In a society that is growing in its uses of technology, I find it very important to know what apps can work for me inside the classroom to aid the learning process for the students. For this PR I will look at 3 different apps that will help from 3 different subject areas.
My favorite subject throughout school was math, so I will begin here. Mathboard for iPad is an educational app that will help students develop math skills. This simple app will make learning make easy for even the youngest users. It is basically set up like a quiz where questions pop up and students have the opportunity to choose the correct answer. The screen is broken up into 3 sections: the results, the problem, and the note board. The note board feature allows students use this area as scratch paper to work out the math problems. While the area to do it is rather small (so not useful for problems that require lots of room to workout), I think that it is neat that this is paper/pencil free math. At the end, you get your results and you get a chance to save your quiz. To set up the quiz, inside of setting you can choose the format of questions you want (addition, subtraction, square roots, and so on). You can also choose the number of problems, a number range for answer, positive or negatives, and any timing on the quiz. Unfortunately, you can only set parameters regarding your quiz and cannot create the precise questions. With that, you may receive a broader range of questions that your students may not be able to answer. However, for a general math study app, this seems to be useful.
For science, I have chosen app Solar Walk. There is a charge in order to get access to the full solar system. This puts everything in space into one area. You can choose to search for items and pick from planets, comets, satellites and others to look at and learn about. You can explore the planets and their paths as well as their positions on specific days. This would be a great learning tool for solar system studies. The students would be able to take a look at each of the planets in a 3-D form and can "soar" through the solar system to see how they relate to each other. There is a lot of information for each planet as well (size, mass, orbital velocity, composition of atmosphere). While building solar systems from cups, phone balls, and sticks is fun, I believe students will much more enjoy this interactive study of their solar systems.
The final app I am looking at is Google Earth. This app would be a great use for social studies and specifically geography. There are many features of this app that can be used in teaching other than just "flying" around the planet. As we discussed in the team portion a couple of classes ago, Google Earth now has the ability to go inside of building and underneath the ocean for exploration and learning. When focusing on the layout of the Earth, students can clearly see mountains, deserts, and bodies of water and how they relate to the areas around them. A very useful website we found in our team assignment was Google Earth for Educators. This website offers resources and trainings for how best to utilize this in the classroom. Students can explore, create and collaborate using mapping tools to learn more about our planet.
These are only 3 apps that can be used inside the classroom. They are not complicated and very interactive to engage elementary and middle grade students. This incorporates the technology that they are already using with knowledge and understanding they need to advance in school. This would be a fun and interactive alternative to flat pieces of paper in books and a lecturing teacher.
Good analysis of each one!
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