Personal stories are powerful, both for the storyteller and for the listener. The learning involved in composing a story has many aspects, for example focussing the message, thinking of the audience, communicating clearly and creativity. I have found a compelling way for students and teachers to create animated videos which are a great way to share stories. The application Adobe Voice allows you or your students to create a multi-modal presentation with no tricky editing. You can add your own recorded voice, images, animations and a sound track. This a free app
My Research — Adobe Voice http://voice.adobe.com/videos/UEHBnvidWYr
Published by the same company as The Elements, The Solar System for iPad is a stunning eBook exploration of space, astronomy, and exploration.
Complete with interactive scenes, 3D objects, videos, animations, scientific data, and stunning NASA imagery, the Solar System app takes readers on a grand tour of the solar system and our cosmic backyard.
While it justly deserves its stellar reputation as an amazing iPad app, be warned – it is a near 850MB download!
Solar Walk is a stunning 3D Solar System model for iPhone / iPad (and now Mac), from the makers of Star Walk. It enables users to explore (fly though) a scale model of the solar system, exploring the planets, moons, satellites, etc.
The app also includes in-depth information and short educational videos about each planet, and can be viewed with 3D glasses – on the iPad or 3DTV. For more details, we highly recommend reading the official User Guide, available here.
The Google Earth app lets you hold the world in the palm of your hand – on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. It enables you to explore global satellite imagery, tours, and photo overlays on your iOS device.
There is a large education community built around the Google Earth application, and it has many classroom applications. It is so much more than a mapping application – as revealed in the links at the bottom of this post.
The World Factbook is a highly recommended iPod / iPhone / iPad app for social studies and geography teachers (primary and secondary).
It includes extensive information on 250+ countries around the world, including maps, flags, geography, demography, government, and so much more. This app is a fantastic resource for student research, and is available entirely offline – NO WiFi required!
For: Teachers, Students (Upper Primary – Secondary)
SlideSharkis a multi-award winning app for viewing and sharing PowerPoint Presentations on the iPad – complete with original animations, fonts, colours, and pictures. The app does not currently allow viewing of embedded videos or hyperlinks; however, these features are coming later this year.
SlideShark works by having users upload the PowerPoint file to their free online account, and then use the SlideShark app to download and view on their iPad, or project it using the a VGA connector. The single user account (100MB limit) is free, with more space available via paid subscription.
We recommend this app for anyone needing to share PowerPoint presentations on their iPads. Other presentation alternatives include Keynote and Prezi Viewer.
Are you sick of boring PowerPoint presentations? Why not try Prezi, the zooming multi-modal presentation tool?
Prezi Viewer for iPad enables users to view and present your prezis anywhere, anytime … You can touch navigate, revise, and download your presentations for offline viewing.
Note: To use Prezi, teachers and students will need to create an account – the EDU Enjoy license is free, providing you sign up with an .edu email address (video).
A truly stunning iPad app,Star Walk provides an augmented reality view of the night sky above. Point your iPad camera at the sky, and it will match (and identify) the constellations and star formations above. You can search for visible planets, track satellites overhead, and explore what the night sky would look like in the past and present.
This app provides an incredible, immersive stargazing experience – with no Internet connection required! You can even display the star maps on your HD TV via a VGA adapter.
For more information, please read the official User Guide.
For: Teachers, Students (Middle Primary – Secondary)
Cost: $5.49 for iPad version (Download Link). There is a separate version for iPhone.
Requires WiFi?: Not for general use.
Educational Applications
Any science / astronomical study of the night sky.
The Brushes app is a beautiful professional painting app for the iPad. With realistic colours, hues, saturation, and colour-mixing, and advanced editing options, this app is ideal for art teachers and students.
Brushes even records your brush strokes while painting, saving your actions as a file which you can download off the web, and view in Brushes Viewer, a free application for Mac OS X.
Shakespeare in Bits brings Shakespeare to life on your iPhone, iTouch, and iPad through animated, narrated re-enactments of The Bard’s most popular plays.
Highly recommended by secondary English teachers, the app includes full study notes, plot summaries, character notes, and language explanations, helping students better understand and appreciate the plays.
The app itself is free; however, teachers will need to download the plays via in-app purchase at a cost of $15.99 AUD each. (There is a volume licensing option for the USA)
For: Secondary English teachers and students.
