So what are the best Teaching Apps?

A day would not go past that I do not get an email from a teacher or programmer who is pleading with me to publicize their iPad, Android or Windows app on Edgalaxy. And if we think the app is worthy enough we on occasion do so.

However, with the hundreds of thousands of Apps available we'd love to throw it to you to tell us what apps are great for teaching and learning and why?

Head to our discussion area on this topic and please be descriptive.

Shameless plugs will be allowed as long as they are short, sweet and relevant to teaching and learning

So here goes. Begin the Discussion.

5 GREAT APPS TO HELP KIDS READ

Reading is not the most straightforward skill to teach young children.  There is a great deal to it in terms of constructing sounds, understanding grammar and finally comprehending what is actually being read.

Finding relevant material can often be tough to find and many students choose to watch television and play video games over reading as it perceived as boring.

That is why the iPad is an excellent resource to help get kids enthused about reading and also offer a huge range of traditional and multimedia based texts to select.

Below I have listed some apps that will definitely appeal to younger kids and also offer a genuine learning opportunity for them to improve their reading skills.

Rock 'n Learn Phonics Easy Reader
Rock 'n Learn Phonics Easy Reader, priced at $1.99, helps children develop their reading skills through three phonics stories. The stories can be read to the child or she can sound out the words and read the story. If the child needs some extra help with figuring out a word, she can click on the word for assistance. Rock 'n Learn Phonics Easy Reader focuses on developing pronunciation of short vowel sounds, consonant-vowel-consonant combinations and words ending with ll, ss, ff, s, and plural s.

Bob Books #1 - Reading Magic 
Bob Books #1 - Reading Magic is an excellent introduction to phonics for young children, or a nice companion to the printed Bob Books (a systematic method of teaching kids to read). Since you can either control the difficulty level or set it to Automatic, this app will grow with your learning child, and keep their interest as they read and re-read the sentences on each page. The artwork is simple, just as in the printed Bob Books, but the added elements of color and animation are well done and attractive.

Smiley Sight Words (Ages 4+; iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch; $0.99)
If you're seeking a set of virtual flash cards with which to drill your child on reading common words, Smiley Sight Words might be the best you can get. It's got over 1,500 words, arranged into five decks, each with multiple levels of difficulty. Kids can interact with the words, tapping to hear them aloud and marking them with either a smiley or frowny face. They can also shuffle the deck with a shake of the device. Parents have a lot of control here, with the ability to track progress, remove already-mastered words, and even create a custom deck. Up to five kids can each have his or her own profile on the app.

TouchyBooks. Quirky sounds, animation, and flip-book usability offer a realistic experience and a touch of magic for toddlers and tweens. Use the easy star voting system to rate your favorites on this multilingual platform

The Story Mouse Talking Books

Do you remember all those wonderful stories we grew up with? Now they're here, retold with bags of character for your iPad, iPhone or iPod touch. But the tale is only half the story! All our titles come with bright, colourful illustrations to complete the listening and reading experience, with lots of fun along the way.

★ Stories from The Story Mouse are presented as virtual books.
Our professional presenter reads the story aloud as the text appears.
On the iPad, each page has an illustration on the left, with the text on the right. On the iPhone and iPod touch, the illustrations are displayed full screen when you hold the device vertically. Turn the device horizontally to display the text.
Sentences are highlighted as the story progresses, making the words easy to follow.

We would love to hear of any other recommendations you might have.

5 FREE IPAD EDUCATION APPS

I know we regularly take a look at great educational apps at Edgalaxy but the vast majority of those apps do come at some expense.  Se here is our list of the top 5 free educational apps.

1.   Google Earth:  Hold the world in the palm of your hand. With Google Earth for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, you can fly to far corners of the planet with just the swipe of a finger. Explore the same global satellite and aerial imagery available in the desktop version of Google Earth, including high-resolution imagery for over half of the world's population and a third of the world's land mass.

2.  iBooks:  iBooks is an amazing way to download and read books. iBooks includes the iBookstore, where you can download the latest bestselling books or your favorite classics – day or night. Browse your library on a beautiful bookshelf, tap a book to open it, flip through pages with a swipe or a tap, and bookmark or add notes to your favorite passages.

