Geography and Science - Cross over apps
There are a number of apps that are being released that give us direct and instant access to real time data to events and happenings around the world. These apps allow the students in the classroom to have the same data and information that authorities, scientists and researcher have. This is important form the students point of view as it makes the learning more real.
Other apps have been designed to get students to think about their own environment and how their decision have an impact not only on the environment now but into the future.
TrailMaps: $2.99 AUNavigate with high-resolution topographic maps for the entire United States and GPS functionality, you’ll have the detailed maps you need for a safe and fun trip. Aaerial images can be downloaded onto your device so there is no need for network access while you’re in the outdoors.
Your World: FREE
Your World is the best app to learn where the countries of the world s are located. The free version lets you place 25 countries onto a stunning 3D earth. Get the rest of the countries and territories from within the game by either sharing on Twitter or Facebook, or purchasing the upgrade.
GeoExpert HD:$4.49Have fun learning to locate the countries and capitals of the world. Choose what you want to learn: Countries or Capitals.Designed to help you learn, not as a knowledge test. Continually being improved. Exciting updates are coming soon! Follow international news reports understanding where events are taking place.
Happy Planet: FREEThis is our planet, earth! In order to keep earth happy, you need to face the evil sources of pollution. This is not going to be easy though because your enemies will be colossal smokestacks, evil factories and nuclear toxic waste. On the other side, you are also a guardian, protecting all forms of life, from the smallest plant to the wildest animal!
GeoData $1.99Download landcover, elevation, and population data that covers the entire planet. Generate 3D anaglyphic stereo views of standard, satellite, hybrid, and terrain maps. See possible future sea-level changes caused by global warming.
Puzzling Plates: $1.99Puzzling Plates provides an interactive, engaging experience that inspires you to explore the large, tectonic plates that make up the surface of Earth. Includes three levels, each with a hands-on activity and a bonus round. You'll first learn how tectonic plates fit together by moving them into position like a jigsaw puzzle. Get it right on the first move level.
Volcano Trek: $1.99Volcano Trek is an exciting, informative and interactive new app that allows you to track active volcanoes, get notice of earthquakes as they happen, plan travel adventures to volcano destinations and more. The Volcano Trek app is a great volcano app for students, geo-geeks and adventurers alike.
Landforms: $0.99This Landforms app is built for elementary kids ages 5 - 10. App teaches plethora of landforms and is designed in collaboration with Teachers, parents & students. It has unique landforms riddles to indulge kids, and challenging questions for young minds. App is ideally suited as a study aid in classrooms and homeschooling.
Routes. Planning your journeys: $1.99
Planning your Journeys is now as easy as touching a map! Forget using a paper map in a Hotel when you are going to planning the route for tomorrow! With this app you will save a lot of time and it will be much more easy!
Planet Earth 3D: $1.99Most of us know about the Moon and Mars more than we know about Earth, our home planet. Well, that’s not the case anymore. Planet Earth 3D is a great iPad app that can help you learn about our home more than ever before and easier than ever before. Everything is presented in an easy to read format.
Disaster Rader: FREEDisaster Radar is the first and only real-time WORLD WIDE natural disaster and emergency monitoring app! If you are looking for information on hundreds of natural disasters and emergencies happening around the world then Disaster Radar is for you. Try it out today and see what is happening around the world!
Earth Alive: $1.99You know what it's made an iceberg? What’s the process of mountain building? How are the fossils formed, which sometimes the scientist found on the surface? How many types of forests exist? Corals around underwater volcanoes? Do tornadoes spin clockwise or counterclockwise?
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PianoPad - Keyboard App with great features
PianoPad is another keyboard app to come onto the market recently, however, this app has a couple of nice little features. It was developed by Greg Haybittle a teacher at Edmund Rice College in Wollongong. His school had already made the decision to go 1:1 next year and he wanted his music students to embrace the technology. He didn't even own an iPad up until 3 months ago. Within a couple of months not only had he developed an app but he got it on the app store.
