Wether you are "app smashing" or just downloading your first iPad app, here is a list of my favorite versatile apps. I have downloaded over 1000 apps so this was super hard for me to do. Without any further ado, here is my shortlist (15) of my favorites with a comment or two ranked in order:
1. Evernote - For teachers, not for students under age 13 without parental permission, this app should be, without a doubt, the first app you download and learn to use. Who doesn't need to be more productive? I've actually purchased fewer sticky notes and now I think I need to stop buying 3M stock. Just kidding.
2. Google Drive - Free storage for students and teachers for video, images, audio and any other file type you can think of pretty much. Google Docs can and should be your replacement for Microsoft Word and Apple iWorks Pages for creating Documents because you can collaborate. If you are still emailing Word documents, please stop now. Thank you for your attention. :)
Google Apps for Education is free (a whopping 30 GB cloud storage) for schools but for students under 13, the school needs to get parental permission to create an account. Make it easy and have parents on board at the beginning of 3rd grade (or whatever grade your school district thinks is appropriate) and then you are all set till high school graduation if you're a K-12 district. Free public accounts are available for ages 13+.
3. iMovie - Awesomesauce video creation. If you have the $, Pinnacle Studio is highly recommended by other experts.
4. Edmodo - Be social, learn and share. Think of it as your personal learning network (PLN) for educators and honing terrific digital citizenship skills for kiddos. Also, if you ask kids to publish their work, what do you think will happen? Do you think it will be good or just "good enough" for their teacher?
5. Popplit Lite - Mind-mapping.
6. Haiku Deck - Free outstanding presentation app that should replace Keynote for students but not teachers. Why is it better than Keynote? Try it and you'll see the text limitations - yep that's a huge plus - and the image search feature (skip the $ images).
7. Padlet.com - Collaborating and sharing web based application. This is not an app you can find in the iTunes store but it's a web application so create the icon on your iPad using the Action Button, then Add to Home Screen.
8. InFuseLearning.com - Q & A the iPad way and so much more. This is a web based application and not available in the iTunes store. Use your Action Button, then Add to Home Screen.
9. Notability - Take notes and annotate over anything; images, PDF documents, or screenshots. My 7th grade daughter used Notability to draw and type text over, on top of, next to... making really cool notes, "works of art". This app not only allows you to fill in a worksheet or add your signature to a PDF file, it allows you to be a creative note taker.
10. CBB - Creative Book Builder - Write your first book, now! Share it with the world or your class or your family! CBB is super easy. Any excuses? If CBB isn't your favorite, a lot of app-enthusiasts also recommend Book Creator app.
11. iBooks - To read all your interactive books. I never thought my husband and daughter, serious avid readers would prefer using the iPad app to read, who knew! I would do anything not to have to read when I was growing up. Now, I can't read enough using the iPad. It could be my position, wanting to learn as much as I can from my personal learning network (PLN), or the iPad's wonderful user interface. Probably both.
12. Explain Everything - A must have screencasting app for teachers but save your money for students and encourage them to use the free Educreations app. For the youngest students K-2, consider the free ShowMe app for screencasting. I believe the saying, that if you can explain it, you understand it, is true. Get your students to show you what they know by screencasting it! Swap iPads between students and have students using a rubric provide feedback to each other.
13. Comic Life - The best app for creating interesting graphics on the iPad in my opinion. I'll write more about this fantastic app in future posts.
14. ClassDojo - An app for class management. Nice for grades 3-5. A teacher that wasn't interested in learning it said he didn't want to stop and loose the "moment." Uhm. My brain is not big enough to remember all the moments, so Class Dojo is a big help encouraging positive behavior.
15. Hootsuite - If you tweet in chats on Twitter, you need an app like this. Tweetdeck is another option. More on twittering in another post.
That's my top favorite 15 apps. It seems like I've missed some other apps that I really enjoyed using in the classroom and outside of the classroom though. So just to include more if you're interested, here is my List.ly list of Very Versatile iPad Apps below with links to the iTunes Store. Enjoy and give my your opinion in the comments or via email if you feel like it. Cheers!
