Encourage innovative challenge-based learning projects with these hand-selected apps
Challenge-based learning lets students locate a problem and then unleash their creativity in search of a solution. By nature, these projects are collaborative, multi-disciplinary, and hands-on. And what better tool to use to help encourage community fitness or reduce environmental impact than the possibility-rich mobile device?
The website APPitic.com [1], an app resource site with more than 6,000 apps in more than 300 subcategories, breaks down challenge-based learning projects into four steps: Finding & launching a challenge, moving from challenge to solution, implementing a solution, and sharing findings.
Here, we’ve gathered a handful of apps for each of those stages, broken down further into substeps. You find the full range of suggested apps online [2].
[Editor’s note: eSchool News has selected these apps, which were originally curated by Apple Distinguished Educators, that may help you meet your instructional needs.]
Next page: Apps for collaborating, brainstorming, analyzing data, and more
Finding & Launching a Challenge
Find a challenge: Use apps that connect students to innovative resources and news sources, such as feed readers (think Feedly [3]), the TED app [4], NPR [5], and the magazine-like aggregator Zite [6].
Brainstorm: Try apps such as MindNode [7] ($9.99), Stickyboard [8], and Ideasketch [9] to get creative juices flowing.
Collaborate: Consider these fresh apps for getting students to work together through journaling (iDO Notepad [10]), and making checklists (Wunderlist [11]).
From Challenge to Solution
Mindmap: iBrainstorm [12] and Popplet [13] can help organize thoughts.
Research: InstaPaper [14] ($3.99) saves webpages for offline viewing; Wikipedia Mobile [15] can be invaluable on-the-go.
Polling/Surveying: Polls Online [16], PollDaddy [17], and Socrative [18] might help gather responses.
Next page: Analyze data and share results with these apps
Solution implementation
Project management: Apps such as gTasks [19]/GoTasks [20] and Weave [21], which can even help balance money, are solid organizers to keep students on task.
Data Analysis: Roambi Analytics [22] turns spreadsheet and other data into visuals and charts.
Sharing Findings
Solution presentation: Encourgae students to creatively present their findings with apps such as Prezi [23], iMovie [24], or Haiku Deck [25]. Or share photos taken during the process using Nostalgio [26] ($1) or Frametastic [27].
Reflection: Have students create books (Scribble Press [28], $2.99) or record their thoughts via audio (VoiceThread [29]; Audioboom [30])