Mobile technology can transform education. The students are now welded to their cellphones, iPods, iPod Touch, iPads, Nooks, videoplayers and netbooks. These devices will only give birth to newer, faster mobile technology. So why not embrace what is available today and use it in teaching? The following apps are the ten best voted on by educators nationwide in 2011 as useful tools in teaching k-12.
Arithmaroo Makes counting easier for elementary kids using number patterns and relationships. Arithmaroo includes many elements, similar to classroom manipulatives, that assists children in visualizing and interacting with numbers using multimedia. There are four levels of difficulty and the app aligns to national math standards. (iPhone, iPod Touch; $1.99 download)
Bento Multitasking educators can stay organized, update documents, and keep all their key data in a single location with Filemaker's Bento. Users can carry and edit their Bento database from their mobile device, which easily syncs back to their MAC desktop, to update changes from anywhere they happen to be. Managing and tracking projects, contacts, meetings, lists and more is made easy through 25 built-in templates. (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch: $4.99 dowmload)
Dropbox Offering free, secure file storage and sharing, along with automatic syncing across multiple computers from any location, Dropbox is another time-and-energy-saving educator tool. It offers a selection of teacher-friendly controls, such as the ability to set bandwidth limits, eliminate users from individual computers and create shareable photo galleries. Dropbox is available for a broad range of devices, as well as, desktops and laptops. (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Android, Blackberry, Linux; free download)
Flip It! This doodling animation tool brings drawings to life with a flip-book effect. Named by iTunes as "the most popular animation app" in the App Store, Flip It! reaches students through visual reinforcement of concepts. Activities such as animating a book character, illustrating plant growth over time, or designing a machine and putting it into motion, engage and challenge students' abilities in numerous subject areas. (iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad; $1.99 download, try Flip It Lite free).
Motion Math Motion Math was named runner-up in both the "Most Innovative Product/Service" and "Most Likely to Succeed in the Education Market" categories in conjunction with the Software & Information Industry Association's 2010 Innovation Incubation awards program.
The software turns a handheld device into what Motion Math's developers call a "virtual manipulative", providing studnts with a physical, game-based interaction with math to help them crack the mystifying world of fractions. Players try to shoot a bouncing ball containing a fraction onto the right spot on the number line. The activity emphasizes recognition of fractions in their various representations, such as percents, decimals, pie charts, and numerator over denominator. Visuals, sound effects and escalating levels of difficulty keep learners motivated and practicing. (iPhone, iPad, iPad Touch; $0.99 download).
Poll Everywhere The developers of this app make aplea to users to "stop paying for expensive technicians, passing out clickers....and lugging around bags full of keypads."
Poll Everywhere takes anew approach to classroom response systems by harnessing existing web and mobile phone tehcnology and relying on text messaging rather than proprietary hardware and clickers for responses. Functions of the service include the ability for students to respond with typed-in text rather than just multiple-choice answers. Teachers can gather data from students at home or in other locations off campus. For schools that employ social networking tools, Poll Everywhere also offers poll integration with Twitter. (Cell phone, BlackBerry, iPhone; free for k-12 classes of 32 or less).
Proloque2Go Assistive Ware's Proloque2Go turns a mobile device into a "communication board" that offers students with speech problems a way of voicing their needs. The main menu uses symbols and words to identify functions that let users build basic messages, such as "Hi" and "Bye", "I want," and "I need." Mesaages can be spoken with a text-to-voice application or sent out via the message window. Included are high-resolution symbols, more than 7,000 vocabulary items, and automatic conjunctions. (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch; $189.99)
Receptive Identification From Kindergarten.com, this app offers more support to autistic children by helping them learn vocabulary, understand basic instructions, and practice positive listening behaviors. Game activites may include instructions to "touch the gummy worm" or "find the hot-air balloon." Eighty-five colorful images and audio are included with each game. (iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad; $0.99 per game)
Video Physics Vernier has created an app that allows users to tap into the power of the company's Logger Pro desktop data-collection software for in-the-field studies. Students or teachers can videotape objects in motion, mark their positions frame by frame, and set up a scale using known distance. The software then graphs trajectory, position and velocity, and students can e-mail the video and data back to Logger Pro for further analysis - right from their mobile device.
Users can also share graphs and videos on Facebook or save them in their personal digital libraries, and educators don't need to worry about downloading videos or having students bring cameras to school. (iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad; $1.99 download)
Wofram Alpha This answer engine, billed by its developers as a "palm-sized supercomputer," lets users type in queries to learn basic information, such as a state's average rainfall, or more complex content, such as the molecular structure of compounds that make up hydrogen. Responses are given in both text and relevant visual forms, such as charts and graphs. Currently, the product contains more that 10 trillion pieces of data and 50,000-plus algorithms and models.
An example of how to broaden student learning using Wolfram Apha as a tool: students that are struggling with understanding a concept, such as 'democracy', they can type in the word and be presented with an answer in multidisciplinary form: a definition, word origin, synonyms and narrower terms of its use that help deepen understanding. (iPad, iPod Touch; $1.99 download)