3.  Image Searcher: (Free)  Image Searcher is a Google/Bing Image searching tool for iPad. Simply type in any keywords and you will see the thumbnails of images. You can view the original images, save them to your Photo Albums, email them to your friends, or open the original web pages.

4.  National Film Board:  As featured in a nation-wide marketing campaign by Apple, the NFB Films app allows you to watch over 2000 movies - documentaries, animations and feature films - free on your iPad.

5:  ToonTastic: Toontastic teaches key storytelling principles that help to promote Creativity at a young age. Its drawing tools bring kids’ wildest ideas to life alongside virtual playsets chock full of pirates, princesses, far away galaxies, and many other characters and settings to spark the imagination. Cartoons can be shared online via ToonTube, Toontastic’s Global Storytelling Network, to help children connect to friends and family and learn about other cultures, customs, and lifestyles through stories created by their peers around the world.

10 IPAD TIPS EVERY TEACHER SHOULD KNOW

Over the last couple of months I have just about switched from my trusty old laptop to the iPad as my primary work computer. Basically, the iPad does everything I could do on my PC and a great deal more through all of the apps available specifically for teaching.

As a result of this, more of our staff are fronting up to work with iPads as they can also see the benefits in using a tablet for conferencing with students, checking email and using with their interactive white boards.

The first questions I get from new users are generally "What can I do with it?"  And "What apps should I have on it?" 

I think we have covered in detail more than once many of the great apps that are out their for education so today we are going to look at 10 tips are specifically useful for teachers who use an iPad.

So here are a few tips that you might find useful.

Disable In-App Purchases

This is mostly for teachers who share an iPad with students or other people, as the last thing you want is someone accidentally charging up your iTunes account with nonsensical or accidental in-app purchases. Disable these easily by tapping on Settings > General > Restrictions > Enable Restrictions, then scroll down to “Allowed Content” and swipe In-App Purchases to OFF.

Use iCloud to sync your calendar, events and emails.

iCloud is a terrible beast that is aimed at getting users to purchase a premium plan.  However if you set it up correctly it syncs messages, mail, reminders, bookmarks, enables Find My iPad, and provides for the most painless backup solution there is for iOS users. It’s easy to configure and free, here is how to set it up if you haven’t done so already

Connect to a HDTV, Data Projector or Interactive Whiteboard.

You can connect the iPad 2 and new iPad to your HD television using Apple's Digital AV Adapter (which connects from your 30-pin Dock adaptor to a HDMI port) or a plain old Apple VGA Adaptor. Both are available from the Apple Store. The iPad 2 and new iPad support video mirroring, so your entire Home screen will appear on the TV, not just the videos you play. This is a great resource for your interactive whiteboard.

 Take an iPad screenshot

You can take a screenshot on your iPad by pressing Home and then the Sleep/Wake button. The screen will flash and you'll hear a click, indicating that a photo has been taken. Your screen shots are saved automatically in your Photos gallery. Here, you can view or email them as you see fit.

 Add a Google or Microsoft Outlook Calendar

Want to add your Google Calendar to the iPad's Calendar app? No problem. In Settings open Mail, Contacts, Calendars. Add an account and tap on Other. Tap on Add CalDAV Account and enter your Google Account credentials (the Server is www.google.com). Exit the Settings app and tap on the Calendar app and all your events should appear. By default all calendars are displayed, but you can tap on the Calendars button to choose which ones are shown.  This also works exactly the same with Outlook also.

 Use AirPrint

Thanks to AirPrint you can print right from your iPad, provided you've got a compatible printer, of course. If you've got an AirPrint ready printer then you just choose Print from the Share menu for virtually any open document. AirPrint works with the new range of printers from HP, and you can use a Mac app called Printopia (www.ecamm.com) to print to any printer connected to a Mac.

 Orientation Lock or Mute?

The internet got mightily upset when Orientation Lock was replaced with Mute on the iPad during the last iOS update. Apple listened, and now you can head to Settings > General to choose between Lock Rotation and Mute.

