A (fairly) recent tweet asked me to recommend some iPad apps which were particularly useful in the (geography) classroom.
I hadn't actually put a lot of these in one post, although the blog has details of a range of apps that I've found useful and you can search using the labels down the right hand side...
There is also a bit of an issue with just listing lots of apps as you could just as easily list thousands of them... the key is to think about how and why you would use them as your tool of choice rather than a whiteboard pen....
The new iPad2 offers real "mirroring" of the screen, which will increase it's usefulness for teachers, as well as some of the improved multimedia power and camera(s) for the creation of resources.
Here are some of the apps that I have installed which I would make use of using my iPad...
Goodreader: allows for display of files in various formats, but also has video out so will work with the old iPad
Dropbox: upload your files to the cloud - I use a 3 MiFi hotspot which then allows me to download what I need to the iPad as I need it - can also save notes using the Evernote app
Google Earth: of course, with the added integration with Streetview (also access to the MAP CRUNCH website to have a spot of randomness at the start of your lesson...)
Audioboo: create a podcast and upload it - also handy for recording and capturing discussions which could be useful assessment evidence.
Mission:Explore: set challenges, or ask students to create missions in the same "style" - fieldwork on the school grounds, or creative homework tasks
Kindle: the kindle app allows you to buy books for a professional library for the department which could then be read at a time and place to suit: having had a go with a Kindle, the experience is much better than reading from an iPad too...
Posterous: use this app to do a daily 365 project which might take the form of images, weblinks, resources, sounds, book reviews, homework tasks.... whatever you can think of ...
Flickr: upload and download images and videos - a great source of Creative Commons images for lesson starters etc.
Camera for iPad: one for old iPad owners in particular... install this app on your iPhone as well - the two devices will connect using wireless or Bluetooth. Whatever is displayed through the camera of the phone will also appear on the iPad screen - can you think of some creative ways to use this feature ?
Disaster Alert: shows updates of a range of natural hazards - there are plenty of similar apps which show the location of recent earthquakes
Living Earth: a hybrid of various features - a nice app to have on the screen - with the iPad2 would be good to have displayed on a whiteboard - includes a world clock, day/night time map view, and a range of other resources - nice
Blogsy: this looks to be the best app for doing blogs with Blogger and Wordpress, but my iPad is refusing to have it on the iPad at the moment - as a regular blogger this will probably make my life a little easier...
ArcGIS - view a range of maps, including a selection of base maps and others produced by a user community - can also measure distances and areas on the maps
MapBox - this is a large app which has the potential to produce rather nice maps. Again, I need to have some time to sit down with this and find some online documentation for how to make the most of it... This has the potential to be really good
A few other late additions:
ComicLife - have this on my laptop...
EClicker - install the app on your iPhone / iPod touch and you can answer questions that are produced and displayed on the iPad 'host' machine... Worked well when I tried it, but only had the one iPhone to test it with. Could create a set of test questions with images and other media and then use it for revision purposes perhaps.
iGeology and Jurassic - the rocks beneath our feet
Penultimate - note taking app which can also act as a whiteboard as it has VGA out - range of backgrounds and ability to save pages as images, and endlessly undo additions that have been made to show how a diagram was built up and created...
Sim City - build a city and manage it - urban geography
Rory's Story Cubes - an iPhone app, but bigger cubes is not a bad thing...
Will get this blog post up now..
Feel free to add any more apps that you use....
Also add any other apps that have VGA out on the original iPad...
Final word: I really don't like iTunes at all... Been struggling for over an hour to get an app I've paid for onto my iPad...
I hadn't actually put a lot of these in one post, although the blog has details of a range of apps that I've found useful and you can search using the labels down the right hand side...
There is also a bit of an issue with just listing lots of apps as you could just as easily list thousands of them... the key is to think about how and why you would use them as your tool of choice rather than a whiteboard pen....
The new iPad2 offers real "mirroring" of the screen, which will increase it's usefulness for teachers, as well as some of the improved multimedia power and camera(s) for the creation of resources.
Here are some of the apps that I have installed which I would make use of using my iPad...
Goodreader: allows for display of files in various formats, but also has video out so will work with the old iPad
Dropbox: upload your files to the cloud - I use a 3 MiFi hotspot which then allows me to download what I need to the iPad as I need it - can also save notes using the Evernote app
Google Earth: of course, with the added integration with Streetview (also access to the MAP CRUNCH website to have a spot of randomness at the start of your lesson...)
Audioboo: create a podcast and upload it - also handy for recording and capturing discussions which could be useful assessment evidence.
Mission:Explore: set challenges, or ask students to create missions in the same "style" - fieldwork on the school grounds, or creative homework tasks
Kindle: the kindle app allows you to buy books for a professional library for the department which could then be read at a time and place to suit: having had a go with a Kindle, the experience is much better than reading from an iPad too...
Posterous: use this app to do a daily 365 project which might take the form of images, weblinks, resources, sounds, book reviews, homework tasks.... whatever you can think of ...
Flickr: upload and download images and videos - a great source of Creative Commons images for lesson starters etc.
Camera for iPad: one for old iPad owners in particular... install this app on your iPhone as well - the two devices will connect using wireless or Bluetooth. Whatever is displayed through the camera of the phone will also appear on the iPad screen - can you think of some creative ways to use this feature ?
Disaster Alert: shows updates of a range of natural hazards - there are plenty of similar apps which show the location of recent earthquakes
Living Earth: a hybrid of various features - a nice app to have on the screen - with the iPad2 would be good to have displayed on a whiteboard - includes a world clock, day/night time map view, and a range of other resources - nice
Blogsy: this looks to be the best app for doing blogs with Blogger and Wordpress, but my iPad is refusing to have it on the iPad at the moment - as a regular blogger this will probably make my life a little easier...
ArcGIS - view a range of maps, including a selection of base maps and others produced by a user community - can also measure distances and areas on the maps
MapBox - this is a large app which has the potential to produce rather nice maps. Again, I need to have some time to sit down with this and find some online documentation for how to make the most of it... This has the potential to be really good
A few other late additions:
ComicLife - have this on my laptop...
EClicker - install the app on your iPhone / iPod touch and you can answer questions that are produced and displayed on the iPad 'host' machine... Worked well when I tried it, but only had the one iPhone to test it with. Could create a set of test questions with images and other media and then use it for revision purposes perhaps.
iGeology and Jurassic - the rocks beneath our feet
Penultimate - note taking app which can also act as a whiteboard as it has VGA out - range of backgrounds and ability to save pages as images, and endlessly undo additions that have been made to show how a diagram was built up and created...
Sim City - build a city and manage it - urban geography
Rory's Story Cubes - an iPhone app, but bigger cubes is not a bad thing...
Will get this blog post up now..
Feel free to add any more apps that you use....
Also add any other apps that have VGA out on the original iPad...
Final word: I really don't like iTunes at all... Been struggling for over an hour to get an app I've paid for onto my iPad...
Comments
Phil: got this app yesterday, and have a blog post in preparation. Just uploading some pictures to Flickr to use in the post. Some very nice media and features on this app...
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/geopop/id489992345?ls=1&mt=8
made by a teacher/iPad developer