Student Apps

Welcome back to my blog about the IPad. Today we will talk about software for the IPad. These are commonly called apps, which is short for applications. These are small programs designed to perform a few small tasks onthe IPad for you. For the purposes of this blog, we will not count things like games and home use apps. We are only going to concentrate on apps for the classroom.

 

Now these apps we will subdivide into apps for students and apps for teachers, which we will address in the next chapter of my blog.

For students, there are apps for just about anything for the school.  But how do we choose which ones to use?  We need to look first at the needs of the students.

There are some basic needs that the students will require filled for the IPad.  These may be available to them at home on their home computer.  But if they do not have one, then they will be covered by these apps so they can participate and learn at school and at home.  Now this list may be a bit long, so we will only list a few things they need, such as:

Internet browser

Word Processor

Video viewer, to watch video files

Audio player, to listen to audio files

The ability to chat in the school chat forum, if a separate app is required for this

Ability to download images for research for class

Etc.

I know that I am missing a few things (or a lot of things) off of this list, but this is not meant to be all inclusive, just a small example list.

Second, we will look at the needs in the classroom.  These all depend on the student and the class they are taking.  This is to be decided by the teacher on an individual basis.

Of course, the IPad will act as an eReader, so the student will be able to read their books for school and be able to take them all home.  These include textbooks, novels, and any other reading they will need to do.

Next the teacher must look at the individual student for extra apps.  Do they need extra help in math?  Then provide an app for helping them learn math.  How about their reading?  Then give them an app for reading and comprehension skills.  What about an app to help them understand science, or social studies?  Then yes, it will be provided.  How about apps to help those in special education, such as a magnifier for those who need help seeing the text, or an app for volume so the student can hear the audio without blasting their ears out with headphones?  These can be brought into play, too.

The big issue is to only provide apps that the students will actually use and learn with in the classroom, and this is the tricky part.  There is a desire to add apps just for the sake of having them available to everyone, but too many apps will mean that the student will not be using some of them, or the student may become overwhelmed and not use it at all.  We must keep this in mind when choosing apps for the student.