iOS Edu Apps Worth Checking Out
Rather than typing a comment to discuss and review a few of my favourite apps, I thought I’d post a short screen recording and chat about them: http://youtu.be/yoiaoihTPrw?hd=1
The apps discussed are:
Thicket – A free interactive gesture based audio creation app.
123D Sculpt – A free 3D sculpting app.
Leafsnap – A free interactive field guide to visually recognize tree and plant species.
123D Catch – Turn your photos into interactive 3D models, for free.
Move the Turtle – A fun way to teach kids (and adults!) the basics of computer programming. This one will set you back a whole $2.99!
I hope you enjoy learning about a few of these education themed apps.
Scott.
Posted in: Week 05:
teacherben 7:09 pm on October 4, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Nice list. The Autodesk 123D apps are great. There are desktop version for some of those too, but it’s nice to see some good content creation tools finally coming to these handheld devices to challenge the notion that they are only really consumption devices. I only just read about move the turtle this morning from the Geekdad blog on Wired. I wish I had an iPad to try it on (still waiting for my budget stuff to get processed:(
Here’s a list of IOS apps for education that another tech guy in my school sent around a couple weeks ago. There are some good things on it:
http://www.tcea.org/ipad
stammik 11:32 am on October 5, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I’m a big fan of the Geekdad blog as well, along with Wired in general, for tech news. Flipboard and Zite are my picks for Apps that aggregate news feeds, to try and keep up on these rapidly changing topics. Truth be told however, my teenage students are my best resource – I learn so much from them!
Jonathan 7:52 pm on October 4, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Just bought Move the Turtle and I’m loving it! I’ll have to spend more time on it– might bring it into the iPads at school 🙂 I like the programs that teacher basics of computer programming. Teaches so many different concepts while trying to learn to program. Scratch is a good example of this for sure.
Thanks for the list.
kstackhouse 11:07 am on October 5, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
This is great! Thank you for sharing. I think that the tree id app is great. When I was little my Dad asked if I could name the trees we saw while driving….”Of course I can, ” I replied. “Bob, Mark, Jessie, ….” He got a good laugh over that. I wasn’t trying to be funny i didn’t know what they were. Maybe this will help. 🙂
sophiabb 7:02 pm on October 5, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Love the list. I will be purchasing “Move the Turtle”. Let’s see what my kids and I can come up with.
melissaayers 5:35 am on October 6, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Great format/video for posting your thoughts thanks Scott!
Lisa Nevoral 2:26 pm on October 6, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Scott,
Great idea to use a YouTube video as your response. Very original and awesome use of technology!
To add to Scott’s comments, I will review a couple more of the apps that were suggested this week by the Apps OER team.
Periodic Table App – At first I thought this app was too simplistic, but then I thought about what it supposed to do. It is to teach it’s users about the periodic table. There were some great features such as a quiz on naming elements, abbreviations of elements, and atomic #s. As well, there was a description of each element as well as a sound byte of each element name. There was a video chemistry section that explained more information than what would be found on the periodic table. What I would like to see as a link or add on that helps learners in naming compounds and formulas. Maybe I should make an app for that…
RealCalc – I really liked this calculator app. Student’s don’t need to go out and buy another instrument (ie. calculator) since they can use this on their IPhones, IPads, Androids, etc… I guess the next question is if teachers will allow them to be in the classrooms. I have had many debates with colleagues about students being allowed to bring mobile devices into the classroom. This is at the middle school level.
Lisa
Ranvir 7:47 am on October 8, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Scott, i really liked the short and snappy review of the educational apps you showed in the video. I am planning on using some of these for my 8 yr old to supplement classroom education. i am going to try LeafSnap today as that is an excellent example of how you can use something like google goggles to learn nature. finally, thanks for sharing the ipad apps list as it seems to be invaluable resource as well.
stammik 5:03 pm on October 9, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Thanks for your positive feedback Ranvir!