iPad Apps for School

The Best iOS Apps for Students and Teachers

High School

Put Shakespeare on Your iPad

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Screen Shot 2012-12-19 at 5.16.21 PM Whether we loved it or we hated it, reading Shakespeare was something that most of us had to do in school. Today’s students read Shakespeare’s works too.  When we read Shakespeare we had to carry a physical book around. Today’s students can read Shakespeare’s works on their iPads through Shakespeare by Readdle which puts Shakespeare’s famous and lesser-known works on their iPads.

Shakespeare by Readdle includes all of Shakespeare’s published works. The app includes a search function to find specific phrases written by Shakespeare. Users can customize the app to adjust the color scheme, font style, and font size. The app also includes a scene breakdown or summary for each of the plays on the app.

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The pro version of Shakespeare by Readdle ($9.99 USD) includes an integrated glossary, a random Shakespeare quote generator, a Shakespeare facts database, and Shakespeare portraits. But if just getting Shakespeare’s works onto your students’ iPads is what you want, the free version of the app is more than adequate.

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YouTube Capture for iOS – Quick and Easy Video Publishing

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youtube_captureYesterday, Google released a new YouTube iOS app. The new app is optimized for iPhone 5 but works on my iPad 2 as well. Using the YouTube Capture app you can quickly record videos and upload them to YouTube with just a couple of taps on your screen. The first time that you open the app you will be prompted to sign into your Google account and choose your sharing settings. After that you’re ready to start recording and sharing videos.

YouTube Capture includes a few options for quickly editing and enhancing your videos. Within YouTube Capture you can trim the length of your video, stabilize the images in your video, add a soundtrack to your video, and touch-up the colors in your video.

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YouTube Capture isn’t going to replace a true video editing tool like iMovie, but using YouTube Capture could be a good way for students (13 or over) to create short video observations of things that they see on field trips. It could also be used by students to record and share short video blog entries.

Here’s a short video I made with the YouTube Capture app.

Use the Gooru iPad App to Find Good Educational Videos and More

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Screen Shot 2012-12-17 at 12.00.29 PM Gooru is a free service that launched earlier this year with the goal of organizing educational videos and other resources according to subject and grade level. Over the weekend Gooru launched a free iPad for that purpose too. The app is called Gooru Collections.

Gooru Collections is designed for students in grades five through twelve. Through the app students can find collections of resources for studying and learning about mathematics and science. To find some resources select science or math then choose a subject within either of those categories. Before you open a collection of resources you can preview the material to see if it contains videos, text, or links to websites. Watch a tour of Gooru Collections in the video below.

Gooru Collections is completely free to use. There are not any in-app purchases and you can use it without registering on Gooru. That said, registering on Gooru will open up extra benefits like the option to organize a shelf of your favorite resources.

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How to Use the Google Drive iPad App to Create Student Portfolios

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I love Google Drive and I love my iPad, but they don’t always love each other. The Google Drive iPad app has improved over the last couple of months to the point where it’s not as robust as using Google Drive on the web or on an Android device, but it is much more functional than ever before. In fact, it’s now possible to create student portfolios through the Google Drive iPad app. Last week Greg Kulowiec, who I have done some iPad workshops with in the past, wrote up a fantastic set of directions on using the Google Drive iPad app to have students create portfolios. You can read Greg’s complete post on the topic here. The how-to video that he made I have embedded below.

 

uSpeak – An iPad App to Help Students Learn Spanish

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Screen Shot 2012-12-15 at 7.12.53 PMuSpeak HD is a free iPad app designed to help beginners learn Spanish. The app matches you with word lists and learning activities based on your current level of knowledge of Spanish. The first time that you open the app you take an assessment to determine your current proficiency in Spanish. Based on those assessments uSpeak will determine which activities you should try first. Once you’ve registered on uSpeak it will keep track of your progress for you.

uSpeak’s word lists are organized in webs of related words. Click on any web to reveal the words. Then click on a word to reveal a web of in-context uses of that word, images associated with that word, and synonyms and antonyms for your chosen word. uSpeak’s learning games include matching words to images, matching translations, and word association games.

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uSpeak HD is free. The app is appropriate for middle school and high school students who are trying to acquire a Spanish vocabulary.