10 Great Apps for the Classroom

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10 Great Apps for the Classroom Prepared by: Dedra Christly & Dustin James

description

Reviews of 10 applications spanning K-12 grades and beyond.

Transcript of 10 Great Apps for the Classroom

Page 1: 10 Great Apps for the Classroom

10 Great Apps for the Classroom

Prepared by: Dedra Christly & Dustin James

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1) Khan AcademyReviewed by: Dedra Christly

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Khan Academy

• The description boasts that “Khan Academy allows you to learn almost anything for free.” They have a library of over 4,200 videos and articles. Progress is trackable with a user account. Khan has an overwhelmingly good review.

• Grade Level and Content Area — Khan Academy ipad app can be used in any grade, k-12th and beyond.

• Specific Uses in the Classroom — Downloadable videos detailing the subject matter. Can be used for an assignment for students to watch certain videos or for students to get a bit of extra help with a subject.

• Student Feedback — Since the format is mainly video instruction, there is not any format for student feedback.

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Khan Academy

• Opportunities for Higher Learning Thinking Skills — The app encourages memorization, understanding, application, and evaluation.

• Ease of Use — Reviews show it to be easy to use.• Privacy Offerings — Since it’s mostly video instruction,

there doesn’t seem to be any issue with privacy.• Connecting to Curriculum Content/Student Outcomes —

Reinforced skills are connected to classroom curriculum.• Quality of Instructions — According to video review, the

app seems to have easy-to-follow instructions.

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2) Shakespeare in Bits

Reviewed by: Dedra Christly

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Shakespeare in Bits

• Grade Level and Content Area — 7-12 grades. English literature, drama, Shakespeare

• Specific Uses in the Classroom — Helps students to better understand the works of Shakespeare. Provides synonyms and definitions of key words and phrases. Also shows an animated version of the play while the app reads the play aloud to the reader.

• Student Feedback — It does not appear to provide student feedback.

• Opportunities for Higher Learning Thinking Skills- It encourages memorization, understanding, application, and analyzation.

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Shakespeare in Bits

• Ease of Use — It is very user friendly and intuitive.• Privacy Offerings — Privacy does not appear to be an issue

with this app.• Connecting to Curriculum Content/Student Outcomes —

The skills reinforced are connected to the curriculum standards and student outcomes.

• Quality of Instructions — The app does provide easy to follow and comprehensive instructions.

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3) Grammar UpReviewed by: Dedra Christly

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Grammar Up

• Grade Level and Content Area — All grade levels. English grammar. Designed to allow recipients to play games and take tests as part of the learning process with real-time error feedback. Most of the questions on the tests seem to be geared toward the corporate business world.

• Specific Uses in the Classroom — Provides quizzes and explanations for correct grammar. Teachers receive instant feedback from the app regarding students’ graded tests and exercises.

• Student Feedback — Provides real-time error feedback.• Opportunities for Higher Learning Thinking Skills —

Encourages memorization, understanding, and application.

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Grammar Up

• Ease of Use — App appears to be user friendly and easy to use.

• Privacy Offerings — Students and teachers must have a login to use the app, thus maintaining security.

• Connecting to Curriculum Content/Student Outcomes — The skill reinforced are connected to any English grammar curriculum.

• Quality of Instructions — The app provides easy-to-follow instructions for use.

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4) QuizletReviewed by: Dedra Christly

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Quizlet

• Allows students to test their knowledge, repeat quizzes use and flash cards in order to improve and build upon their knowledge. It also allows teachers to create specific “sets” of content area quizzes and flash cards.

• Grade Level and Content Area — Any grade level and multiple content areas.

• Specific Uses in the Classroom — Quizlet, offers quizzes and flashcards for memorization and learning. Teachers can have students take quizzes in the app or online. As long as they have an account, Quizlet will track progress and search history. (It had cookies saved from a search I’d done in January for sight words for my son, even though I didn’t have an account with them yet.) It also allows teachers to create “sets” such as quizzes and flashcards and lets the teachers see who has used the sets, how often they used them, and how well they did on the quizzes.

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Quizlet

• Student Feedback — Provides real-time quality feedback to students.

• Opportunities for Higher Learning Thinking Skills — It encourages memorization, understanding, evaluation, and analyzation.