Called PianoPad the app not only allows you to record a keyboard performance but also to email it to others or to your teacher. You can record, playback or just email the performance. Here is an music app developed by a music teacher for the music classroom.
The beauty of this app is that the notation is recorded as text. This means that the traditional problem of transferring the music file is resolved . Because the file is saved as text not only is it a much smaller size it can also be cut and pasted into wikis or websites and saved or shared with other students. This means that you can also update the wiki or blog with songs the kids are interested in. Better still get them to update it. The ability to randomise the notes or even reverse them also acts as a way of discovering new note combinations.
You can also put your own face in the app as well as change the background to customise the music experience. This would be a great app for any school but especially good in primary schools or junior secondary. Greg is saying that the kids are now asking for a iphone version. He has told them they may need to wait a while - he does have a day job.
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Great Apps for Toddler Learning
People are always happy to talk to you about the apps that their kids love and come back to again and again. Over the weekend I was able to talk to a number of mums who gave me a series of apps that their littles one play. There are a number of really interesting apps here, some I would have thought were too complex for toddlers, but the mums say their little ones spend ages trying to get a handle on them. Have a look and see what you think.
Spelling Bus: FREE
Spelling Bus is for learning to spell and practice to spell. Kids see the pictures and listens to the word and then type the spelling. The simple to use user interface is designed to be child friendly, it allows kids to engage in learning with out parents help. See, Listen and Spell. 50 most common sight words kindergartner must know. Beautiful visuals and clear sounds to keep kids engaged. 6 Chapters full of words. Chapter size big enough to be completed without losing the concentration.
Race through sea and sky in the action-packed adventure, Lil Flippers! Dive, Jump, Surf, and Swim as you seek treasure, evade enemies, and build a school of friends to protect you. 6 beautifully themed worlds with randomized level generation means you never play the same game twice. Enjoy the Sargasso Sea, an old Ships Graveyard, weedy Kelp fields, the beautiful blue Pacific, and the lost world of Atlantis!
The app allows kids to build your own town of shops, restaurants and apartments then grow the population of happy citizens to work and play. It’s up to you to decide the future of the Small Street citizens. Keep them happy by finding them a dream house and matching them to their perfect job.
Ever wanted to play with your food? Now you can! In this Monster edition of the super-hit Toca Kitchen you can cook and play with food for two hungry monsters. Pick any ingredient and prepare it in your own way! Slice, boil, fry, cook, microwave or mix? And wait for the response from the hungry monster...
Want a creative, kid-and-family-friendly app? Cake Pop Party lets your child’s imagination run wild. Getting started is a piece of cake; soon you’ll be combining shapes, coatings, candy and sprinkles to bring your favorite pet, character or tasty treat to life in Cake Pop form.
Playtime With Dora the Explorer is a chance for kids to play fun games while developing their memory and observation skills! Put together puzzles, test your memory matching up hidden pictures, and spot Dora and all her friends!
Experience the excitement as Dr. Seuss Band transforms your device into a vibrant, energetic musical instrument that all ages will enjoy! Jam along with playful Seussian melodies or create your own whimsical masterpiece. As you play, you'll unlock new instruments, silly effects and catchy songs. Contains over 120 combinations of sounds, so you'll always have something new to discover!
Where’s My Water? is a challenging physics-based puzzler complete with vibrant graphics, intuitive controls, and a sensational soundtrack. To be successful, you need to be clever and keep an eye out foralgae, toxic ooze, triggers, and traps. Now with iCloud support to synchronize your hard earned progress across multiple iOS 5 devices. One game, multiple devices!
The #1 preschool game in the app store. Learn and have fun by helping monkeys pack lunch! Monkey Preschool Lunchbox is a collection of six exciting educational games for your preschooler (ages 2 to 5).
This app is developed specifically for young children. The user interface is intuitive and simple enough for my 3 year old daughter. Create a Car is a click and drag activity for elementary age students. Choose from over 30 fun vehicle body styles and then select from over 70 different parts to place on the vehicle body. Once your vehicle has been designed you can save it to your profile and send it to friends.
