Using My iPad in the Classroom This Year (Redux) #edchat

Two years ago today, I wrote a post about how I was going to use my iPad in the classroom. It was simply titled "Using My iPad in the Classroom This Year". To my surprise, it is my most visited post of all time with over 37,000 page views. That is about 20,000 more than my second most read post. I thought it would be fun to do an updated post having used the iPad in my class for two years. Now that I have a class set of iPads, the number of apps that I use or will be using has changed and I thought I would share that with everyone.

Safari - FREE

This is still a go to app. My students are always encouraged to look up things on the internet when they have questions or need to do research. It is fast and simple to use. There are very few problems I have encountered with using Safari and will continue to use it happily.


Evernote - FREE (or Premium Account)

This should not come to much of surprise for those that read my blog on a regular basis. I've had decided to embark on an Epic Evernote Experiment that will use Evernote in many different ways with many different pieces of hardware. I will be sharing all of the reading material for the entire school year on Evernote as well as having students use it to take notes in class and create e-portfolios. I will be using it for all of my lesson planning and storing of different bits of information I think I will need later using the web clipper tool. This app will allow me to move away from the word od space eating filing cabinets and allow me to focus more time on instruction and innovation and not copy making. I upgraded to the premium account because of the added benefits of sharing, editing and space and I couldn't be happier. 

PS Touch - $9.99

I'm not much of an artist or a big whiz with Photoshop, but I have used this app multiple times on the go to create and or edit photos for presentations. It is easy to use and provides an tutorial on how to use all of the different aspects of the app. I would love to see all of the amazing things a real photo-editing pro could do with this app. I cannot afford to put this app on all of the student iPads, but I do let students use it when they really want to get their hands dirty with some photo-editing magic. If you love to tinker with photos, then this is the app for you. 

Blogger - Free (iPhone/iTouch Only)

This app is only available as an iPhone/iTouch app, but it works just fine on the iPad. Students will be using their blogs to respond to different visual prompts throughout the year and this is a great app to do that. It's free and easy to use. Students can log in and work on their post or just copy and past it over from their Evernote account. I really want them to create an iPad specific app, but I also want Google to create a Google Drive editing app, but that doesn't seem like it is going to happen any time. Anyway, Blogger is a nice addition to the iPad and I use for some of my posts when I'm on the go. 

Nearpod Teacher and Nearpod Student - App is FREE - Subscription Based Access

I will be working this new app and web-based program into my classroom this year. The apps are free, but there are different levels of subscriptions you can purchase to use the service. It allows the teachers to have guide students in lessons while they follow along on their device. My class is a class of iPads, but it could work for BYOD where students have iDevices and Android devices. It looks like a great way to have students follow along in class, participate in the polls and questions on the tablet and increase engagement in lessons. I think Nearpod is going to be a really cool addition to my classroom. 

Skype - FREE

Skype is a wonderful app if you want your students to communicate with students across the country or one county over. Many students have their own Skype accounts and use it to chat with their friends. As a teacher, I have use Skype to bring experts in to speak to my teachers and administrators as well as connecting my classes to other students. It is a wonderful tool to use in class and one that more teachers need to consider looking at including in their lesson plans. 

iMovie - $4.99

I really encourage my students to make videos because they can be fun and educational. This is a great app that students have loved to use in class. I love that it can allow the user to quickly upload to YouTube when the video is completed. It does take some time to get used to the editing features, but it is worth it when the students create some fun and different projects. The iPads allow the student to be mobile and record in different locations, so iMovie allows them the freedom to edit where they are comfortable. For the video minded students, iMovie is a must for the classroom. 

Twitter - FREE

I use Twitter on a regular basis in both my professional life (@TheNerdyTeacher) and my school life with students (@MrProvenzano). I encourage my students to use Twitter to create a backchannel during class discussions using specific hashtags. The biggest question I get is about students who might be off task and I can only say that if my students are off task, it's because my lesson is boring. A student will not pay attention using any means necessary if they are bored, it's not the app, it's the lesson. Twitter has been used well by my students and I encourage teachers to see how they might use it in their class. 

