I often receive emails from developers of education apps, so I thought that it might be useful to share some of the fantastic applications that are being created to support learning:

1) Happi Spells - ”Happi Spells” is a crossword spelling game where children can practice spelling by dragging letter tiles on to 48 different mini crossword puzzles. Compete for “snails” and try to improve your own high score!

2) I Learn With – Languages! - A fun educational game to help children aged from 3 to 7 years old  to learn their first words and short sentences in a foreign language. Find out more in the video below:

Click here to view the embedded video.

3) DK The Human Body App – An amazing application with clear information and incredible illustrations which helps you to learn about the human body.

4) Sing your times tables with Percy Parker – I’ve used this app in school a number of times and the children love singing along and learning their multiplication tables with Percy!

5) Healthy Star - The Healthy Star is a short introduction for young children, to the world of affirmations and enriches them with positive thoughts. The story includes simple relaxation exercises.

6) Edmodo – Teachers and students can stay connected to the fantastic Edmodo system using this iPhone and iPad app.

7) How to Make Origami – This app includes step by step instructions with 3D animations of paper folding to help you learn how to create amazing origami!

8 ) Eggs on Legs – Primary Games make lots of great interactive whiteboard software which I use at school regularly. They are also now developing iOS apps which look great!

9) Jungle Time – Learning how to tell the time can be a difficult concept for some children. This app helps children with their understanding and it can test them too!

10) Formative Feedback for Learning – An app that allows students to receive feedback on their performances in a wide range of curriculum areas. Find out more in the video below:

Click here to view the embedded video.

11) Story Builder – Can your children finish these story starter ideas?

12) Math Formulas – A guide to Maths formulae with information and examples. The topics covered include algebra, geometry, calculus, trigonometry, probability and statistics.

13) Britannica Kids (Ancient Rome) – Explore the history of Ancient Rome with the images, games and activities in this iPhone / iPod / iPad app.

14) GeoGame World Series - An educational geography game with lots of different options and challenges. Find out more in the video below:

Click here to view the embedded video.

15) TED – The TED talks are always enjoyable and inspirational… they cover a wide range of topics and you can access all of them through this great iOS app.

16) Fishy Numbers – A fun game which is designed to help primary school children with their mental addition skills. Find more educational apps by this developer at www.primaryapps.co.uk.

Which iOS apps do you use in your classroom?

The iPhone / iPod / iPad App Store has over 300,000 apps, and over 10% are education apps. Finding useful education apps can be a difficult for teachers so a new site has recently launched which aims to help with this. Apps in Education is ‘strictly dedicated to discovering educational apps that inspire and engage learning.’

The creators are hoping that the site will be the premier destination of educators and parents looking for education apps for their iPad, iPod Touch, iPhone and other mobile devices. Visit the site at www.appsineducation.com and follow them on Twitter too.

Since my last post about educational apps, lots of new software has been released. Here are some of the latest developments:

• Primary Apps – Primary Apps are a new company who aim to create a range of engaging, quality and fun learning apps. Their first app is called ‘Secret Numbers‘ and it helps primary school age children with their maths skills. Visit their site to find out more or watch the app in action in the Youtube video above. You can also follow them on Twitter and Facebook.

• World Maths Day is taking place on 1st March and an iPhone app and an iPad app have been developed which allows you to practise before the day and also take part in the competition itself. There are also iPhone / iPad apps linked to World Spelling Day on 3rd March.

• Steve Traves also sent me a message about his ‘Alligators for iPad‘ app which allows you to view up-close images and listen to facts about alligators. The app is designed as an introduction to reptiles which could be used for reference, for ESL or even for guided reading.

What are your favourite educational apps?

Lucky Gecko Apps are a relative new company who have developed two educational apps for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

www.luckygeckoapps.com

Their apps (so far) are:

• Balancing Equations Pack 1 – Designed to help exercise children’s mental maths. The object of this multiple choice game is to find the number that is missing in the given equation.
• Synonym Matching Pack 1 - Perfect for expanding children’s vocabulary. The object of this multiple choice game is to find the synonym for the word that is given.

Watch a Youtube video about the Synonym Matching app below and find out more on the Lucky Gecko Apps site.

Encyclopædia Britannica has recently launched a brand new series of educational and engaging iPhone / iPod Touch / iPad apps for children, aged 8-12. The interactive apps have been designed to keep kids busy for hours on end with exciting facts, maps, memory games, puzzles, quizzes and videos and are a fantastic tool to help kids get their homework and projects done.