• Ease of Use — Very user friendly and easy to use. Due to cookies, it is quite intuitive.

• Privacy Offerings — Username and password.• Connecting to Curriculum Content/Student Outcomes — The

skills reinforced are connected to the curriculum standards/student outcomes.

• Quality of Instructions —The app is incredibly user friendly despite not having a specific list of instructions.

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5) Google DriveReviewed by: Dedra Christly

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Google Drive

• Not specifically for school, but it allows collaboration for group projects in shared documents. It allows everyone 15GB of storage and supports multiple types of documents and files.  

• Grade Level and Content Area — Any age, any content area.• Specific Uses in the Classroom — A great cloud for classes to

share information or work on group projects.• Student Feedback — The comments section will allow for

student feedback.• Opportunities for Higher Learning Thinking Skills — Does

not specifically encourage higher learning thinking skills.

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Google Drive

• Ease of Use — Very user friendly as long as the user is somewhat computer/tech literate.

• Privacy Offerings — File-by-file security; The user who hosts the file can set security to where only those with whom they share the file can see or edit documents. User can revoke or regrant security. If enrolled, user has a two-step authentication.

• Connecting to Curriculum Content/Student Outcomes —  No specific skills reinforced.

• Quality of Instructions — The help section has easy-to-follow instructions.

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6) WritePadReviewed by: Dustin James

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WritePad

• Grade Level and Content Area — WritePad can be used for handwriting practice in the lower grades, but its most effective use is as a note-taking and document creation app for middle-school to secondary classrooms, which can be utilized across multiple content areas.

• Specific Uses in the Classroom — Through WritePad, students are able to take handwritten notes directly onto their devices, and those notes are then directly converted into text format, which assists in organization and legibility for more effective note-taking.  It also allows for a new way for students to create text documents for assignments.  Thus, instead of having to write down notes and then copy them into a computer, the text created can be manipulated to create typed responses directly on the device, without having to deal with the hassle of sometimes hard to use keyboards on standard devices.

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WritePad

• Student Feedback — WritePad provides immediate feedback regarding student handwritten input, and the student is able to observe whether their notes are being taken effectively or whether their handwriting needs adjustment.

• Opportunities for Higher Learning Thinking Skills — WritePad helps to facilitate application and creation, as students are able to utilize this writing platform to explore ideas and create thoughtful responses to classroom content in an innovative way.

• Ease of Use — WritePad is relatively easy to use.  Some have reported initial difficulty regarding the app’s ability to recognize their handwriting, but over time, the app trains itself to more effectively recognize idiosyncrasies in an individual’s writing style to more effectively capture the intended text.  Also, WritePad comes with handy shortcut gestures that allow for fast content creation and editing.  And users can create custom shorthand formulas to more efficiently take notes and create documents.

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WritePad

• Privacy Offerings — Content is saved directly onto the user’s device.  Created content can be synced with other platforms or shared with other users but only with the approval of the user.

• Connecting to Curriculum Content/Student Outcomes — As a note-taking/document creation tool, WritePad can absolutely assist students in learning and retaining curriculum content.  But it also offers an innovative platform through which teachers can work on writing standards.  Writing often presents a challenge of engagement and interest (especially in secondary classrooms); however, through the use of this interesting technology, students may be more inclined to work on assignments that address specific writing standards.

• Quality of Instructions — WritePad’s developers offer tutorial videos to walk users through the features of the app as well as the various built-in shorthand and shortcut editing gestures that can be utilized in the app. These offer clear modeling of the app’s capabilities and how users can best utilize the app’s functions.

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7) iTunes UReviewed by: Dustin James

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iTunes U

• Grade Level and Content Area — iTunes U contains a variety of multimedia courses and lessons on almost any subject from Kindergarten-12th grade and includes many post-secondary studies.

• Specific Uses in the Classroom — Students can use iTunes U to look up specific lessons or topics that they find challenging and receive supplemental instruction from reliable sources in an engaging, multimedia format.  Teachers have the option of creating courses or lessons within iTunes U for student use.

• Student Feedback — Teachers can include discussion features when creating courses to allow for student responses to lesson-specific questions and feedback both from the teacher and from peers.  Teachers can also incorporate specific assignments that integrate different applications in their designed courses for engaging, lesson-specific assessment.