There are some of the apps I will be using and have used the past couple of years. Feel free to share your favorite apps in the comment section and we can all learn some new things. Thanks for stopping by!

- The Nerdy Teacher

RabbleBrowser - An App Review - #EdChat

Float Mobile Learning sent me a copy of RabbleBrowser to see all of the cool things it can do and I can say that I'm very impressed with what it does.

Here is what Float Mobile says about their app on iTunes,


Using RabbleBrowser, one person can lead or facilitate a shared browsing experience with an unlimited number of locally connected peers. As the leader browses the web, the others in the session with them will see the path they are taking. Integrated group chat, private chat and bookmark sharing keeps the collaboration levels high. Using the easy integrated social tools, anyone in the session can share URLs to the web via email, Twitter and Facebook. We’re confident that this will become a very useful technology in any class, team leader or mobile learning presenter’s toolkit. The initial release is feature rich, but we have a lot planned for this app in the future.


Key features include:
•Shared browsing between a leader and a virtually unlimited number of connected clients via WiFi on a common network or via Bluetooth.
•Integrated multiuser chat and private chat
•Saving and editing of bookmarks
•Social sharing tools via Facebook and Twitter
•Easily send URLs from Rabble Browser via Mail
•Printing of web content via AirPrint


As a teacher that is working on creating a more collaborative environment, this seems to be the perfect app to do just that. With my class set of iPads right now, I either need to put a link on the board, email everyone in advance or place something in Dropbox. With RabbleBrowser, I can connect all of my students to the school wifi and lead them through the content in a very simple fashion. There have been times when kids just cannot get the web address correct and the class needs to wait while they catch up. RabbleBrowser will help eliminate those little stoppages so more time can be spent on the task at hand.

I also love the fact that students can bookmark and share them easily through email, Twitter (If it were not blocked) and Facebook (Again, if it were not blocked).

The multiuser chat feature is nice for creating a strong backchannel in the classroom while groups work and present.

Here are some shots of what RabbleBrowser looks like on the iPad,

As a teacher, I love the possibilities that RabbleBrowser brings to the table. It will be very nice to know that my students are following along and leaving comments on the right side to enhance the discussion we are having in class.

Since my students use blogs to post their work, this would be a great way to look at the work a student has done and discuss it as a class. News articles or other web based reading could be easily shared and discussed in class with room for a backchannel to take place.

I always come back to the sharing features which has me excited. Too often, kids find cool things and they do not have the thought to share them. RabbleBrowser allows for quick and easy sharing from the app. Facebook and Twitter might be blocked, but email still works great. Once the blocks have been lifted in my school, I could see our class tweeting links to the community about the things we are reading and discussing.

Using the Apple TV will also all all of the students to see what is going on as well, so that will be a nice bonus.

RabbleBrowser costs $1.99 and I think it is worth every cent. A class set of iPads could be covered for about $60.00. This will be the best $60.00 you could spend on an app that will have your students collaborating using their iPads. I recommend RabbleBrowser to all schools that are using iPads in the classroom.

- @TheNerdyTeacher

Note: I was given a copy of RabbleBrowser for the purpose of this review.

The Nerdy Teacher: Apps, Podcasts and Consulting #EdChat

Things have been pretty crazy for me the past few weeks. So much so, I've "felt like a plastic bag drifting in the wind." ;-) Here are some of the things I have going on and really want to share with all of you.

 

Apps

 

A little while ago, I saw a post by Kelly Tenkely about a site that will help turn your site into an app. When Kelly suggests anything, I always take a few minutes to check it out. While playing around on Mobile by Conduit, I really liked what I saw. I started to play around with it and the next thing you know, I had an app. Well, I have an app on the Android Marketplace and one will be in the Apple app store in the next couple of weeks. It's called The Nery Teacher. Check it out!