 Passcode Denied… DELETE ALL!

If you're carrying around sensitive data such as personal information about students, you can now enable a feature that'll erase all the data on the device if someone inputs the incorrect passcode 10 times. Navigate to Settings > General > Passcode Lock > Erase Data.

 Turn iPad caps lock on

To type a capital letter on the onscreen keyboard you first tap the left or right shift key, then the letter. If you need to type a whole word in caps this can be painful. Save time typing in caps by turning the caps lock on. To do this double tap on either shift key.

Copy and paste

You can quickly copy and paste text by tapping and holding down, and then choosing Select to select the exact portion of text you'd like the copy. Next tap Copy, then go to a different app, and tap and hold down again, then tap Paste from the menu that appears. Top tip: To select an entire paragraph of text you need to tap four times.

 Replace a word

When you hold down on a word to copy it, choose Select, then you will see a new option: Replace. Tap this and, you can see suggestions for alternative words that have similar spellings. It's a good way of quickly correcting typos.

 Add 6 Items to your Dock

By default the dock contains four items, but it can hold up to six on the iPad. Just tap an hold on an icon until it jiggles, then drag a couple more apps, folders, or website that you use frequently into the dock.

Sync your iPad wirelessly:

To set up iTunes wireless syncing, plug your iPad into your PC, make sure both devices are connected to the same wireless network, and then boot up iTunes on your PC. On your iPad, navigate to Settings, General, iTunes Wi-Fi Sync, select the computer you want to sync with, and tap the Sync Now button. Your iPad should sync wirelessly with your computer, and will now do so automatically whenever you have it plugged in and connected to the same Wi-Fi network as your computer

Download the free iPad User's Guide:

You may have noticed that your iPad didn't come with a big printed manual--that's not Apple's style. However, you can download the PDF version of the iPad User's Guide from Apple's website, or you can read it in iBooks if you have that installed (iBooks is available as a free download in the App Store). Make sure to download the manual for the version of iOS you're currently using!

IPAD APPS FOR SPECIAL NEEDS KIDS

This article from the Washington Post looks at the better apps avaialable to help students with special needs.  

Written by Joan L. Green, a speech-language pathologist in Potomac and the author of “The Ultimate Guide to Assistive Technology in Special Education,” she shares some of her favoriteiPad apps for kids with special needs. 

Read the article here.

5 APPS YOUR STUDENTS ARE USING WHEN YOU’RE NOT LOOKING

This is a great excerpt by Susan Davis @gettingsmart.com about apps that students are using to learn.

So, Dick (now he prefers to be called Rich) and Jane are upstairs in their bedrooms, supposedly doing their homework. But you suspect they are doing what they usually do, chatting in Facebook, browsing friends’ Tumblr posts, or looking for funny cat videos on Youtube. Think again.

Students these days are discovering their own applications and tools to enhance their learning online. I’ve learned about some of these tools from my students themselves, as well as through the teenager grapevine. Not only do these applications reveal to us that students are discovering ways to use social media and web tools for more than entertainment, but they tell us something about our kids’ needs in an online environment.

APP #1: ANTI-SOCIAL

A senior at my husband’s school recommends this tool for anyone who has serious work to do and needs to avoid getting sucked into conversations on social media. Basically, for $15 (a free trial is available), you can set a timer and Anti-Social locks you out of Twitter, Facebook, and other distractions you may select. The only way you can get back into these sites is to reboot your computer, and by then you have time to talk yourself out of checking your Google+, and back into doing your U.S. History homework. A similar site for both Mac and PC users is Freedom ($10).

Click here for the entire article

TOP IPAD & IPHONE APPS FOR TEACHERS IN 2012

It has been a little while since we did a comprehensive round-up for our iOS users seeking great teaching apps to help them in and out of the classroom.  So here are 16 apps that will really make a difference to your productivity for 2012.

Please note that we have not included prices on these apps any more as they change so frequently it is almost impossible to keep up with.  If you click on the links you will find the latest pricing direct from iTunes.

CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT

TeacherPal - 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 students.