The first three apps in the series – Volcanoes, Dinosaurs and Ancient Egypt – are now available, with other educational themed apps, based around the national curriculum set to launch in the coming months.

Following my previous post about iPhone and iPod apps for schools, I thought that it might be useful to write a second post, which also includes links to relevant iPad apps, now that the device has been released. Here are links to some useful apps, sites and resources:

App Suggestions:

• iPhone, apps and the headteacher – The New Head shares a number of useful apps which he uses on a daily basis. A very useful post.
• iPhone apps spreadsheet – A collaborative Google spreadsheet with suggested apps for a huge range of curriculum areas.
• Top iPhone apps for teachers and students – Six apps which are recommended by an advisor for teaching and learning with ICT.
• Learning Continuity – A large list of useful iPad applications for use in educational contexts.
• Ten iPad apps for librarians – This post shares ten different iPad applications that might be useful for librarians, although many of them might be useful for schools and other educators too.
• More iPad apps – Principal Eric Sheninger shares some of his favourite iPad apps in . Don’t miss his original post either.
• 10 iPad apps for Educators – Here’s a video which shows how the iPad might be used by teachers:

• iPads in Science – An amazing list of apps and ideas for using iPads in your Science lessons.
• Punflay – This company makes a large number of iPod / iPad games and educational applications, including a virtual Frog Dissection, physics puzzles and Maths games.
• EducationApps – Another company making educational software, targetted to the UK market.
• Apps for children 0-7 years – A selection of applications for use with younger children.
• Top iPhone / iPod apps for kids – A large number of applications for children to use in the classroom.
• 100 hard to find apps for schools – This list is an extremely useful collection of apps organised by category.
• Animation Creator HD – Lets you make stop-motion animations on the iPad screen. Children in my own class loved using the Pivot Stick Animator software this week, so I’m going to buy this one and see how it compares!
• Singing Fingers – How could you use this fun tool in your classroom?

Other Links:

• The iPad and iPod user group wiki – A useful site with a number of tips for using iPods in the classroom.
• 3 year old using an iPad – If you’re not convinced that young children can use these devices effectively, watch this video of a 3 year old using the 123 Color HD application.
• Introducing the iPad – Matt Lovegrove outlines his initial experiences of using his iPad with his class. Follow his blog for future updates.
• iPad in Education – Oliver Quinlan shares his experiences of an iPad in Education event which he attended.
• This post on the Seomra Ranga blog outlines how one school has arranged their use of iPod Touches in the classroom. It contains some useful advice about extra equipment that might help.

Apps that I’ve used at school:

• Evernote – I use Evernote all the time on my iPhone, iPad and computers. It’s a note taking tool which I use for taking minutes in staff meetings, jotting down ideas, drafting lesson plans and much more. By entering notes on one device, it is automatically synced to every other device (and to the online service too).

Image – Evernote, iPad App Store

• FileBrowser – With this app, I can access files our our school’s network. It’s a great way of quickly browsing the network and looking at important documents when I’m not near my school computer.
• iResponse Pro – I discovered this app whilst attending some training by Chris Thomas. It’s a fantastic assessment tool that works just like a voting system. Teachers set up their questions and the children can use their iPods / iPads to respond to them.
• Videos – We’ve used the built-in Videos app to watch instructional videos in Literacy lessons and to watch movie trailers when learning about dialogue and speech recently.
• Maps – Another built-in application with huge potential for classroom use… it could be used to look at street and satellite maps of an area you are studying. Street View could also be used to get the children to go on a virtual tour of particular places. I’ve started adding ‘Places and Maps’ to the Teaching Themes site, so why not explore some of these places with your iPods and iPads?
• Plants vs Zombies – This isn’t educational at all, but I showed it to my class once when I first got my iPad and they’ve been begging to play it together again ever since!

Many thanks to my Twitter network who have shared many of these over the past few months. I’m keen to explore this topic in future posts, so please get in touch with suggested apps / links or leave a comment. Thanks!

EducationApps have been busy building lots of new iPhone and iPod Touch apps for use in education. Here are some of their latest additions:

• Ultimate Times Tables – A fun way for children of all ages to learn their times tables. This has four different types of tests and allows up to five users to save their results.

• French GCSE Revision – This is an interactive way to help students revise their French GCSE vocabulary, with tests, flash cards and a built in dictionary. Watch the app in action with the video below:

EducationApps have developed a number of other applications so look at their site to see their other developments.

