Friday, June 3, 2011

10 Best Apps 4 Teachers - 2011

Most of what we do is for the students. The focus of this and many other blogs and websites is about learning, and rightly so, but there are also apps that will make our jobs easier too. I am talking about that catergory of apps that are designed specifically for the classroom teacher. Those apps that will assist us in the everyday little jobs that need to be done, often on the run and often while 10 other things are also happening in the room. There are plenty and I am sure as more and more teachers gain the confidence to design their own apps, there will be more suitable one to come. Here is a list of apps that you can use to make your job easier. This is just my list, but I would be happy for other to contribute the apps that help them - help others by leaving your selection in the comments.

Keynote: $9.99

Keynote for iPad is almost as powerful as the desktop application. This is a powerful presentation tool that has animations, slide transition and all the features to make professional slides. It allows you to open templates with graphics already inserted. This is purposely built to work seemlessly on the iPad and to allow the user to incorporate other aspects of the iWork suite. Perfect addition to any homepage.





Educate: Free


Since one of the first jobs you have to do each morning is to take the role Attendance is a great solution for the iPad. This app has some great features which make it attractive to teachers; photos for each student, recording lateness or emailing absent students. It asks if you would like to import your address book or you can import student info from external files. It also syncs between different devices. For the price this is a very functional app.



Teacher Tool: Free


TeacherTool saves grades and makes suggestions for grades. TeacherTool saves your remarks about students and presents them to you in the upcoming lesson. It remembers the date of any grade and lets you store comments along with it. TeacherTool keeps track of your students‘ absences. It is much safer than your traditional mark-book, as with every synchronization on your Mac, you save an up-to-date backup copy of all your data.


iAnnotate: $12.99


iAnnotate is a PDF reader and annotation tool for the iPad. It opens documents from emails, fills out forms, you can sign and send out contracts, enter notes for edits, sketch diagrams, copy text, and add highlights or underline with the drag of a finger. iAnnotate fully integrates its annotations directly into the PDF. This is a great tool for teachers to mark student's work.



GradePad: $2.99


The GradePad application allows you to grade your students’ performance directly from your mobile device. The documentation from the application’s website explains that with this app you can Manage Groups, Create GradePads, Do Assessments, Track Performance, and Share Data. Manage Groups, Create GradePads, Do Assessments, Track Performance, Share Data



Dropbox: Free


Dropbox is a free service that lets you bring all your photos, docs, and videos anywhere. After you install Dropbox on your computer, any file you save to your Dropbox will automatically save to all your computers, your iPhone and iPad and even the Dropbox website! With the Dropbox app, you can take everything that matters to you on the go.




Attendance: $5.99


Attendance is a universal iOS touchscreen application. It allows you to take and keep attendance records. Its main intended use is for teachers to keep track of records for their classes, but it can also be used for meetings and group gatherings. Features include; unlimited courses, move students from one class to another , photo recognition, customisable attendance statuses.



Teacher Pal: Free


TeacherPal is a personal organizer for the teacher. It enables the teacher to organize classes, and students. Its simple and intuitive interface enables teachers to track the attendance, grades and behavior of their students. Features include; simple tap attendance, grade books, enter grade with an intuitive touchpad, import, export data files from and to CSV files.



Flipboard: Free


This is a great app for the iPad. Flipboard allows you to set your twitter feeds straight back to your iPad. Flipboard then re-presents it in a magazine format. The tweets are laid out with images in the same format as an online mag. This is great for making online textbooks for specific classes or even further reading lists. Only the classes that you have given the specific twitter address have access. I think this makes tweets much more user friendly, especially to younger students who may not be as familiar with twitter.


PowerPresenter: $1.99


PowerPresenter is an app that lets you display local PDFs, websites or even draw on the screen as a white board. Through the Web, you can display not just HTML but PDFs, PowerPoint presentations, Word documents, RTF files and iWork files. This all requires Internet connection, but if you know you do not have a connection save them as local files.



And how could I forget...thanks Leoni65


Evernote: FREE



Evernote allows you to capture information in any environment using any device, and makes everything accessible and searchable, from anywhere. Evernote is always synchronized, so any information added in one place is instantly available everywhere else. Use Evernote to capture your ideas, snapshots, voice memos, things you see online, and just about anything else that you want to remember.  Evernote recently reached their have 10 millionth user.



