See. Touch. Learn.

The application that I reviewed is called "See. Touch. Learn". It is a free application that can be used for a variety of levels and subject areas. The basis for the application is identification and classification through images. Different topic ideas for lessons included with this application are colors, letters, shapes, animals, fruits, body parts, and sight words. This application would most likely be used as individual or small group activity, rather than a whole class activity. Students could be given certain lessons based on their ability level to complete as a short daily or weekly activity for review/practice. A specific example of its use in the classroom might be for practice identifying animals that belong in a given family for 3rd grade science.

Pros: Variability of use, easy to use and create lessons, can record own voice, great for individualized learning.

Cons: Can only use the images that come with the application (although there are options for other libraries that you can purchase for a relatively low cost within the app.)

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/see.touch.learn./id406826506?mt=8

MathBoard Addition

MathBoard Addition, a free (but can be upgraded for $1.99) app, is a virtual chalkboard that creates addition problems for students. Students choose one of five multiple choice answers to finish the problem. If they choose the correct answer, the student is rewarded with "CORRECT" and another problem. If incorrect, they may skip the problem, figure out the answer on the workspace below, or watch the Problem Solver which gives a step by step approach to answering the problem. This is a great tool that can be used as a practice activity, can be timed as a "Mad Minute", or used for assessment. The Problem Solver and workspace allows students to see step by step the correct way to solve the problem. The pros of this App are that it is free (for addition only), and teachers can use it as both as a practice and assessment tool. Students can also see how problems are solved step by step if they cannot figure them out. Also, the difficulty level can be adjusted to fit the student or lesson. The con of this App are that it is free only for addition, and that to get other operations it costs $1.99 ( a small price to pay for a great tool.) Overall, it is an awesome tool for teachers and students alike.

Digital Storytelling Apps - Certainly iPads are useful for consuming content, but what about for creating content?  I've examined 2 apps that have great potential for digital storytelling.  StoryKit is an easy to use, free app that allows you to use any of your saved photos on your iPad to create a story.  If you don't have the right picture for your story, you can use a variety of online image sharing sites.  When you find the picture you like, press the menu button and the power button at the same time to take a screen shot of the image on your screen.  The screen shot will automatically be sent to your photos.  Then pull out the photo you wish and easily crop it by sliding the window in and out with your fingers.  Once it is on the page you can slide the image around and set it to the size you wish.  You can also add typed text, a drawing, or a recording.  Each option is at the bottom of each page and is very intuitive.  The pages can be rearranged easily as well.  The stories can be shared, but not in the same format as they are in StoryKit.  Each story is uploaded to an online site and the user is provided a link that can be e-mailed to others.  When stories are viewed online, a thumbnail of each page is seen, and you can click the sound icon on each page to hear the recorded sound.  The sound did not work when I tried to view a shared story from my iPad, but it did when I viewed it on my computer. 

I used this app and several pictures of SillyBandz I found on Google Images to create a variety of math word problems.  I created an example of each type of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division problem.  I plan to send the images of each page to my students as photos using our group gmail account.  They will then need to open each image in a separate page in a StoryKit book, rearrange the pages to group the word problems by operation, and then determine the similarities and differences between each type of word problem.  I also talked with a speech therapist who uses iPads with her students.  She plans to try this app out with her students.  A teacher could record a student or students telling a story about a series of images.  StoryKit allows more than one recording on each page, so a teacher could have a recording of more than one student on each page or recordings of one student at different times during the year.  It would also be a good app for young children.  For a free app, StoryKit has a lot of promise.

SoncicPics is another option for digital storytelling.  It is just as easy to use as StoryKit, but it costs $2.99.  There is a lite version that is free, but the lite version only allows you to use three images per story.  One of the nice features of SonicPics is the sharing options.  Users can easily share their stories when completed using YouTube or via e-mail.  E-mailed stories are shared using Quick Time and can not be viewed on the iPad, but if you use YouTube to share the video, it would be able to be viewed on the iPad.  Stories are shared in a video format instead of screen shots of each page.  You can also see the page while you are recording.  There is a small cost for the full version, but if you are looking for a finished product that looks more like a video, SonicPics would be a better alternative.

Welcome!

The Concordia University Wisconsin Elementary Methods Block will be piloting the use of ipads this semester.  As part of our pilot, we plan to review multiple educational apps throughout the semester.  Students will be posting reviews of a variety of apps biweekly.  We will primarily be focusing on free apps, but may include a few low cost apps as well.  Check back periodically to see our progress!