce impact if dropped). One
of my student teachers gathered photos from around the
school and the internet and flipped through them as she
described her lesson about geometric shapes found both
in the school and in nature. Another used it as a digital
book, because she couldn’t find the book she wanted in the
library. Others used the iPad for formative data collection
(using Google’s spreadsheet app) by creating attendance
sheets and easily accessible parent contact lists.
Productivity/Creativity
Adobe Ideas (free)
Adobe Photoshop ExpressDraw 4 Free
Colors! Lite
Reference
2Do Lite
3D Brain
aNotes
Art Lite (free)
BBC News
BrainPOP Featured Movie
Cool Facts (free)
Dictionary!
Dragon Dictation
EarthObserver (free)
ENG-LAT
Facts (free)
Google Earth
GoSky Watch Planetarium History:Maps
National Gallery, London
National Geographic
NPR
On This Day
Planets
Presidents
Simplenote
Wikipanion
World Countries ALL-IN-ONE (free)
Lessons Learned
Although each approach to using a limited number of
iPads in a classroom has its own challenges and opportunities, the lessons we learned often applied to all situations.
Provide specific rules and self-navigated instructions. Create
an instruction card that explains how to use the iPad (for
instance, “If you close out of the app, press the main button
to find it again”) and the rules for using the device (for example, “Only one set of fingers on the iPad at a time”).
Organize your apps. Have all the apps you want your students to use on the first page or within a folder on the main
screen, especially if it’s an unattended center. Fingers slip;
apps close. You want your students to be able to restart
their assignments on their own.
Turn off 3G. Use only your school’s Wi-Fi to access the internet, and even then, make sure your iPad goes through
the firewall to get online. Explain this to your administrator, who will have concerns about students accidentally
gaining access to something they shouldn’t see. And be
prepared to turn off internet access altogether if you can’t
convince your administrator that it’s secure. To disable 3G,
from the home screen, choose Settings > Cellular and set
Cellular Data to Off. Similarly, turn off Wi-Fi from the
home screen by going to Settings > Wi-Fi and set Wi-Fi to
Off. Most apps function offline, so you can still get a lot of
instructional value even if your students can’t go online.
Think outside the app. The Apple App Store has thousands
of apps for download. But many are focused on lower-level
thinking skills. Therefore, use apps that are not content
specific to supplement apps that require problem solving
and creative thinking. If you are teaching place values in