55 comments:

  1. Thanks Greg. I have started to use Evernote since getting my iPad. The thing that I like most about it is that it syncs across my ipad, iphone and computer so if I have a thought on the run as long as I have my phone it is stored in cyberspace to come back to later.

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  2. You managed to hit the nail right on the head and explained out everything without complication.
    mobile website development

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  3. Great post - I shared it with my network on Twitter. There's also a great discussion going on about iPhone/iPad apps in the classroom here: http://www.edutopia.org/groups/technology-integration-k-5/53911.

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  4. I just found "Teacher's Assistant Pro" and found it to be an AMAZING app for teachers! I use it as a Behavior Log/Parent Contact Log to track students behaviors. It has a great interface and you can really tell it was made by a teacher, for other teachers.
    You can import and export data, sort by first or last name, filter by class, email student data - all extremely useful to a teacher.
    I wanted a way to go paperless with my Behavior log and be able to track misbehaviors/positive behaviors and this does just that. For $3.99 you cannot go wrong!

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    Replies
    1. Try it free here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/teachers-assistant-lite-track/id399265769?mt=8

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  5. Check out www.TeacherCast.net for a great list of these apps... some even have screencasts!!!

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  6. Can you recommend something for lesson plans? Thanks.

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    Replies
    1. Planbook is also a very useful planning app

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    2. Planbook is an excellent app for planning. i've shown it to two of my colleagues who have taken it up as their paperless planner. Take a look. And if you go to the developer's site you can get a trial version.

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    3. Don't know if you have tried GoClass. Its a lesson planning app which can be then used for conducting an interactive classroom session.http://itunes.apple.com/in/app/id467088232?mt=8

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  7. May I suggest a useful little app that my son has created? My wife and I are teachers, and we both use this app often.

    http://itunes.apple.com/app/marking-calculator/id460792674?mt=8

    Marking Calculator totals a student's marks and converts it into a percentage. That's it. But it's a lot quicker than using a calculator.

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  8. Great post! I am currently trying to convince our head to get Ipads for all teachers.

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  9. I'm a teacher and the children in my class love you use this Maths App!
    http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/i-say-you-say-number-bonds/id474185370?mt=8&ls=1

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  10. As a teacher, I love using the Ghostwriter Notes app. Unlike other note-taking apps, this app uses the full capabilities of my iPad. It is just good in note-taking with a lot of features.

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    Replies
    1. Notability is also a good one

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  11. Do you know of an app that will let me sort students into groups? (Need to be able to change the number of groups) I am envisioning something that is drag and drop and that I can take a screen shot of the visual image and then make a new constellation.

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  12. to renkath - use edmodo. they have a feature that allows you to put students in groups. It is a drag and drop and you could take a screen shot. very easy to change groups. my kids have literacy circle discussions via edmodo all the time. they love it.

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  13. Hi,
    Nice list. I'd like to suggest another great app for teachers; Learning Structures from OMJS:
    http://www.onderwijsmaakjesamen.nl/iphone/werkvormen/index.php?l=en

    Keep up the good work

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  14. Thank you for this great list. I would like also to propose another app (Matrices and Curves Fitting Calculator) that does basic matrix operations(*, +, -), solves linear systems and does some nice curves fitting (linear, hyperbolic, logarithmic, power regression)

    iPad Version
    http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/matri...1828?ls=1&mt=8

    iPhone Version
    http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/matri...1765?ls=1&mt=8

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  15. I would reccomend this Timeline Eons app, a graphic representation of the entire natural and human history:
    http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/timeline-eons/id433352152?mt=8&ls=1

    http://www.maani.us/app_timeline/

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  16. I should suggest this anyway to my friend's sister who is a teacher. She has her iPad and maybe it'd be worth it and easier for her to use some of this apps.

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  17. I would love an app that automatically grades my essays for me:)

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  18. Another teacher is using an app where they post a poll and the students text their answers for instant results. Do you know what this app is called?

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    Replies
    1. There's one called Socrative that does that. It's a simple app that can be used as an app or Internet page.

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    2. Maybe it's Nearpod? www.nearpod.com I'm testing it right now and I'm really happy, my students are having fun. It's an app to create your own presentations, adding polls, quiz, drawing activities, videos...and students submit their answers to activities in real time from their mobile devices. It's working for my classes, certainly.