 

 

 

While messing around, I was looking at the pricing structures of each and was amazed that you could choose many different types of pricing. The Android setup was far more complicated than the Apple setup (Not Surprised). I had to choose different prices for different countries if I was going to charge. I really liked checking things out, so I set the price for $0.99 and started to fool around with the other pricing structures. The next thing you know, I hit upload and my app is set for $0.99. That simple.

 

I do not expect to roll in the dough for making an app, but it made me think about the content I offer on the site and if people are going to pay, I should offer some more Nerdy Teacher stuff. This lead me to the next adventure. 

 

Podcasts

 

This is an idea that I have been tossing around for many months. Tim and I were going to do a very awesome #EduBro podcast and it would have been epic, but the time involved was just too much for us. Having said that, it is still not out of the realm of possibility. 

 

There have been too many times when I have been talking to people about various education, technology and pop culture stuff and I have thought, "I wish everyone could hear this conversation." Well, doing a podcast once a month or so would be a great way for me to share some of the great conversations I have with my friends with all of you. It would be a nice addition to the new app and it would be silly good times. Look for a Nerdy Teacher Podcast in the coming year. (Side note: I'm not sure if I want to call it The Nerdy Teacher Podcast. I'm really looking for something a little different. Feel free to leave your suggestions in the comment box.)

 

Consulting

 

The thing that has kept me busiest has been consulting work. When I wrote my first post over two years ago, I never thought I would be doing any of this. I was shocked when people asked my opinion on things, so you can imagine when companies started to ask for my two cents and offer to pay me for it. 

 

I wasn't sure what I was doing or if I was being helpful, but I started to get my business legs underneath me and it became an exciting adventure. I get to help people who are looking to help other teachers and students. There have been times when I have used a product and wondered if a teacher was ever asked their thoughts before it was rolled out. Now, I'm that teacher in some cases. 

 

I've had a chance to work with some great companies and you have seen their ads here and there on my site. I tell myself that I will only work for companies that I have had a chance to explore and feel good about. Product reviews are always honest and I spend time on them to make sure they are checked out. 

 

I'm always looking for ways to help out companies that are looking to help out teachers and students. I'm not naive to think that they are not in it for the money, but if I can help make a product better for teachers and students with my knowledge of what teachers and students want, then I feel like I'm doing a good thing. There are tons of crappy products out there, but if I can help steer educators toward the good ones, then I feel awesome. 

 

That's pretty much everything that I have been doing the past few months. I've still have many of my siller posts rolling around in my brain (Everything Learned about Education I Learned from Watching Phineas and Ferb, etc) that you will see in the next couple of months. I'm excited about the different adventures in my future and I can't wait to share them with all of you. 

 

If you have questions, suggestions or ideas, please feel free to drop me a message in the comment box, send me a tweet to @TheNerdyTeacher or send me an email.

 

Have a great Sunday everyone!

Alien Buddies - A Review #Edchat #ElemChat

My friends at Artgig Studios sent me a copy of Alien Buddies and I love what they have done.

This interactive game is a fun way for young kids to learn their numbers and letters. The app is broken into three parts.

The Matching game is a fun way for users to practice their numbers, letters, shapes and colors. The user drops the alien into the spaceship to match the object in the belly. Point pointing and dragging, the aliens are easily dropped into the spaceship and they fly away. Each game allows the user to break down the learning by capital letters or lower case ones. Numbers sets can be larger or smaller. I like that it allows the user to adjust the challenge level. The Matching game also has a listening portion where the user needs to listen to what is needed. I like this because it goes beyond sight memorization.

I also love the Dot to Dot portion of Alien Buddies. It allows the user to trace their finger from number to number to create a picture. It looks great and it is easy to use on the iPad. It will really help young users on their sequential thinking and their fine motor skills. A very simple game that the kids will love to play. After completing each picture, the user is awarded a sticker to be used on the sticker pages. 