Cam Scanner + - CamScanner is a must-have application for your iPhone. With CamScanner, your iPhone is actually a portable scanner, with which all your paper documents, receipts, notes, whiteboard discussions can be archived anywhere at anytime. Our Smart Image cropping and Image enhancement algorithm ensures the scanned images perfectly clear and recognizable. With OCR technology, text within PDF files will be searchable.

Wunderlist - The Wunderlist mobile app for iPhone and iPod Touch will boost your productivity. Organize your to-do lists on the go and synchronize them with your free Wunderlist account. View and modify your tasks on Windows, Mac, Linux,iPad, Android and the Web. Hundreds of thousands of people worldwide use Wunderlist everyday. Wunderlist - your tasks anywhere, anytime.

CURRICULA SUPPORT

School A to Z - Do you struggle to understand your child's homework? Does your child need to practise their spelling and times tables? Are you looking for inspiration for projects and assignments?

The School A to Z app is an essential tool for every parent of school-aged children. Produced by the NSW Department of Education and Communities, the School A to Z app brings together a wealth of resources to help parents to understand and support their child's homework.

Brainpop Featured Movie App - Bring learning to your fingertips™ with the BrainPOP® Featured Movie app for the iPad®, iPhone®, and iPod touch®. Watch a different animated movie every day, then test your new knowledge with an interactive quiz – free!

For even more access to BrainPOP’s award-winning content, choose an optional in-app subscription and enable kids to explore more than 750 Science, Math, Social Studies, English, Engineering & Tech, Arts & Music, and Health subjects right on their mobile devices. All movies are close captioned, so it’s easy for them to read along.

Pictello - Pictello is a simple way to create talking photo albums and talking books. Each page in a Pictello Story can contain a picture, up to five lines of text, and a recorded sound or text-to-speech using high-quality voices. Stories can be shared using iTunes File Sharing or via WiFi with other Pictello users through a free account on the Pictello Sharing Server. Stories can be shared with non-Pictello users as PDF files through email or iTunes File Sharing.

Is developed for all ages and skill levels, so it is easy to use and requires no reading skills to locate and read stories. Pictello offers an easy visual story creation wizard so everyone can use pictures and sound to share important moments in their lives. An advanced editor gives full control of the editing capabilities.

Flashcards - Flashcardlet is a free, easy-to-use studying application with material for any class or standardized test. You can also create and share your own. It is the best way to study on any iOS device.

Other flashcard apps can't handle large decks, deck sharing, images, intuitive gestures, or even manage to show nice looking cards. Flashcardlet feels like a real deck of flashcards and does not get in your way.

Collaboratively creating and sharing study material does not get easier than Flashcardlet. You can email your flashcard decks or share them using Dropbox.

Flashcardlet allows you to search for, study, and make local edits to Quizlet.com flashcards. Any subject you can think of already has a Quizlet flashcard set that is perfect for studying. 

From grade school to law school, Flashcardlet is the perfect studying tool for any subject.

INSTRUCTIONAL TOOLS

Mindnode - MindNode is a very easy and intuitive application for collecting, organizing and 
outlining your thoughts and ideas as mind maps. 

Mind maps can be used for many different tasks (e.g. to-do lists, brainstorming, holiday planning, research, writing, project management...)
and in many different environments (e.g. school, meetings, working place...).

MindNode makes creating mind maps on the iPhone and iPod touch extremely easy. You create new nodes directly on the canvas by dragging them out of the node well which appears as a plus sign next to a selected node.

Posterous - Posterous Spaces is the easiest way to share photos, video and ideas safely with family, friends and groups.

★ Easily control who you share with, every time.
★ Post anything – combine photos, video and text in seconds.
★ Follow friends and favorites, keeping up on their posts while commenting, liking and more on-the-go.
★ Create as many Spaces as you want (make them private or public.)
★ Automatically broadcast your public posts to Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and YouTube.
★ Create a Space for your group in minutes, letting everyone involved contribute.

Stick Pick - Pick a student at random just by giving your device a shake or tapping the screen -- but that’s just the beginning. Stick Pick suggests question starters for learners at different levels and also records how well students respond during classroom discussions. If a student is consistently scoring near the top or bottom, simply change the level so students aren't bored or frustrated. Depending on students' levels of English proficiency, they might be asked simple yes-or-no questions or to elaborate in longer sentences.