Cost: Plays available via in-app purchase (see above). Download Link
Requires WiFi?: Yes, but only for initial download of the plays
Sōsh is an iPhone app (works on iTouch & iPad) designed to help teenagers and young adults with special needs, particularly Asperger’s Syndrome, develop their social skills.
It focuses on five essential abilities for social skills development: Relate, Relax, Reason, Regulate, and Recognize. These “5R’s” serve as a road map for individuals who want to be social, but may have faced obstacles in the past; and also serve as a guide for parents, teachers, and therapists hoping to encourage and assist individuals with their social goals.
You start by answering a questionnaire to determine which tools within the app are going to be most useful. You can download the free Lite Version to explore the app with a free 7 day trial, and the full version costs around $40.
DocumentsToGo is one of several file management apps which enable users to view, edit, and create Microsoft Office 2007-2010 documents, (PDFs, and iWork files) on their iPad.
DocumentsToGo comes in two formats – DocumentsToGo and DocumentsToGo Premium, with the Premium version enabling users to edit PowerPoint files, and work with online files stored in Google Docs, Dropbox, Box.net, iDisk, etc. Both versions work with iTunes and the new DocumentsToGo desktop application to keep your files in sync with your home / work computer.
This app works as advertised, but is really only useful for teachers and students who need to edit Microsoft Office documents on their iPads. Everyday users will be better off using the Apple iWork Pages and Keynote apps.
For: Teachers, Administrators, Students (Upper Primary to Secondary)
Requires Wifi?: Yes, to sync files with your home computer / cloud services
Notes
When searching for this app in iTunes, take care to choose the app for your iOS device. It is easy to confuse the separate versions for iPhone and iPad.
iPad users considering purchasing the Premium version may prefer Office2 HD fo iPad, which offers almost identical features for the cheaper price of $8.49AUD.
While the company claims that this app will preserve the original document formatting, user reviews indicate that this is still a work in progress!
I would like to welcome the ECU Pre-Service teachers and students from other institutions who are using this blog as their online resource in their challenge based learning task.
It is good to see future teachers using online sources and social networking to increase their professional learning networks.
Enjoy your module “Teaching and Learning with Touch Technologies.”
On this blog we have a vast professional learning network of teachers from all over the world. We welcome you to our community, and look forward to seeing your voices on the blog as you leave your comments.
The iTunes U app gives teachers and students access to 500 000+ educational resources, including videos, course materials, and podcasts. Originally created to share content from top universities and colleges, such as Harvard, Cambridge, and Stanford, iTunes U was recently opened up to K-12 schools and educators.
This app allows teachers to integrate iTunes U learning materials into their subject areas, and even create their own learning area courses – including podcasts, quizzes, lessons, etc, and share them with the world.
We highly recommend teachers explore the possibilities of this free app, and discover what teaching materials are available for their learning areas, and year levels. There is currently a great deal of material suitable for secondary classes, and a growing body of materials for primary year levels.
Explain Everything This is the screen casting app that I am using with the TIPS research project schools. It provides a way for students to create and produce their own resources and share their learning.
Many teachers use this app to deliver instructional content to students. You can capture your lesson with diagrams, demonstrations typed or drawn and annotated pictures. This is easily shared with students to view as many times as they need at home or at school.
Integration with Cloud Services = More Choice
* Note: Google Drive integration is coming in imminent release of EE v2.0 in late Jan 2013)
Suitable for primary to secondary classes, Explain Everything is integrated with Evernote, Dropbox, and Google Drive; making it very easy to import materials (e.g. pictures, slides, documents) from your computer or the internet (including your web browser!).
Explain Everything is the only screen-casting app which allows users to choose where they export and share their work. Screencast movies, and EE project files, can be emailed, or saved to the iPad Camera Roll, Evernote, and Dropbox. This allows users to collaboratively edit project files, and choose a service to host their video online (e.g. YouTube).
With advanced editing options, including the abilities to create multiple slides, feature live websites, and use visual aids (eg. arrows, laser pointer), Explain Everything remains the most versatilescreen-casting app in the Apple Store, and comes highly recommended by iPad educators around the world.
Video Export Management Solution
In response to common complaints about the length of time required to render EE project files to movie formats, Explain Everything recently released the Explain Everything Compressor for Mac OS X (10.7 / 10.8 only). This paid app ($14.99) enables users to render EE videos on their computer – saving a considerable amount of time. (Click here for an alternative non-Mac solution – via EdTechTeacher).
Please help us to build these resources for teachers by supporting the research. Click here to complete a short survey and enter the draw to win an iTunes voucher.