At the end of the Matching game and the Dot to Dot game, the user wins stickers to be used not the sticker portion of the app. People love earning badges or stickers and this is a nice way to encourage users to keep playing. Another cool part of the stickers is that the user can take a picture of their masterpiece and it will be saved to the camera roll. It was very nice for me because I use Photostream and that allowed the pictures to be sent to all of my iDevices. 

The app allows the user to wipe out all of the awards completed games so it can be used over and over again. It is a nice way to keep kids interested and working on these important skills. 

Overall, I'ma big fan of this app. For $0.99, it is a great deal. I can't wait until Leo is old enough to start playing with Alien Buddies. 

Artgig Studio sent me a copy of this app for the purpose of a review. 

- @TheNerdyTeacher

Update 2: iP@ds in my classroom #EdChat #EdTech #PBL

This is Update 2 for my iPad project. Here is my first update.

My students have spent the past two weeks working on their projects. They are working in groups to create the ideal transcendental its society. The first few days with the iPads was more of a "What can we do we these?" experience for the kids. They logged into apps and took pictures using Photobooth. It was overall silliness at times, but I knew that was going to be the case, so I let them have fun. I really think that is important to remember. Some of these kids have never used an iPad outside of the Apple store and they should have a chance to play with them within the context of school and learning. I want them to see the iPad as a tool to explore the world, not just as another computer to do menial tasks.

After the playful period, students began to do serious work. Kids were using SketchPad Pro to design crests and flags for their community. They also used it to create detailed maps of their society. Some students utilized Pages to create the groups rules and job descriptions. It was great to see them working hard and collaboratively. It was a surreal experience at times. There were instances where it was dead silent as students all worked on various parts of their projects. I'm excited to see the work two students are going to present after writing a rap and using GarageBand to create beats to perform to. It's something that would not have been possible before. One of those students actually came in to school early in the morning to work on the iPad. He said it was the most fun he had ever had writing before. You cannot ask for better feedback than that.

Dropbox has been a great tool for my students. Signing them up to accounts at the start of the year is one of the best things I did this year. Without pushing, students created their own group shared folders and have been putting all of their work there. Students have been able to upload photos and videos from the app to work on at home. Dropbox has allowed the students to quickly and easily share all of their work. I also noticed that students have created folders for other classes as well, so I know they are really enjoying the program.

Kids have spent the past two days filming and editing using iMovie. I've only had to help a couple of groups with some user issues, but students have mostly figured out how to use the apps on their own. I think that is something that has always stood out about the iPad. The device itself and many of the apps are very easy to use and understand. It has allowed the students to spend more time on creation and that pays off when it comes to learning. I really look forward to sharing some of the projects with all of you once they have been presented in class.

Feel free to leave a comment if you have any questions or suggestions.

- @TheNerdyTeacher

Quick Hit - Saving Documents from iP@d to Dropbox #edchat #edtech



I wanted to share with everyone a way to save Pages and Keynote files from the iPad to your Dropbox account. Here is a link to the document I shared with my students on Dropbox. http://db.tt/VySWoJ6y

Basically, you create a document using Pages or Keynote and email to yourself. You go to your email through Safari and access your email. In the email, open the document and it will take you to a new tab. From the new tab, it will give you different programs you can open the document in. Choose Dropbox and it will let you save the file in an existing folder or you can create a new one. The PDF is a bit more detailed, but it works every time. Give it a try.

- @TheNerdyTeacher

iP@ds in my classroom - Update 1 #Edchat #EdTech #Education

Here is the first of many updates on how the iPads are being used in my classroom.

The students were finally able to get their hands on the iPads on Monday (November 28). The first day was spent mostly on the ins and outs of how the iPads were to be used. I showed some of the basic features of the iPad and let them take them for a spin. They were excited to see what they could do and spent time taking pictures and playing around with the free apps.

I showed them how to log into Dropbox and Evernote and how to log off those apps as well. Since these are shared devices, it's important that the apps used allow for user sign in and sign out. I reminded the kids to log off any students that forget to do so and see me if there are any notifications that pop up. The kids were excited and we did not have any major problems on the first day.