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iTunes U

• Opportunities for Higher Learning Thinking Skills — iTunes U encourages analysis, evaluation, and application.  Students are provided detailed instruction on specific topics that allows them to analyze ideas they are learning in the classroom, evaluate the merits and consequences of such ideas, and apply their knowledge to broader situations or concepts.

• Ease of Use — iTunes U is highly intuitive. Students can browse courses according to subject matter and content.  And most of the materials within the various courses are free and easy to download. Within seconds, a student can begin learning a new concept or area of interest.

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iTunes U

• Privacy Offerings — Most pre-designed courses involve students accessing video, audio, and or PDF materials with little to no information needed (establishing little concern for issues of privacy).  When a teacher designs a course, he/she can restrict access so that only students in the class can view the content and/or individuals enrolled in the course.

• Connecting to Curriculum Content/Student Outcomes — As the content is mostly designed by educators, students are provided with content-specific lessons that directly correspond to curriculum standards and student outcomes. There are even lessons specifically labelled “Common Core” the cover a variety of subjects and ensure that students are receiving standards-based supplemental instruction.

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iTunes U

• Quality of Instructions — The reviews of iTunes U are mostly positive, with individuals noting ease of use and accessibility.  All users need to do is click on course that they would like to access and then subscribe to the content.  All the free materials needed are then downloaded to the user’s device for review.  And for teachers looking to design a course, there are very specific, helpful guides for creating a course that is fun and engaging for students.

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8) SubtextReviewed by: Dustin James

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Subtext

• Grade Level and Content Area — Subtext can be utilized to promote effective reading strategies and literacy across multiple grade levels.  It is especially appropriate for upper-elementary to secondary classrooms.

• Specific Uses in the Classroom — Students can access book and articles chosen by the teacher and read them in an engaging, interactive format that encourages comprehension and collaboration.  While reading a text, students can highlight and easily look up words they do not understand; they can also post discussion comments or questions about specific portions of the text for the rest of the class to see.  Furthermore, teachers can create reading assignments, leave explanatory comments on certain sections of a reading, and/or import articles or other works that serve as supplemental materials to reinforce key concepts or themes.

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Subtext

• Student Feedback — Through the interactive portion of Subtext, students can receive feedback from the teacher as well as other peers in the classroom regarding areas of difficulty in the text.  They can also test their comprehension and knowledge of unfamiliar ideas or words by highlighting portions of the text and instantly searching for relevant information via Google.  Moreover, teachers can insert questions into the text that poll student responses and gauge comprehension.

• Opportunities for Higher Learning Thinking Skills — Subtext encourages understanding, analysis, and evaluation.  Through the app, students are able to closely read a text and carefully review its inherent ideas through collaboration and instant access to supplemental explanatory materials.  This all-encompassing approach to text interaction encourages all three of the listed aspects of higher learning thinking skills.

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Subtext

• Ease of Use — Subtext is very easy to use, and there are multiple videos available of children using the app to explore classroom texts.  And students seem to have fun with app and enjoy using its various features to explore the intricacies of a text.

• Privacy Offerings — Teachers can design a reading assignment so that only students in the class can view content and discussion (i.e. class reviews of a text are closed off to outside users).  Furthermore, teachers can create private discussion groups within a classroom text review so that only specific students can view specific questions, thus creating an ability to differentiate lessons on the text.  Finally, teachers can restrict Internet access so that students are unable to access unrelated or inappropriate content during lessons.

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Subtext

• Connecting to Curriculum Content/Student Outcomes — Subtext directly addresses literacy standards by encouraging close reading and critical thinking when presented with a text.  Teachers can also introduce a variety of literary genres through the app to allow students to explore and compare ideas, themes, or literary devices that are used to establish and convey meaning within the various texts.

• Quality of Instructions — Subtext provides helpful design tips and instructions for teachers to effectively create classroom groups and embed content into readings.  There is also a comprehensive user guide available on the designer’s website for step-by-step instructions on how to get started and utilize the app’s various features.

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9) LearnistReviewed by: Dustin James

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Learnist

• Grade Level and Content Area — Learnist is most appropriate for middle to high school students, and it provides information and resources that span multiple content areas.

