Your views are important to this research. Help us in the Tips research project to support teachers as they use iPads in education.
This week, our focus is on maths.
How do you use iPads to support teaching and learning in maths classes? Please leave us a comment sharing details of the maths apps you use, and a short descriptor of how you use them in your classroom.
Give us some guidelines about which grade levels will find the app or activity most useful.
Thanks,
Jenny
Dr. Jenny Lane
I am eagerly waiting for the new product launch in San Francisco. There have been many whispers on the networks about the nature of the new machine. The key question for educators is how will this device make learning more engaging and effective.Will this device be a game changer? send us your thoughts.
Instapaper is a must-have iPad app which enables users to bookmark and save web articles, blog posts, tweets, other app content, news, etc for offline viewing later; in class, on the train, … literally anywhere.
Installed as a Safari bookmarklet, Instapaper is simple to use, and allows users to easily sync articles across their mobile devices and web browsers (on their home computers) via their Instapaper account (requires an email address). You can also share articles to Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Evernote.
For: Teachers, Students (Primary, Secondary), Administrators
Cost: $5.49 (Download Link)
Requires WiFi: No for reading , yes for bookmarking and syncing
The Dictionary.com HD app brings a trusted (ad-free) dictionary and thesaurus, containing nearly 2 million words, definitions, synonyms, and antonymns, to the iPad. This invaluable reference resource is available offline, with some additional features, such as voice-to-text search and audio pronunciation, available with a Wi-Fi connection.
This paid version of the app is ad-free, and is highly recommended for educational use. There are separate versions for iTouch and iPhone.
For: Administrators. Teachers, Students, Students with Special Needs
Cost: $4.99 (Download Link).
Requires WiFi: Only for additional features.
History: Maps of the World is a free iPod & iPad app for Social Studies, History, and Geography teachers, compiling maps from different eras throughout history. Viewers can explore maps by theme, historical events, and geography.
The digitized maps are easy to navigate using touch gestures, and can be zoomed in to show fine detail. While the app is a large download, the maps are available for offline viewing.
For: Teachers, Upper Primary and Secondary Students
Cost: Free (Download Link)
Requires WiFi?: No
Further Reading
Tools 4 Students is an incredibly useful iPod Touch / iPad app, providing teachers and students with 25 editable graphic organisers to organise their thinking and comprehend new information.
Students can save their work on their iPad, export to Dropbox, or email completed organisers to their teacher, who can share them via Google Docs or print them off. The app can also be projected onto an whiteboard for whole-class demonstrations and activities.
For: Teachers, Students
Cost: $0.99 – Worth every cent! (Download Link)
Requires WiFi?: No.
Screenshots
The Science 360 app brings a world of science news, information, images, and videos to the iPad. Featuring a unique 360 degree view, users can find content through touch gestures, or via keyword search using the keyboard.
The app makes it easy to save and share favourite images and videos, and offers an option to download full-resolution images for offline use. It is recommended for casual browsing, rather than for specific research.
This app is very data intensive, and requires a strong WiFi internet connection to be useful.
For: Teachers, Students
Cost: Free (Download Link)
Requires WiFi?: Yes (see above)
Strip Designer is a comic-strip creation app for the iPad which transforms your own photos (or Creative Commons Internet images) into comic-book style images through the use of strip styles, speech bubbles, stickers, and frames. Finished products can be saved to the iPad photo library, emailed, or shared on Flickr and other social networks.
For: Teachers, Students (Grades 6-12)
Cost: $2.99 (Download Link)
Requires WiFi?: No
The iBooks iPad app is so much more than a glossy bookcase. It is a place where you can share ePub e-books, PDF files, and student (and teacher) created resources; enabling users to curate & create a library of digital reading material on their iPad.
For: Teachers, Students, Administrators
Cost: Free
Requires WiFi?: No for reading. Yes for uploading and sharing content
To add PDF and ePub materials to iBooks on your iPad, you can import files via iTunes, import from Dropbox or GoodReader, or save files directly from Safari. It is possible to save and share students’ work in ePub format from other applications, such as Pages for Mac.
