iPad Apps for School

The Best iOS Apps for Students and Teachers

foreign languages

Duolingo – Learn a New Language on Your iPad

by

Screen Shot 2012-11-21 at 8.54.36 AM Duolingo is a free service that can help you learn Spanish, French, German, Italian, English, and Portuguese. Recently, Duolingo released a free iPad app to complement the free Android and iPhone apps that they offer. The apps and the website provide a variety of translation activities to help learn to you read, listen to, and translate words and phrases. To learn a new language on Duolingo you read, listen to, and translate words and phrases. For example if I want to learn Spanish I’ll be shown Spanish words with translations. I can can hear the words pronounced too. Then to practice I type and or speak translations. The activities start out with simple words and phrases. As I become more proficient, Duolingo gives me more challenging phrases. To help me track my progress Duolingo awards me point and virtual badges.

mzl.rrgsxtpy.480x480-75

Bitsboard – A Super iPad App for Spelling and Reading Practice

by

Screen Shot 2013-04-24 at 7.14.26 PM Bitsboard is a great iPad app for young students that Joanne Villis recommended to me. Bitsboard is a free iPad app that provides word games, memory games, spelling games, and reading practice activities, and dozens of other activities in one place. On the Bitsboard app students can learn new vocabulary words, how to tell time, and how to count money. Students can also use the app to learn basic geography.

When students first open Bitsboard on their iPads they will have six topics shown on their homescreens. Those six topics are emotions, animals, famous places, first sentences, introductory English vocabulary, and introductory Spanish vocabulary. Opening any of those topics takes students to their choice of eight practice activities including flashcards, true or false quizzes, word building practice, reading practice, and matching activities.

Evernote Camera Roll 20130424 182321

 

The part of Bitsboard that I like the best is the catalog of topics from which students can pick. Students can pick any topic in the catalog of dozens of topics and have that topic added to their Bitsboard home screens. Then they can learn about those topics by working through eight practice activities. Bitsboard keeps track of the user’s progress through each activity.

Evernote Camera Roll 20130424 182313

The Phrasal Verbs Machine – A Nice App for ELL Students

by

Screen Shot 2013-02-25 at 10.44.21 AM One of the true challenges for English language learners is understanding the meanings of phrasal verbs. The Phrasal Verbs Machine, developed by Cambridge University, is a free iPad app that aims to help ELL students learn the meanings of phrasal verbs. The Phrasal Verbs Machine provides students with short animations that illustrate the meanings of many common phrasal verbs. There is a written definition below each animation. Students can view the animations and definitions as many times as they like before trying their hands at the practice identification exercises. The Phrasal Verbs Machine provides definition translations in Spanish, French, Italian, German, Russian, and Portuguese.

Photo-2_25_13,-11.02.58-AM-1

uSpeak – An iPad App to Help Students Learn Spanish

by

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.

Evernote Camera Roll 20121024 101054

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