The next day, the kids were diving deep into their project (Creating a Transcendentalist Society) and started to encounter some problems using Dropbox. Dropbox allows user to upload video and photos to their account using the app. However, the app needs permission to find your location to do so. All of the settings were set to prevent new apps from using location services. I had to convince my IT guy to give me the restrictions password so I can trouble shoot issues like this. It's important for the pilot teacher to have access to the restrictions password to solve these little problems. It took me a chunk of time, but I was able to fix all of those problems for Dropbox and future apps.

The next issue that came to light was the lack of email. We did not have email addresses linked to the iPad accounts and it quickly became apparent that without email, the iPads were not effective at sharing information quickly. I convinced my IT guys to put the same email account on the iPads and we hope to block the incoming mail to the account. Now, my students can quickly share their notes from their Notes app, photos, video and Evernote. Email accounts are necessary to quickly and easily share information. 


I spent the first week creating a system for where the apps go on each iPad. The most common apps were placed on the front page, apps that were more Language Arts were on the second page and the last page will be all Science (I'm piloting with a Chemistry and Biology teacher). Breaking up the apps this way will allow the kids to find what they need quickly. I also showed them the search feature in case they can't find the app right away. App organization might take time to set up, but it will save the student time in the long run. 


I'm still waiting for the grant money to come in so I can buy the apps that I really need. The free ones are good for now, but my kids want to do serious photo and video editing and the free apps do not provide the umph they need. Try and wait to roll out the iPads until you have all of the apps you need. 


The kids still have all of next week to work on the project and I have not had any problems with the usage. I've actually heard students tell others to stay on task with the iPad. That made me smile.

I'll be keeping regular updates on my site on the apps I use, the policies put in place and anything else that comes up regarding the iPad pilot.

Have a great day!

- @TheNerdyTeacher

Idea Flight Enterprise App Review

Idea Flight is pretty simple in nature. You have a pilot and you have up to 15 passengers. The pilot is in control of the flight and the passengers are along for the ride. 

I was only able to try this out on 2 iPads, so I'm not sure exactly what it looks like on a full scale 15 passenger trial, but if it is like the 1:1, I will be very pleased.

Break Down:

The pilot uploads a PDF and sends out a passenger invite. The invite can be sent through email to all participants. As long as everyone is in the room and sharing wifi, they will be able to join. The PDF can be taken from iTunes or a public Dropbox folder. (Dropbox account required). From there, the pilot guides the passengers through the presentation.

Don't worry, if there are people in the room that do not have an iPad, the app can be displayed on the projector for all to see.

Extras:

I like the fact that there is a notes section to the app that allows pilots to read saved notes and passengers to take notes. This little addition makes the app worth in in my opinion. There are plenty of presentation apps out there, but how the information can be shared is important to me and the notes aspect allows for ideas to be typed out and saved for later.

Overall:

I would love to put this app on a class set of iPads and really give it a test run. I could see a group of students giving presentations in small groups during a class period. Quick presentations on various topics and then rotating. With each group being a pilot then a passenger. It could be a very exciting presentation style to work with students.

Currently, a pilot can only present to 15 passengers. It seems like they are trying to fix that issue. For a class set of iPads, it would require the teacher to be in charge of at least 2 (possibly 3) iPads to make sure that everyone is able to see the presentation on their screen. This is something that needs to be addressed sooner rather than later if Idea Flight has a chance to make a leap into the classroom. As it stands, it is the biggest fault to the app in the education world.

Price: The $9.99 price tag is a bit steep, especially if you wanted to place this on a class set of iPads. I know bulk pricing will cut the price down, but for 30 iPads, it will be a nice chunk of change. Now, the alternative would be a couple Pilot apps and the rest of the students could be passengers. With some creative planning, this could work well in the classroom.

The site says that there will be more in app upgrades in the future. That sounds like more money for more features in the future.

