For approximately the past five months, my fourth graders and I have been pre-piloting BYOD for our district. While our findings are detailed in an earlier post, here is a list of what I consider to be the must-have apps for BYOD (as opposed to apps that I might consider to be “the best” in general).
Google Drive: The ability to establish an effective workflow is easily one of the bigger problems when dealing with mobile devices in the classroom. When this app came out a few years ago it essentially took a sledgehammer to this dilemma. Although this app does not possess all the same functionality as its desktop counterpart, it will allow students and teachers to access their work, wherever and whenever (especially if your district has gone Google Apps for Education, which it should).
Platforms: iOS, Android, web Price: free
Schoology/Edmodo: While a learning management system (LMS) could also help with workflow, Schoology and Edmodo are also tremendous at promoting 24/7 learning and classroom collaboration. In addition, they both offer a safe and controlled environment in which students can brush up on their digital citizenship skills. These two systems are entirely mobile friendly, and Jenny Magiera has a blog post in which she does a great job of comparing and contrasting the two.
Platforms: iOS, Android, web Price: free
Kidblog: All students should have their own blog. Kidblog offers a school-friendly platform that has multiple permission options (blogs are completely public, blogs are public but only participants can comment, blogs are completely private, etc.). From an iOS device, content can easily be uploaded to a post from the camera roll. Teachers and students should also consider leveraging Kidblog for student portfolios.
Platforms: iOS, Android, web Price: free
Evernote: Evernote is another another app that can serve multiple purposes, whether it is student portfolios, digital note taking, or administrators gathering evidence for teacher evaluation. Both Penultimate (iPad only) and Skitch beautifully expand upon the use of Evernote in order to round out a well-integrated “note-taking suite.” However, in my classroom we ran into some trouble with these apps when we realized that Apple technology needs to be upgraded to iOS 7 for all of them to work. (This upgrade is not possible on some of the older iPod Touch devices.)
Platforms: iOS, Android, web Price: free
Socrative: This app turns your mobile device into a student response system. What makes it so wonderful is its intuitive yet robust interface. Teachers can dish out single question activities as well as premade quizzes. My personal favorite is the ease with which teachers can use the app to support off-the-cuff verbal questions in order to harness those teachable moments. In other words, no preplanning is necessary in order to effectively use the app.
Platforms: iOS, Android, web Price: free
Subtext: If there is one app that can redefine the instruction of reading comprehension, this is it. In short, teachers can share texts with groups of students (eBooks, Internet articles, PDFs, etc.). As teachers and students read, they can attach comments, questions, and polls to specified parts of the text. Students within the same group can view these markups and respond accordingly. The full functionality of Subtext is beyond the scope of this post, but go get this app NOW.
Platforms: iPad, web Price: free
iMovie: With a somewhat recent update, Apple’s video editing app has become much more intuitive and usable. Although this app does not have close to the same number of options as the Mac version, the app does the basics extraordinarily well. Almost any student with a mobile device will end up having to edit video, sooner or later. Also, any type of media brought into the camera roll can always be imported into iMovie for an additional polish (titles, transitions, background music, etc.).
Platforms: iOS Price: free on new/newer devices
Spelling City: If you have spelling and/or vocabulary lists already set up at the Spelling City website, this app is a no brainer. With a quick search, students can find these lists with the app. If you have not used Spelling City, you can easily create lists of spelling words. After selecting a list, students can study the words through various activities. This app is one of the main reasons why I now ask all students to start the year with a pair of headphones.
Platforms: iOS, Android, web Price: free
Scanner Pro: For BYOD, all students should have an app that transforms their device into a portable scanner. When engaged in a “pencil and paper” activity, students scan in their work, save it to their camera roll, and then upload the content to Kidblog or Schoology (or any other blog, portfolio, or learning management system). Once my fourth graders were made aware of this workflow, they were doing it all the time with no trouble at all.
Platforms: iOS Price: 2.99
Printer Pro: Unless your classroom is entirely paperless, which it probably isn’t, it will be necessary for you and your students to periodically print from your mobile devices. This app gets the job done beautifully by allowing the printing to “pass through” a school computer that is connected to a printer. A small program running in the computer’s background allows for this to happen. At first I thought that there was no way this system would work. However, once I took the plunge, everything was up and running in less than ten minutes. This is one of those things that “just works.”
Platforms: iOS Price: 4.99 (iPod Touch/iPhone), 6.99 (iPad)
I should also note that Readdle is the company responsible for Scanner Pro and Printer Pro. Their company is a class act. If you contact them, there is a chance that they would be more than happy to “help out” with your BYOD initiative.
Honorable mentions: Popplet / Idea Sketch, Keynote / Haiku Deck, Explain Everything, Notability, Qrafter Pro, Layar / Aurasma
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Great list of apps. I teach older students but there are a couple that will work week with them.
Thanks for sharing your list. I just downloaded Subtext. Looking forward to exploring.
Thank you for the feedback. Feel free to contribute with apps that you have found to be beneficial!
Great list of apps. Going to forward this around to the faculty at Roslyn High School.
Thanks, Larry!
Reblogged this on Teach talk and commented:
Some great apps here. Should be on every teachers’ list! Thanks
I would add Educreations – much easier than Explain Everything and great to produce short, informative “lessons” to enable the flipped classroom. There are amazing pre-loaded “lessons” by other awesome educators….
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