iPad Apps in the Shop - Part 1

With the integration of iPads into my Industrial Technology curriculum this year, I have had the opportunity to try out various iPad apps with my students and see which ones work well. I wanted to share my experiences so that other teachers might be able to make informed decisions about which apps you might want to use.

The following highlights the apps that have had the most usage in my classroom. This will be part 1 in a series of several, as I have over 100 apps and counting on the iPads. The cost section is in reference to Apple's Volume Purchase Program for Education, where 1-19 copies are typically full price, and 20 copies or more are sometimes reduced to half price if the developer chooses so when they submit them to the App Store.

Click on the App buttons below to get more information from the App Store.

Edmodo

Cost: Free

Account Required: Yes

Student Email Required: Yes

Frequency of Use: Daily

I used Edmodo in my face-to-face Computer animation course as a way to share links, videos, and other resources with my students. Students have the ability to turn assignments via Edmodo, which I find particularly useful. The interface is very similar to Facebook, so my students jump right in and start communicating with each other right away. I even had a student who was home sick working on that days assignment and communicating with their classmates.

Dropbox

Cost: Free

Account Required: Yes

Student Email Required: No, I use my school address for all the iPads

Frequency of Use: Daily


I use Dropbox on every device that I own! Dropbox enables you to save your files in the cloud and access them when you need them. This is especially useful when I want to share files to all the iPads, or if I want students to share files with me. I have this app installed on the iPads, as well as the computer in my lab, and they are all signed into the same account to simplify sharing.

iBooks

Cost: Free

Account Required: No

Student Email Required: No

Frequency of Use: Daily


iBooks is they app that I use to share any PDF resources that I have along with some free books that I have downloaded. It is much less distracting to have students read an article in iBooks than on the web. In fact, Safari (on my iMac) now has a feature called "Reader" that allows me to get rid of all the extra fluff on a web page which makes it much easier to read.

iMovie

Cost: 1-19, $4.99, 20+ $2.49

Account Required: Yes

Student Email Required: No

Frequency of Use: When Needed


With the addition of the cameras to the iPad 2, iMovie now gives my students the ability to creative dynamic videos. The best part is that they use one device to plan, shoot, edit and turn in their projects. iMovie for the iPad is very intuitive and my students have picked it up very quickly and have created stunning work. I used to be impressed by the ease in which my student learned and created on the computers, buy I am astonished by how fast they can create with iMovie on the iPad.

Ruler for iPad and iPhone

Cost: Free

Account Required: No

Student Email Required: No

Frequency of Use: When Needed

Most of my classes create "things" as part of the learning process. Very often in the process of creating, a rules is needed. Now I do have rules in my classroom, but the Ruler for iPad app allows my students to have a ruler on them at all times. The app allows student to drag their fingers to create a start and stop point. The distance between the two is then shown in decimal format to a hundredth of an inch.