1. Evernote - For teachers, not for students under age 13 without parental permission, this app should be, without a doubt, the first app you download and learn to use. Who doesn't need to be more productive? I've actually purchased fewer sticky notes and now I think I need to stop buying 3M stock. Just kidding.
2. Google Drive - Free storage for students and teachers for video, images, audio and any other file type you can think of pretty much. Google Docs can and should be your replacement for Microsoft Word and Apple iWorks Pages for creating Documents because you can collaborate. If you are still emailing Word documents, please stop now. Thank you for your attention. :)
Google Apps for Education is free (a whopping 30 GB cloud storage) for schools but for students under 13, the school needs to get parental permission to create an account. Make it easy and have parents on board at the beginning of 3rd grade (or whatever grade your school district thinks is appropriate) and then you are all set till high school graduation if you're a K-12 district. Free public accounts are available for ages 13+.
3. iMovie - Awesomesauce video creation. If you have the $, Pinnacle Studio is highly recommended by other experts.
4. Edmodo - Be social, learn and share. Think of it as your personal learning network (PLN) for educators and honing terrific digital citizenship skills for kiddos. Also, if you ask kids to publish their work, what do you think will happen? Do you think it will be good or just "good enough" for their teacher?
5. Popplit Lite - Mind-mapping.
6. Haiku Deck - Free outstanding presentation app that should replace Keynote for students but not teachers. Why is it better than Keynote? Try it and you'll see the text limitations - yep that's a huge plus - and the image search feature (skip the $ images).
7. Padlet.com - Collaborating and sharing web based application. This is not an app you can find in the iTunes store but it's a web application so create the icon on your iPad using the Action Button, then Add to Home Screen.
8. InFuseLearning.com - Q & A the iPad way and so much more. This is a web based application and not available in the iTunes store. Use your Action Button, then Add to Home Screen.
9. Notability - Take notes and annotate over anything; images, PDF documents, or screenshots. My 7th grade daughter used Notability to draw and type text over, on top of, next to... making really cool notes, "works of art". This app not only allows you to fill in a worksheet or add your signature to a PDF file, it allows you to be a creative note taker.
10. CBB - Creative Book Builder - Write your first book, now! Share it with the world or your class or your family! CBB is super easy. Any excuses? If CBB isn't your favorite, a lot of app-enthusiasts also recommend Book Creator app.
11. iBooks - To read all your interactive books. I never thought my husband and daughter, serious avid readers would prefer using the iPad app to read, who knew! I would do anything not to have to read when I was growing up. Now, I can't read enough using the iPad. It could be my position, wanting to learn as much as I can from my personal learning network (PLN), or the iPad's wonderful user interface. Probably both.
12. Explain Everything - A must have screencasting app for teachers but save your money for students and encourage them to use the free Educreations app. For the youngest students K-2, consider the free ShowMe app for screencasting. I believe the saying, that if you can explain it, you understand it, is true. Get your students to show you what they know by screencasting it! Swap iPads between students and have students using a rubric provide feedback to each other.
13. Comic Life - The best app for creating interesting graphics on the iPad in my opinion. I'll write more about this fantastic app in future posts.
14. ClassDojo - An app for class management. Nice for grades 3-5. A teacher that wasn't interested in learning it said he didn't want to stop and loose the "moment." Uhm. My brain is not big enough to remember all the moments, so Class Dojo is a big help encouraging positive behavior.
15. Hootsuite - If you tweet in chats on Twitter, you need an app like this. Tweetdeck is another option. More on twittering in another post.
That's my top favorite 15 apps. It seems like I've missed some other apps that I really enjoyed using in the classroom and outside of the classroom though. So just to include more if you're interested, here is my List.ly list of Very Versatile iPad Apps below with links to the iTunes Store. Enjoy and give my your opinion in the comments or via email if you feel like it. Cheers!
Very Versatile iPad Apps
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