You can purchase quality eBooks from the Apple iBooks Store, or find free eBooks on Google, which may be a better option for educators.
Teachers may also like the dotePUB browser bookmarklet (available for Safari), which enables users to save ANY website as an ePub file, which can be added to iBooks via iTunes. (Tip via iPads@Burley).
Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis is presented as the future of digital textbooks, and is a truly innovative, visually stunning text. Written by Al Gore, Our Choice is the sequel to An Inconvenient Truth, and is a rich multimedia exploration of the science of climate change and climate action.
Using a ground-breaking touch interface*, this app is highly recommended for secondary science students, and anyone interested in taking action on climate change.
For: Teachers, Secondary Science Students
Cost: $4.99 (Download Link)
Requires WiFi?: Yes
*Please note: This app downloads multimedia & chapter content in the background when opened for the first time, and it is recommended you wait for the lengthy (1GB+) download to complete before trying to interact with it.
Al Gore’s Our Choice Guided Tour from Push Pop Press on Vimeo.
Our Choice: Changing Books Forever (iApp.Storm)
In my many years of teaching in schools, and in Teacher Education at University, the biggest challenge faced by many teachers is moderating the behaviour of students in their classes. There are a range of strategies that can be used, but keeping a clear record of the behaviours is a good starting point.
The specialist app, Behaviour Lens ($32), for teachers and therapists was recommended by my colleague Priscilla, who is is a Consultant – Intensive Support Needs. Designed by school psychologists, it records timed intervals of behaviours and generates professional standard reports.
Another useful (free app), called Autism Apps gives a comprehensive overview of apps that can be used to modify behaviour, support social interactions and promote communication with students with Autism Spectrum Disorder & Down Syndrome.
If you are working with students with behaviour and communication difficulties please share the apps that you find useful in the comments below!
iPads are an excellent way to provide individualized learning materials and re-inforcement for students with a wide range of learning abilities.
Differentiating Instruction
Supporting Communication
Comics and cartoons have a HUGE range of educational applications across the primary and secondary curriculum, and can be easily integrated into a range of subject or topic areas.
Comic Life for iPad is an easy-to-use comic / cartoon creation app for students from Grades 1-12. It provides a range of templates, and enables users to import pictures (from their Camera Roll, or Creative Commons sources on the Internet), captions, and special effects (thought balloons, onomatopoeia).
This app mirrors the Windows / Mac version of Comic LIfe, and allows users to print, email, or share their comics on Facebook. Comic Life for iPad also features an “in-tray” option, which allows users to share comics with other iPad users nearby).
For: Teachers, Students (Grades 1-12)
Cost: $5.49 (Download Link)
Requires WiFi: No (only for sharing comics)
Comic Life Tutorial for iPad from Jessica Pack on Vimeo.
Tutorials and Lesson Ideas
Recommended Reading
The Elements: A Visual Exploration, by Theodore Gray, is a simply stunning iPad app with mesmerising high-definition graphics, videos, and detailed information for every element in the Periodic Table. While users can’t copy information out of the app, it is possible to save screenshots.
This app is available in American and British English versions, and is translated into French, German, and Japanese (check the description).
For: Secondary Science Teachers and Students, invaluable in Chemistry
Cost: $16 (Worth every cent, but be warned – it’s a 1.7GB download) (Download Link)
Requires WiFi?: Yes , but only to access online features)
Numbers for iPad is the Apple mobile version of Excel spreadsheet, enabling users to create and edit spreadsheets and data-entry forms (similar to Google Forms) on the iPad. This app will be useful for teachers and students, particularly in business and economics; but is probably best used for editing existing spreadsheets.
Files can be exported (via email) to Numbers for Mac, Microsoft Excel, or PDF; but can only be removed from the iPad via iTunes or WebDAV. SendToDropbox is useful too (via @samgliksman).
For: Teachers, Secondary Students, Administrators
Cost: $10.49AUD (Download Link)
Requires WiFi?: No
Numbers for iPad (Alternative Tutorial)
Creating Forms in Numbers on the iPad – Video