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    3. Poll Anywhere is a very basic option, accessible by computer, cell phone, etc.

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  19. There is a book/app called Kasey's Guitar Jams for Kids. It is for ages 4 and up. It is a fun and engaging way for children to learn to play music. The book/app is made up of 17 energetic songs that have vibrant illustrations with quirky song lyrics.

    App url-http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/kaseys-guitar-jams-for-kids/id511771442?mt=8
    Promo video-http://youtu.be/XFEI44DYr_I

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  20. In a few weeks I will do a classroom training for a larger audience on an iPad application
    In that matter I need a tool, which can show on Projector, where I put my finger on the iPad screen - do this app exist ?

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  21. Does anyone have suggestions for an app to record home reading books? Im currently keeping a hard copy of all the books taken home by pupils every day, and as some are getting through 3 per week it's becoming tiresome. Just a simple database would do, but something incorporating a isbn or barcode reader would be amazing.

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    Replies
    1. Try the app - classroom organizer

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  22. I really think many of these can be combined through a great new web based program called schoology.com.

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  23. My students really love using this new app called Nearpod in class!!! Awesome: www.nearpod.com :) try it!!!

    Susan

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  24. My students really love using this new app called Nearpod in class!!! Awesome: www.nearpod.com :) try it!!!

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  25. I'm a university lecturer and I'd love an app where I could make a profile for each student and keep detailed notes on them. Does anyone know of such a beast?

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  26. I am a sport teacher at 2 schools and I teach from Kindy to year 6, I need a app with attendance and notes on attendance, along with lesson plans and anything else. Does anyone know a cheap or free app to help me? Thanks

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  27. We have been looking for an all-in-one solution for our teachers and after all testing, settled at this app - Teacher+
    http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/teacher/id456927672?mt=8

    It's a awesome app to use!

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  28. There's a new easy grader app in the App Store that is super simple to configure, and it does half-points for all those teachers that like to give partial credit. It's a great replacement for the cardboard EZ Grader. Check it out here:
    http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/easy-grade/id517329502?mt=8

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  29. Hi,
    Very good blog post I love your site keep up the great posts.

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  30. I should suggest this anyway to my friend's sister who is a teacher. She has her iPad and maybe it'd be worth it and easier for her to use some of this apps.

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  31. Do you know if it's possible to transfer information you have entered on one iPad to another? I am currently on maternity leave and I'd love to be able to transfer all the information taken by my substitute teacher

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  32. Teacher pal is now TeacherKit. Just thought you should know

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  33. Can you tell me/teach me about how you set up your twitter/flipboard pages for different classes? My class set of iPads is set to arrive any day now (woot!) and sounds like an AWESOME way to share things with them. Even dating/keeping track! Teach me, oh wise one!

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  34. Hello Greg,

    Your post is so much useful for me and you focused on teachers and give them this type of apps is very helpful for them.

    Thanks for post
    -------------------------


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  35. I wanted a way to go paperless with my Behavior log and be able to track misbehaviors/positive behaviors and this does just that.

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  36. I absolutely love Evernote - this is an application for everyone. And "Attendance" looks good. Unfortunately it's not free.

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  37. I am a teacher too but I use Jot! as my whiteboard app. I think its the best whiteboard app in the appstore.. Me and my students use it in class. Its got a live sharing feature where we can collaborate and share ideas in real time...


    https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/jot!-whiteboard-free/id371937922?mt=8

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  38. So many apps to choose from. We are just implementing I Pads at school. Any training apps for using the I Pads? I am in the process of working on my masters in integrating technology into the classroom. So much to learn.... I don't want to miss the opportunity of working on the implementation of using I Pads in the classroom. All suggestions are welcome.

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  39. Does anyone know of an app for the ipad that will scribe for students. I have an IEP student who needs to have a scribe write his essays. I am hoping that there is an app for that and we can make life easier for him and his teachers.

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    Replies
    1. There are several, but I'm a fan of Notability. It has the ability to do type as they speak.

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  40. IPad app for college student: send content to students immediately from within app. Students are free to access content anywhere through help of iPad app.

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  41. Please have a look at Tutor Notes - the first teacher assistant app made specifically for private (1on1) teachers. Great for everyone who gives private lessons of any kind!

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  42. Thank you for all of these resources! I have been debating the pros/cons of getting an iPad, and when I read things like this it definitely makes the pros seem really strong.

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