PERSONAL ORGANISATION

Evernote - Evernote is an easy-to-use, free app that helps you remember everything across all of the devices you use. Stay organized, save your ideas and improve productivity. Evernote lets you take notes, capture photos, create to-do lists, record voice reminders--and makes these notes completely searchable, whether you are at home, at work, or on the go.

DropBox - 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.

Read your docs or flip through your albums when you're out and about. Save photos or videos to your Dropbox and share them with friends in just a couple taps. Even if you accidentally leave your iPhone in a taxi, your stuff is always safe on Dropbox.

Features:
● Always have your stuff with you, no matter where you are.
● Add files to "Favorites" for fast, offline viewing.
● Easily save photos and videos to your Dropbox.
● Share your photos and docs with family and friends.
● Save email attachments straight to your Dropbox.

Go Docs for Google Docs - Use this app for both devises and I love it! It's my favorite app because with it I'm working with all my documents: I view all my spreadsheets, documents, PDFs images, video and audio files. All these files are stored on my devise so I can use it mush faster! And with this update app has folders support and it's great. Thanks for your work. And it's working so good - fast, without bugs. My conclusion - useful and extremely amazing app for everyone."

REFERENCE

Articles -  Articles is a beautiful Wikipedia reader for your iPhone and iPod touch.

Articles makes it easy to read about whatever happens to be on your mind. With the integrated map feature, you can also learn about interesting places and historic events nearby with a single tap.

ELEGANT AND INTUITIVE INTERFACE
Articles’ award-winning design presents Wikipedia articles perfectly optimized for reading on your iPhone or iPod touch. A single tap in the search bar lets you find the article you need and start reading.

Wolfram Alpha - Remember the Star Trek computer? It's finally happening--with Wolfram|Alpha. Building on 25 years of development led by Stephen Wolfram, Wolfram|Alpha has rapidly become the world's definitive source for instant expert knowledge and computation.

Across thousands of domains--with more continually added--Wolfram|Alpha uses its vast collection of algorithms and data to compute answers and generate reports for you.

Parts of Wolfram|Alpha are used in the Apple Siri Assistant; this app gives you access to the full power of the Wolfram|Alpha computational knowledge engine. Domains covered by Wolfram|Alpha include:

2012 World Factbook - The World Factbook is the reliable and extremely popular source of information on all the nations of the world. 
It provides up-to-date, valuable data for more than 250 countries and territories in a concise, well-organized format whenever and wherever you want. 
The World Factbook also provides interesting chapters for our changing planet, oceans and parts of the world whose status has not yet been resolved (e.g., West Bank, Spratly Islands). 
Topics addressed include natural resources, industries, GDP, religion, ethnic groups, legal system and much more. Key data are grouped under the headings of introduction/background, geography, people, government, economy, communications, transportation, military, transnational issues. 
The World Factbook is a must-have application for those who possess a curiosity or concern about the rapidly changing world in which we live.

Is the iPad changing Education?

I came across this article from readwriteweb.com today and it is worth reading.

The iPad may only be two years old, but it's already begun to change many things. Reading is one of them. Work is another. It is selling like crazy, but it will be some time before most of the people you know own a tablet.

The market for this type of device may only be in its infancy, but it's already becoming clear how it will revolutionize certain aspects our lives. Education is a huge one, as recent developments have demonstrated.

In January, Apple made good on its late CEO's vision to enter the digital textbook market with the launch of iBooks 2 and the iBooks Author production tool for e-books. That early effort was met with mixed reactions. While some were excited to see Apple move into a space that's ripe for disruption, others pointed out theinherent limitations in Apple's model, which for starters, will be cost-prohibitive for many school districts.

THE IPAD: AN OBVIOUS USE CASE FOR EDUCATION

In a way, Apple didn't enter the education market. Rather, it followed its customers there. By the time iBooks 2 landed in the App Store, many people had already seen the potential the iPad has to change education. A growing number of college students have, on their own accord,

Click here to view the entire article.