Especially designed for children 2-4 years old, Bananas in Pyjamas Bubble Time is a digital toy that allows your child to have fun blowing and popping bubbles. By blowing into the microphone or tapping on the bubble blower, bubbles will float across Cuddlestown and then pop, pop, pop! Your child can pop bubbles with their finger until they are all gone. Tap on the residents of Cuddles Town to say hello.
All aboard? Time to get on Toca Train! Your kids are the train driver in this fun and friendly train simulator. The controls are intuitive and there are no written instructions. Just pull the levers, push the buttons and start exploring the island with your train!
Welcome to Toca House! Help the five friends to do fun chores around a cosy house. Let your kids do the dishes, ironing, sweeping or planting flowers in the garden. Loads of fun with 19 different mini-games! And if your kids liked Toca Doctor, they are going to LOVE Toca House!
Toca Store is a Store Play Set that triggers your child´s imagination and inspires role-playing. We wanted to create a toy that can be included in children´s natural exploration of everyday life and help them to master social and mathematical skills. That´s Toca Store!
Let your kids run their own Toca Hair Salon! Cut, color, comb and blow-dry lifelike hair on six different cute characters. Using your fingers you can make any hair style you want! And of course - take a snapshot and save your creations! Cut and trim hair with the scissors and electric hair trimmer. Wash the characters hair with shampoo, shower, and towel. Use the hair dryer to get the right look.
All aboard for the newest adventure on the Island of Sodor with 3 new games featuring Thomas and his friends. Start your little engineer on the right track with matching games, puzzles and mazes, guaranteed to entertain for hours. Find as many engine matches as possible and test your memory skills in “Matching Mission”. Help the engines collect cargo and find their way back to Tidmouth Sheds in “Cargo Mazes”. Drag and connect shapes to find out which engine is hidden behind the puzzle pieces in “Engine Puzzles”.
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Gifting an App
How to gift an app from your master iPad account.
As a individual consumer with an iTunes account you would normally buy one app and load it onto all of your iOS devices. As a school you need to ensure that you buy one app per device to ensure that you do not break the iTunes licensing agreement. The situation is even more complicated if you are using the device with multiple users, but that's another story. There are three or four viable ways you can do this, each of them have their advantages and pitfalls. The main ways of distributing apps include;
- Volume Licensing
- iTunes Cards
- Student Managed
- Gifting Apps
Gifting apps is one method I had not thought to use in an educational setting. This method does have pitfalls, as it can take the final say of which apps to purchase for the classroom away from the actual teacher. Many teachers that I speak to, manage their own devices and want the control of locating apps that work well with the way they teach and the way that their individual students learn.
Having said that many teacher don't want the hassle of managing the devices. A colleague of mine Michele Walters who is an Innovation and Learning Advisor has put this set instructions together for those people interested in gifting apps.
A simple how-to for gifting apps.
Your master account is simply the account you nominate as the MAIN account for the school. This may typically be iPad 1.
On your iPad tap the App Store app and select Purchased apps from the list of icons at the bottom of the screen.
iTunes Store credit cannot be used to purchase gifts. The gift will only be redeemable in the country of origin.
Make sure you check the item's rating and requirements because the recipient may not be able to redeem the gift if their hardware or iOS is incompatible
The recipient/s will be sent an email with an alert that the app has been gifted.
The email received by the recipient will look like this.Click redeem now and the app will begin to download onto the device.
You can also gift an app directly from the App Store. Simply tap on the app required (not the price) and proceed as above, beginning with ‘Gift This App’ in the top right corner.
NB: If you wish to gift an app from an iPhone or iPod touch, the ‘Gift This App’ button can be found by scrolling to the bottom of the screen.
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Leaders Leading iPad Programs
I can across this article today from EmergingEdTech and it immediately resonated with me. We have been struggling with this exact situation in schools in our own region. Whenever you talk to teachers, especially those that have some first hand experience of iPad use in the classroom, this is one of the first things they say to you. Real change in schools needs to come from the top. This is a great article where Principal David Mahaley discusses their approach to iPad implementation. Make sure you check out the rest of the EmergingEdTech site for some interesting articles on eLearning and Educational Technology.
