iPad Apps for School

The Best iOS Apps for Students and Teachers

programming

Scratch Jr is Now Available as an iPad app

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Screen Shot 2014-07-30 at 10.54.21 PM Scratch Jr, the popular programming environment for kids, is now available as an iPad app. Scratch Jr for iPad uses the same drag and drop programming principles used in Scratch. On Scratch Jr students can program multimedia stories and games.

To program a story or game on Scratch Jr students select background settings for each frame of the story. Then in each frame students select the actions that they want their characters to take. Students snap programming pieces together to make characters move and talk in their stories and games.

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Scratch offers a great way to introduce students to programming and logic. Scratch Jr for iPad makes it easy to introduce those same concepts to elementary school students.

H/T to Danny Nicholson.

Five iPad Apps That Help Students Learn Programming Basics

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Screen Shot 2014-03-06 at 9.23.48 AMEven if your students are never going to become professional app developers, learning the fundamentals of programming can be helpful in understanding how software works. Learning programming basics also helps students develop a better understanding of “if, then” logic which can be applied to a wide variety of academic areas. Here are five iPad apps that can help students learn some programming basics.

The Tynker iPad app features stories that students animate by completing a series of programming challenges. The programming happens by organizing a series of blocks that represent commands. In that way it is similar to apps like Daisy the Dinosaur and MIT’s App Inventor. The Tynker iPad app provides the first story / programming challenge for free. The subsequent challenges require in-app purchases. The first story contains twenty challenges for students. The Tynker iPad app could be a good one for elementary school students to use to begin to learn about the logic that is used in programming. Students older than ten or eleven may find the challenges too simple.

Daisy the Dinosaur is a free iPad app designed to introduce young students to some programming basics. The app asks students to create commands for Daisy the Dinosaur to carry out. There is a free play mode in which students can make Daisy do whatever they want. But to get started you might want to have students work through the beginner challenges mode. Daisy the Dinosaur could be used with students as young as Kindergarten age. For older students older than eight or nine, try one of the following two apps.

Hopscotch is a free iPad app that introduces students to programming logic. In Hopscotch students put command boxes into order to make cartoon avatars move and draw lines. Students can program one or all of the cartoon avatars to move and follow commands based on touch or on the movement of their iPads. Hopscotch was developed by the same people who developed Daisy the Dinosaur. Daisy the Dinosaur teaches kids under nine some basic programming logic. Using Hopscotch is a logical next step after completing the challenges in Daisy the Dinosaur.

Cargo Bot is a fun and challenging game that students can play to learn some principles of logic and programming. The object of the game is to program a robot to complete increasingly complex sequences of tasks. Students start out by programming the robot to move one box from point A to point B. After successfully programming the robot students are advanced to programming more complex tasks like a repeating loop of movements and staggered movements.

 Kodable is an iPad app that introduces children to logic and programming through a simple visual interface. The app present students with a series of mazes through which they have to guide the “Fuzz” character. To guide Fuzz through the mazes students have to drag and drop boxes into place. On the beginning levels students can move one block at a time and see the results quickly. As the levels get more difficult students have to start to think a few moves ahead.

Hopscotch Helps Kids Learn to Program On Their iPads

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Screen Shot 2013-06-08 at 9.05.32 PM Over the weekend I published Three Free iPad Apps That Teach Kids To Program. Since then I’ve had many people tell me to try Hopscotch. Hopscotch is a free iPad app that introduces students to programming logic. In Hopscotch students put command boxes into order to make cartoon avatars move and draw lines. Students can program one or all of the cartoon avatars to move and follow commands based on touch or on the movement of their iPads.

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Hopscotch was developed by the same people who developed Daisy the Dinosaur. Daisy the Dinosaur teaches kids under nine some basic programming logic. Using Hopscotch is a logical next step after completing the challenges in Daisy the Dinosaur.

Three Free iPad Apps That Teach Kids To Program

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The first time that I wanted to stay after school was in the sixth grade. In sixth grade we could stay after school to use Logo Writer. My friend Sean and I had a great time building some simple programs that we ran on the two computers in our teacher’s room. Today, students can learn programming on their iPads. Here are three free apps that students can use to learn programming on their iPads.

Screen Shot 2012-08-12 at 6.28.24 AM Daisy the Dinosaur is a free iPad app designed to introduce young students to some programming basics. The app asks students to create commands for Daisy the Dinosaur to carry out. There is a free play mode in which students can make Daisy do whatever they want. But to get started you might want to have students work through the beginner challenges mode. Daisy the Dinosaur could be used with students as young as Kindergarten age. For older students older than eight or nine, try one of the following two apps.

Screen Shot 2012-11-30 at 7.41.23 PMCargo Bot is a fun and challenging game that students can play to learn some principles of logic and programming. The object of the game is to program a robot to complete increasingly complex sequences of tasks. Students start out by programming the robot to move one box from point A to point B. After successfully programming the robot students are advanced to programming more complex tasks like a repeating loop of movements and staggered movements.

kodableKodable is an iPad app that introduces children to logic and programming through a simple visual interface. The app present students with a series of mazes through which they have to guide the “Fuzz” character. To guide Fuzz through the mazes students have to drag and drop boxes into place. On the beginning levels students can move one block at a time and see the results quickly. As the levels get more difficult students have to start to think a few moves ahead.

Kodable Gets Kids Thinking About Logic and More

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kodableKodable is an iPad app that introduces children to logic and programming through a simple visual interface. The app present students with a series of mazes through which they have to guide the “Fuzz” character. To guide Fuzz through the mazes students have to drag and drop boxes into place. On the beginning levels students can move one block at a time and see the results quickly. As the levels get more difficult students have to start to think a few moves ahead.

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Kodable gives you the first 30 levels for free. After the initial 30 levels you can upgrade for $1.99.