I would recommend that a teacher, who is big into presentations in PDF format, give this app a try on a limited basis to see how the students interact with it. If the students like the ability to have the presentation at their fingertips, then purchasing more Pilot apps might be the next step.

I look forward to see what additional add-ons Idea Flight Enterprise is going to bring in the future. They might make the difference from a suggest to a must have.

Full Disclosure: I was given a copy of Idea Flight Enterprise for the purpose of a review.

- @TheNerdyTeacher

Shake-a-Phrase App Review #EngChat #EdChat

Shake-a-Phrase

Full Disclosure: I was sent a copy of this app for the purpose of a review.

It's been a while since I've done an app review, but I'm glad I started back with Shake-a-Phrase by Artgig Studios. Shake-a-Phrase is a fun app thats purpose is helping with parts of speech by using crazy and funny sentences. It is a wonderful idea that kids will have a great time using. It can be downloaded on the iPad or iPhone/iTouch.

Break Down:

There are three different parts to the app.

You can use the Shake it! This will create random sentences that the user can read and select words to get the definition and the part of speech it belongs to. It is a very simple part of the app that is tons of fun. The sentences were silly, but easy to understand. They might not make a ton of sense at times, but that really isn't the point. The picture on the iPad is very clean and the words are easy to read. It really is a great UI for all ages.

If you are looking for students to write stories of their own, consider using the Story Starter part of the app. The Story Starter starts the user off with a crazy sentence and leaves the rest up to the imagination.

This is a fabulous example of starting a story in the classroom. The kids could have a field day with this type of starter. My mind actually raced for a bit as I thought of crazy extras to add to this story. This is wonderful for a teacher looking to get students writing creatively.

Lastly, there is the Quiz Me! portion of the app. The Quiz Me! portion of the app places a silly sentence on the screen and asks the user to identify verbs, nouns or adjectives. It worked very well and I made it to level 11until I moved on to other parts of the app. The difficulty increased as I moved along and I could see kids challenging each other for bragging rights on who went the farthest. 

Another cool feature of the app is the ability to choose different themes. There are 5 different themes:

Shake Starter will provide random sentence goodness and Animals, Fairytale, Monsters and their new theme, Sports. The sentences match up to their respective themes and are fun to use. You can see that I really liked the monster theme. The little boy in me just found them too funny not to use. The new sports theme is just as solid as the others and I look forward to more themes being added over time.

Extras:

The app has a couple of extras that I really like. The Fave button allows the user to store their favorite sentences and the share button allows the user to email the shake screen to a friend. I have already emailed one crazy sentence to Tim. 

Overall:

I really like this app and think it can be used by teachers in the classroom. The UI s fabulous and the app looks amazing on the iPad2. Everything was crystal clear.

The Themes were fun and refreshing and always creative. I went through over 100 shakes and I never saw a duplicate sentence. I looked weird as I sat there shaking my iPad, but I always had a new sentences to read.

Sharing the sentence and saving them for later was just a simple tap of the screen.

I can see the iPad being connected to a projector and students having a blast as they try to finish the stories started or point out the nouns, verbs and adjectives in the wacky sentences.

For $1.99, I think it is a steal. I would recommend that teachers pick up this app and share it with their students. It can be used together as a class or by individual students.

Shake-a-Phrase is a great app that will keep students laughing and learning. 

- @TheNerdyTeacher

Be Confident in Who You Are: Middle School Confidential: A Review

Be Confident in Who You Are: Middle School Confidential – by Annie Fox with Illustrations by Matt Kindt


Full Disclosure: I was given a free copy of this e-book for the purpose of a review.

I am a huge comic book fan. I created a graphic novel course in my high school because I knew there were a number of students in my school that were reading these types of stories and I wanted to help them get the most out of their reading. Graphic Novels appeal to readers in a different way than traditional texts do. With the advent of e-readers, like the iPad, comic books are now more accessible to the average readers. One graphic novel, Middle School Confidential, does an excellent job of telling an important story for students in Middle School.