• Specific Uses in the Classroom — Often referred to as the educational version of the popular app Pinterest, Learnist allows students to access educational boards on specific topics of interest and receive ample, multimedia content that is expertly-crafted and relevant to their topic. Teachers can also use the app to create individualized boards for their classroom, to put a variety of engaging supplemental materials at their students’ fingertips.  Finally, students can create boards of their own to organize and store any quality supplemental materials or study guides that they may find independently.

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Learnist

• Student Feedback — Teachers can incorporate activities and supplemental lessons to classroom boards that include assessments for student feedback.  Students can also review expert boards to test their knowledge on a particular subject.

• Opportunities for Higher Learning Thinking Skills — At the very least, Learnist encourages application and analysis.  Students are introduced to a variety of content beyond their textbook in order to see real-life applications of the ideas and concepts they are studying in the classroom, and students are able to delve deeper into a topic and analyze the building blocks of a particular concept across multiple media formats.

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Learnist

• Ease of Use — With an interface similar to Pinterest, Learnist has a very familiar functionality for many students, and it is easy to navigate between various boards and content.  And with the incorporation of multimedia resources, students have a fun, engaging way to master standards-based content.

• Privacy Offerings — Through Learnist, students have the ability to view, save, and share content-related materials.  However, one of the drawbacks to the app is that students are not restricted as to the type of educational content they can access.  Thus, some supervision will be required when utilizing this app in the classroom.

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Learnist

• Connecting to Curriculum Content/Student Outcomes — Working as a wellspring of educational content, Learnist can connect to multiple forms of curriculum content.  Yet, literacy standards are perhaps most appropriate when discussing Learnist, as the app encourage students to synthesize ideas from multiple sources of information and multiple media formats in order to draw conclusions about an idea or topic.  Also, students are able to think critically about the merits of a particular resource when creating their own boards for individual review.

• Quality of Instructions — The developers of Learnist have detailed instructional videos available that cover the app’s various features in order to teach both students and teachers how to best utilize the app.

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10) Inspiration Maps

Reviewed by: Dustin James

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Inspiration Maps

• Grade Level and Content Area — Inspiration Maps is an innovative and engaging graphic organizer creation platform that can be utilized across multiple content areas and grade levels.  However, it is perhaps most effective as a tool for middle to high school students.

• Specific Uses in the Classroom — Teachers can utilize Inspiration Maps to construct graphic organizers that assist students in visualizing relations between various ideas and components within a particular lesson or course of study.  Students can also utilize the app to create helpful, engaging visual representations of class notes or study materials to increase comprehension and retention.

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Inspiration Maps

• Student Feedback — As primarily a creation platform rather than a resource for information, Inspiration Maps does not provide specific student feedback.  However, the app can be utilized by the teacher to have students create graphic organizers to outline key concepts from class readings or lectures to assess student comprehension.

• Opportunities for Higher Learning Thinking Skills — Inspiration Maps encourages analysis, evaluation, and creation.  While creating graphic organizers, it encourage students to closely analyze a particular idea or concept and evaluate how the various components of the idea or concept work together.  Then, it asks students to create visual representations of the idea or concept that effectively outline its various components and underlying processes.

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Inspiration Maps

• Ease of Use — Inspiration Maps is fairly easy to use.  It comes pre-installed with various templates for users to employ in order to get a head-start on creating their graphic organizers.  And the app’s functionality is highly intuitive.  Even someone who has little familiarity with graphic organizers can quickly begin to create and customize effective organizers with a few taps of a finger.

• Privacy Offerings — All created graphic organizers are stored directly onto the user’s device.  Any creations can be shared, but the user must approve the action before any sharing occurs.  Thus, privacy appears to be of little concern with Inspiration Maps.

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Inspiration Maps

• Connecting to Curriculum Content/Student Outcomes — Incorporating Inspiration Maps in classroom assignments is especially helpful for literacy standards.  By having students develop their own graphic organizers that outline key concept in a text or topic, they are forced to closely read a text and look for relationships between the various components of and ideas in the text.  Furthermore, they utilize their creative capacities and critical thinking skills to determine the best ways of organizing those ideas into visual structures that both accurately reflect the information provided and give common observers a clear understanding the various components and processes at work.

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Inspiration Maps

• Quality of Instructions — The developers of Inspiration Maps provide instructional videos on how to utilize the app’s various features to create and customize a graphic organizer.  The app also include an extensive help section that covers a multitude of topics and questions that users may have when creating their graphic organizers.