Happy 2012-2013 School Year!

August is here and school has begun!  Now is the perfect time to review the National Educational Technology Standards (NETS), especially for students.  Implementing these standards in your technology curriculum can provide students with the necessary skills to research, create, communicate and collaborate in the 21st century digital world.

http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-students

In Search of a Good App for the Classroom? There's an App for that!

Want to use an app to search for a great app?  There are three main apps that I use to search for educational apps that have been recently marked down, or perhaps free, that are meaningful to student learning. 

Appsfire Deal is a great app for searching apps that have been recently reduced in price or are available free for a limited time.  It allows you to search in catagories and set up a notification alert when you are waiting for a great app to go on sale!  

Another resource is App Hits which works in a similar format to Appsfire.

Honor Roll is a great resource for family friendly and education apps.  Apps are organized by educational themes as well as subjects.  These apps are based upon suitablity of the learner.

These are just three of many resources available to add great apps to your iPad/iPhone library. 

...Appy searching!

StoryTelling on the iPad

PuppetPals HD is a great app to promote storytelling among your students.  There is a limited library of free backdrops and characters to use, with others available for purchase.  Simply select and drag to the stage.  Students tap to record movement of characters and their audio naration.  When recording is finished, the story is played back in its entirety and can be saved as well as shared with others. 

Give it a try and release your inner storyteller!

New Year...New APP-titude!

Our school has recently purchased two classroom sets of iPads and we have begun collecting a library of apps that are engaging and meaningful for student learning.  I have found an abundance of great website resources that share great apps for education.  The resources appear to be endless, but this is a start!

http://teacherswithapps.com/top-ten-list-tried-and-true-classroom-apps/

http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2011/07/14/the-best-web-2-0-applications-for-education-in-2011-so-far/

http://www.appolicious.com/articles/9492-top-20-must-have-educational-iphone-ipad-apps-used-by-real-teachers-in-the-classroom

http://appsineducation.blogspot.com/2011/06/apps-for-teachers.html

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/tablets/10-ipad-apps-for-teaching-kids-to-read.htm

http://bestappever.com/awards/2011/winner/thed