One of the reasons I love this app is the way it integrates sound. Chapter 1 is entitled: Do You Like The Way You Look? It takes places in the driveway where some kids are playing basketball. As you move from panel to panel, you can hear the sound of a basketball bouncing on the concrete. When the scene shifts to a local pool, you can hear the sounds of the crowd talking and having a good time. You can even hear the sound of a page turning when you go from one page to the next! I know it seems small, but to a young reader, it is cool to actually hear what is going on in a scene while reading the dialogue.

Each chapter is about certain part of growing up that all of us had to deal with at some point. Self image is a big one in those pre-teen/early teen years and I like the way this story addressed these issues. Each chapter provided a different situation where kids were dealing with real life issues and talked about their feelings. Whether it is about making assumptions, freaking out at friends, dealing with stress and the other issues kids deal with daily, this graphic novel does an excellent job of walking the reader through these situations. After each chapter, there is a nice bit at the end that sums up the story.

One of my final take-aways from reading this graphic novel is that this should not be just given to kids to read. This is something that should be read WITH kids. These short stories are a great jumping off point for deeper discussions. That’s what I like most about the app. It allows for more conversation and that is what some kids need most of all. The chance to talk about many of these issues with another adult might be just the thing a kid needs, and Be Confident in Who You Are: Middle School Confidential provides that opportunity.

Uses: I see this being used in a couple of ways. First, it would be wonderful for parents to use with their own children. Read a chapter a day for a week and have conversations about what is at the core of each chapter. It is always great to read with your kids and even better if the kids can walk away with something important. The other use would be in the classroom. If a teacher has an iPad, they could download the app and connect the iPad to the projector and speakers to play the app for class. Now, the entire class can experience the story and can partake in the class discussion.

Price: $3.99 – This might seem a bit much, but the story and the conversations that can come from it are priceless.

About the Authors:

If you have an App or other product that you would like me to review, please send me an email at OneNerdyTeacher@gmail.com or seem my About Me page for more information.

- @TheNerdyTeacher

Using My iPad In The Classroom This Year

I have had a full summer to think about all of the different things I plan to do with my iPad this year. I've surfed the 'net and have had some conversations with people and I have come up with a few ideas. I'm really excited to get started. I hope some of my ideas help fellow iPad educators use the iPad in their class.

Safari (Free)

No big surprise, but the web will be very important to my use of the iPad in the classroom. I have the 3G version because I do not have WiFi access in my building (yet). Our attendance, grades and school email can all be accessed through the web. I no longer have to sit behind my desk and wait for the desktop to load up attendance. I can walk around the room and talk to students as I check them in for attendance. As I walk around, I can also check the grades of students to see if they have any missing assignments. By quickly shifting from one page to another, I can mark a student present and let them know their grade in the class.

Another great thing about the web access is that I can email students any piece of content I have on the iPad. If there is a site a student mentions in class discussion, I can plug it into the iPad, review it and then quickly email it to the entire class. The ability to freely move around the room allows a more fluid class discussion. No longer will I need to stop and go back to the desk and look up information. Safari allows me the freedom that a desktop cannot.

iBook (Free)

I love reading books on my iPad. It just a nice way to keep all of the books I want in one space without all of the clutter. I'm an English Teacher, so my collection of books has been growing every year. The iPad allows me to keep as many books as I want. I can bookmark various parts of a story and bounce back and forth when I need to. In the classroom, this ability can be very helpful. 

Many of the books I teach in class are free downloads. Those that are not, are fairly inexpensive and worth the download. One book I use every year is The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

Here is a picture of the original cover of the book. The iPad edition is fill with the original illustrations. Those are just nice extras. When I'm discussing a book with different classes, I normally have to leave little notes for myself to remind where we left off or specific ideas the class did or did not discuss. These post-it notes clutter the book very quickly when you have three or four sections of a class. iBooks allow a reader to post notes wherever you want. Here is an example. 