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Synth Apps Review:
A colleague recently sent us an email with a couple of recommendations for some great music synth apps. Mark Moriarty is an Education Officer in Wagga Wagga and has been a long time supporter of Apps in Education. He's been doing some fantastic Professional Development around implementing and integrating iPads in the classroom. Today we get the wisdom of that experience. Thanks Mark!
The Apps:
Sunrizer: $5.49 AU
Sunrizer synth is a virtual analog synthesizer that takes the definition of iOS synthesizer to the next level. Thanks to carefully designed architecture and heavy usage of co-processor it blurs the boundaries between iOs and hardware synthesisers. Sunrizer was built to perform and works perfectly with any MIDI keyboard or sequencer.
http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/sunrizer-synth/id443663267?mt=8
Animoog: $31.99 AU
"These apps also have support for Core USB Midi which allows the connection of a USB Midi keyboard through the USB Camera Connection Kit adapter so that the synth can be played from the keyboard. External speakers can be attached through bluetooth or the headphone out on the iPad.
I have a Yamaha PSR S500 keyboard with USB Midi and have successfully connected to the iPad to use the apps. There are some expensive adapters for connection of keyboards to the iPad, such as iRig, V-Midi etc. but if you want a simple connection, the Camera Connection Kit works fine. Obviously it is going to run the battery down a bit, but for casual use it 'just works'.
Another new app is Fruity Loops, FL Studio HD for music creation via the sequencer method."
FL Studio Mobile HD: $19.99 AU
Animoog captures the vast sonic vocabulary of Moog synthesizers and applies it to the modern touch surface paradigm, enabling you to quickly sculpt incredibly fluid and dynamic sounds. Animoog’s unique user interface gives you the power to easily create a visually vibrant and sonically rich universe. It is the ultimate tool for total creative expression!
An iOS synth with professional grade virtual analogue low latency sound engine. Play it from on-screen keyboard or use MIDI keyboards. Connect to your digital audio workstation via MIDI interfaces and play NLogSynth from other iOS apps like SoundPrism, polychord or Genome Sequencer via virtual Core MIDI.
"These apps also have support for Core USB Midi which allows the connection of a USB Midi keyboard through the USB Camera Connection Kit adapter so that the synth can be played from the keyboard. External speakers can be attached through bluetooth or the headphone out on the iPad.
I have a Yamaha PSR S500 keyboard with USB Midi and have successfully connected to the iPad to use the apps. There are some expensive adapters for connection of keyboards to the iPad, such as iRig, V-Midi etc. but if you want a simple connection, the Camera Connection Kit works fine. Obviously it is going to run the battery down a bit, but for casual use it 'just works'.
Another new app is Fruity Loops, FL Studio HD for music creation via the sequencer method."
FL Studio Mobile HD: $19.99 AUFL Studio Mobile HD allows you to create and save complete multi-track music projects on your iPad. You can even load the FL Studio Mobile projects into the 'FL Studio Desktop PC' version* and take them to the next level. If it’s a beat on the step sequencer, a melody on the piano roll or a full song on the playlist, FL Studio Mobile has you covered.
http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/fl-studio-mobile-hd/id432850619?mt=8
http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/fl-studio-mobile-hd/id432850619?mt=8
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iMovie Trailer Storyboards - T.I.M.
I love iMovie Trailers. They are a useful way to get students to think about the main concepts and ideas of a particular topic. We have used iMovie to get students to create Trailers for novels, historical events or figures and even contemporary social issues. They are a great way to present part of a research project on scientists, mathematicians, explorers, artists or architects.
Timothy Jefferson has put together a couple of fantastic storyboards for creating Trailers in iMovie. These are great for students who get stuck getting started. These storyboards actually give you a guide to the type of footage you need and how much you will require - there is nothing worse than getting to the end and then realising that you do to have enough film to complete your Trailer. Make sure you check out Timothy Jefferson's blog, he has some really interesting resources that he is sharing. Thanks Tim.
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