Educational apps, aimed at students and teachers, can help boost productivity and achievement
Apps are some of the most popular tools in education, and with good reason–they’re easily accessible on mobile devices and can provide quick and targeted help.
Understanding how, when, and why to use apps gives teachers and students deeper understanding of how these relatively new tools can support student learning, teacher instruction, and day-to-day organization and management.
Here, we’ve gathered 11 apps that are useful, educational, help with organization, or are just plain fun. Do you have a favorite educational app that you use with students, colleagues, or for yourself? Be sure to mention it in the comments section below.
(Next page: 11 useful educational apps)
Following, you’ll find the app name, link or links to download, and the developer’s description.
[Editor’s note: App prices are current as of press time, but are subject to change.]
1. TED, iPhone/iPad, Android, Free
TED’s official app presents talks from some of the world’s most fascinating people: education radicals, tech geniuses, medical mavericks, business gurus, and music legends. Find more than 1,700 TEDTalk videos and audios (with more added each week) on the official TED app.
2. Star Chart, iPhone/iPad, Android, Free
All you have to do is point your device at the sky and Star Chart will tell you exactly what you are looking at. Using GPS technology, an accurate 3D universe, and all of the latest high tech functionality, Star Chart calculates – in real time – the current location of every star and planet visible from Earth and shows you precisely where they are; even in broad daylight.
3. Wabbitemu, Android, Free
Wabbitemu creates a Texas Instruments graphing calculator right on your Android device. Wabbitemu supports the TI-73, TI-81, TI-82, TI-83, TI-83 Plus, TI-83 Plus Silver Edition, TI-84 Plus, TI-84 Plus Silver Edition, TI-85, and TI-86. Fast and convenient, Wabbitemu allows you to always have your trusty calculator with you. Because Wabbitemu is an emulator, the calculator it creates will act exactly like the real thing.
4. yHomework, iPhone/iPad, Android, Free
Enter your expression or equation, and get the full step-by-step solution! Just the same as your teacher would write on the board, and just the same as you would solve it in your notebook. Students could use this to check work they’ve already done, or to review equation steps learned in class.
5. Rover, iPad, Free
Can’t access Flash on your iPad? Rover can. Rover is the free to download education app that streams educational Flash content to your iPad.
6. Common Core State Standards, iPhone/iPad, Android, Free
View the Common Core State Standards in one convenient app. A great reference for students, parents, and teachers to easily read and understand the core standards. Quickly find standards by subject, grade, and subject category (domain/cluster). This app includes Math standards K-12 and Language Arts standards K-12. Math standards include both traditional and integrated pathways (as outlined in Appendix A of the common core) and synthesizes Language Arts standards with the Corresponding College and Career Readiness Standards (CCR’s).
7. Kidblog, iPhone/iPad, Free
Create and manage Kidblog accounts from your iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch. Teachers can monitor blog activity and moderate comments and posts. Students can easily upload photos and videos directly from their iOS device – with no embed codes or HTML.
8. Shake-a-Phrase, iPhone/iPad, Android, $1.99
Shake-a-Phrase is a fun language app for creative writing prompts, vocabulary, and parts of speech practice. Perfect for learning and laughing in the classroom or on-the-go, it features over 2,000 words and definitions in 5 engaging themes for ages 8+.
9. Grammaropolis, iPhone/iPad, Android, Free
Grammaropolis is where grammar lives! Hailed as a Schoolhouse Rock for the 21st Century, Grammaropolis uses the parts of speech as animated characters whose personalities are based on the roles they play in the sentence. Users must make in-app purchases for full access.
10. Nearpod, iPhone/iPad, Android, Free
The Nearpod platform enables teachers to use their iPads to manage content on students’ iPads, iPhones or iPods. It combines presentation, collaboration, and real-time assessment tools into one integrated solution. Nearpod is a synchronous solution for the use of iPads, iPods and iPhones in the classroom.
11. Endless Reader, iPhone/iPad, Free
This app introduces “sight words”, the most commonly used words in school, library, and children’s books. Kids need to recognize these words by sight in order to achieve reading fluency. Recognizing sight words is advantageous for beginning readers because many of these words have unusual spelling, cannot be sounded out using phonics knowledge, and often cannot be represented using pictures.
[Editor’s note: For more resources on iOS, read “15 iOS 11 tricks” from BloomTimes here.”]
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