Here is a shot of the note when selected by the user. When it is not on the front page, it sits nicely on the margin with the date it was created. The notes are also indexed in the book mark section of the story so I do not have to search the chapter for the notes I have left. iBook allows for quick transitions between pages and notes so I do not have awkward pauses as I look for information. Quick highlighting of passages and simple note taking make the use of iBooks in the classroom a no-brainer. 

Another cool thing I could do would be to  take the highlighted portions and the notes and email them to others. The long way would to copy and past the quote and note and send it through traditional email. That way important quotes could be quickly shared with the rest of the class and posted on class blogs. It would take a little prep before class, but it could be very valuable in the long run. 

Things for iPad ($19.99)

I really like Notes for iPad. I'm going to use this for my day to day planning. Things for iPad allows you to create various notes and prioritize them. You can create due dates for certain notes and have them emailed to you as reminders. You can create different tags to keep your different notes together. I will be creating different tags for each class. This will allow me to sort the various notes quickly. 

The quick email is also very nice. I will create a separate tag for Freshmen Homework. If I keep the homework up to date on Things, I can quickly email it to students who were absent or parents that request it. The various Apps on the iPad do a great job integrating email so information can be quickly shared. Sharing information is crucial in education and Things for iPad makes this possible in a quick and easy fashion. 

Dropbox (Free)

I've written about my love of Dropbox before. I was talking to a new teacher in my building and I was sharing all of the wisdom I had to offer. After those 3 minutes we started to talk about some of the tech constraints she might encounter in the district. We currently have no way to access files on our school computer from home. If someone forgets a test they wanted to alter on the school computer, the only way the teacher could get it would be driving all the way back to school. Dropbox allows the teacher to store everything in the clouds and pull documents down when they need them. 

I have stored my documents on Dropbox and I couldn't be happier. I have access to all of my documents whenever I need them. This is handy when I'm walking around the room and a student ask for another copy of a handout. I can quickly send that document to them through email without having to dig in my file cabinet for an extra copy. It is important that teaches have access to information quickly because they need to pass it along to the students. Dropbox has never been a problem for me and I highly suggest you use it whether you have an iPad or not.

Diigo (Free)

Bookmarking tools are great for the classroom. In a previous post, I Heart Diigo, I talked about the wonderful things I was doing with Diigo. Bookmarking allowed me to present a series of sites to do research. Instead of just giving them the entire Internet to search, a handful of sites saved to Diigo allows a more controlled search. To really test the kids, you could throw in some unreliable sources to really test their research skills. 

For the iPad, Diigo collects the websites and allows the user to access them quickly. Instead of taking note after note from various websites, I can look at all site directly downloaded onto my iPad. I can use the different sites as I facilitate class discussion. The iPad allows for the collection of information in one spot. I'm a type of person that likes to move around the room and the iPad allows me to have all of the information at my finger tips without being chained to my chair. I can keep students on task and still facilitate class discussion. Diigo is a great tool for collecting information and sharing with others. That is one of the roles of a teacher. Using the iPad in the classroom has made that role easier. 

Dictionary.com (Free)

This app is an obvious choice for an English Class. The Dictionary.com app is a Dictionary and a Thesaurus. Students have this thought that as an English Teacher, I know the definition of every word and multiple synonyms and antonyms. On the rare occasion that I do not have the definition on the tip of my tongue, this app allows a quick search for the right definition. I have hard copy Dictionaries in my classroom, but they are stored at the other end and it takes too long to look up a word. If a students asks me and I don't know, I can find the word much faster on my iPad than I ever could using the book version or the desktop version. It's a nice app that every iPad user should download.

These are just a few of the apps that I plan on using in my class this year. I'm sure there will be other apps that will come out or I will find that will be helpful in my class. My dear friend Kelly Tenkely has a great site, iPadCurriculum.com, that is filled with great reviews of apps for the iPad. Check out what she has to say and see what you can do with your iPad in the classroom. 

- @TheNerdyTeacher