iPad Apps for School

The Best iOS Apps for Students and Teachers

Art

Drawp for School – A Good App for Students to Create and Share Drawings

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Screen Shot 2014-09-29 at 9.38.51 AM Last year I reviewed Drawp. Drawp is an excellent app for students to use to create and send digital artwork to family members. Drawp for School offers the same great features as Drawp while incorporating features for classroom use.

Drawp for School allows students  to create drawings, take pictures, and create audio recordings. Students can combine those elements into one final product that they share with their teachers and classmates. Teachers can use the app to create multiple class rosters. From their class rosters teachers can see all of the work that their students have shared with them. Teachers are also able to manage students’ passwords from their class rosters.

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Teachers could have students use Drawp for School to complete assignments in which they are asked to diagram concepts, highlight features on a map, or explain how to solve a mathematics problem.

5 iPad Apps for Learning About Art and Art History

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One of the great things about the iPad in a classroom is that it enables students to pinch and zoom to see artworks in more detail than they would find in most text books. The following five apps allow students to do that and more.

Screen-Shot-2013-01-12-at-5.18.59-PMThe Life of Art is a free iPad app that provides its users with an interactive introduction to four artifacts from The Getty’s Life of Art exhibit. The Life of Art app displays a lidded bowl, a silver fountain, a side chair, and a wall light. All four items are ornately decorated while also being functional. On the Life of Art app users can click through the parts of each artifact to learn more about the importance of the decoration and the functions of each artifact. For example, when users tap on the silver fountain they can learn about the coat of arms that is engraved on it, learn about the functions of the fountain, and even learn why it is called a fountain. Each object in the app can be rotated and zoomed in on for examination in further detail.

Touch Van Gogh is a free iPad app produced by the Van Gogh Museum. Through the study of three paintings featured on the app students can learn about the composition techniques used by Vincent Van Gogh, a bit about his life when he was creating the featured paintings, and the restoration techniques used by the museum. The featured paintings are View from Theo’s Apartment, The Bedroom, and Daubigny’s Garden. More paintings are slated to be added to the app in the near future.

The MoMA Art Lab is a free iPad app that elementary school and middle school students can use to learn about art and create art of their own. On the app students can learn about the processes artists use and how artists use shapes and colors to create art. After seeing how artists create art students can try their hands at creating drawings, paintings, collages, shape poems, and a half dozen other forms of art.

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NGAkids Art Zone is a free iPad app from the National Gallery of Art. The app is designed to help elementary school and middle school students explore art through eight interactive activities. After students open the app they can scroll through a gallery of paintings and drawings. Double-tapping on a drawing or painting will open an interactive activity in which students can modify the original work. Modification of a selected work takes place through sketching and or adding elements selected from a gallery of modifications. Students can save each work in the app or save it to the camera roll on an iPad.

Louvre HD is an iPad app that puts 400 paintings housed at the Louvre on your iPad. The app doesn’t offer much in the way of interactivity or lessons, but it does allow you to pinch and zoom to see artworks in detail. You can sort the galleries in the app according to century, genre, and artist.

NGAkids Art Zone – A Fun App for Exploring and Creating Art

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Screen Shot 2014-09-05 at 10.42.23 AM NGAkids Art Zone is a free iPad app from the National Gallery of Art. The app is designed to help elementary school and middle school students explore art through eight interactive activities.

After students open the app they can scroll through a gallery of paintings and drawings. Double-tapping on a drawing or painting will open an interactive activity in which students can modify the original work. Modification of a selected work takes place through sketching and or adding elements selected from a gallery of modifications. Students can save each work in the app or save it to the camera roll on an iPad.

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Each piece of art in the NGAkids Art Zone app is representative of actual works in the National Gallery of Art. Tapping the information icon on any of the works in the app will reveal background on the artist and the style of drawing or painting.

Kids Can Become Animators With Creative Kids for iPad

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Screen Shot 2014-02-10 at 12.25.46 PM Creative Kids is a free iPad app from Faber-Castell. The app provides students with step-by-step directions for drawing on paper then see those drawings become animations on their iPads. Even kids who don’t fancy themselves as artists can create neat animations by using the tracing directions provided by Creative Kids. Creative Kids supports up to four student profiles. 

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Creative Kids offers a great blend of the analog and digital tools. Students can develop drawing skills on paper then see the drawings come to life through the animation aspect of Creative Kids. Watch the video below for an overview of the free Creative Kids iPad app.

Explore the Life and Work of Van Gogh With This Free iPad App

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Screen Shot 2014-02-10 at 10.44.10 AM Touch Van Gogh is a free iPad app produced by the Van Gogh Museum. Through the study of three paintings featured on the app students can learn about the composition techniques used by Vincent Van Gogh, a bit about his life when he was creating the featured paintings, and the restoration techniques used by the museum. The featured paintings are View from Theo’s Apartment, The Bedroom, and Daubigny’s Garden. More paintings are slated to be added to the app in the near future.

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