Following a post about ‘My Favourite Mac Apps‘, here is a list of my favourite iPhone Apps…

Apps I use (almost) every day:

• Tweetie - A Twitter client. This is one of the apps that I use the most on my iPhone (along with Mail and Byline).
• Countdown - A simple application which counts down to particular dates and events, or counts up past them. This is really handy for finding out how long it is until Christmas or a relative’s birthday, or for seeing how long it has been since something has happened. I use it to count how long I’ve been married and surprise my wife with little gifts on special anniversaries!
• 1Password - This syncs with the Mac version of 1Password, giving me access to the passwords that I use for various online services.
• Byline - A client for accessing Google Reader. This also caches Starred Items so that they can be accessed offline. I use this multiple times per day.
• Instapaper - When I’m using my computers and I come across an interesting web page which I don’t have time to read, I hit the ‘Read Later’ bookmarklet in my browser. This then saves a copy of the page which I can access via the Instapaper app on my iPhone when I have more time.
• WeatherPro - An easy way to quickly access weather information for different areas.
• Memiary - Lets me view and update my Memiary account.
• WunderRadio - I use this to listen to different radio stations online. It’s very useful for listening to the radio while I’m out walking the dog!
• Evernote - My note taking application of choice. This syncs with the Mac, Windows and online versions of Evernote so that all of my notes are available anywhere I go.
• Radio Times - This is useful for checking what’s on TV… although I seem to be watching less and less TV nowadays.
• OmniFocus - OmniFocus syncs with the Mac version of the software to show me the different school / website / personal tasks that I have to complete. This is in regular use throughout my day.

Web / Work Apps:

• Teaching Ideas - This isn’t an app, but it’s a link to my Teaching Ideas website. To make icons for your own site, make a 57×57 PNG file, save it as ‘apple-touch-icon.png’ and then add the following code to the <head> of the pages on your site.

• TeachingUK - This is an application which gives information from my Teaching Websites. I made it using AppMakr but I’d love to be able to code my own one day!
• Analytics - A fantastic tool for accessing Google Analytics web statistics for my websites.
• Ego - A simple little app which shows you the number of Twitter followers you have, along with subscribers to any Feedburner RSS feeds, as well as some simple Google Analytics data.
• Voice Memos - I use this regularly to record notes to myself, particularly when it’s easier to record audibly than type on the iPhone’s keyboard.
• AppBox Pro - An app which contains lots of apps… including some very useful ones.
• Remote (Keynote) – Turns your iPhone into a remote when you’re giving Keynote presentations. This is useful for staff meetings or assemblies.
• Remote (iTunes) – A remote for iTunes… this is fantastic for controlling the AppleTV.
• RemoteTap - A tool to control my entire Mac over a network. This has screen sharing, so I can see what it happening on my Mac’s screen via my iPhone.

Games and Fun Stuff:

• Tap Tap Revenge 3 - My favourite game… you simply have to tap along to the tunes being played. If I ever get time to play a game, this is the one I usually choose.
• Riddim Ribbon - A relatively new game, from the makers of Tap Tap Revenge. Tilt your iPhone to keep the song playing at the right speed and try to hit the bonuses.
• Minigore - Another of my favourite games, this one involves running around a dark forest, shooting ‘furries’. Very addictive.
• Words with Friends - Play Scrabble online with friends. You can play up to 50 games at once, dipping in and out of the game, adding new words when you get time.
• Pocket God - A fun tool where you interact (aka torture) the cute islanders (who you can name after your friends and family!)
• Koi Pond - A relaxing app where you can splash the water and feed the fish. This is an old app now, but I still find myself using it now and again.
• Gudeballs - I used to play this on my Amiga (when the game was called Logical). Sort the coloured balls and use them to blow up the spinning discs. Great fun.
• ColorSplash - Edit digital photos (taken when the iPhone’s camera) by changing particular areas to colour / black and white. This lets you create some interesting images.
• Spawn - Another relaxing app where you control the coloured lines that fly around the screen. It’s a really pretty application which isn’t very useful, but this is another one that I find myself using now and again.
• Comic Touch - An iPhone version of Comic Life, which lets you add speech / thought bubbles to digital photos.
• Cube Runner - An relatively old game which involves guiding a craft through a field of cubes by tilting the iPhone. The graphics are very simple, but this can be quite addictive too.
• Trism - This is one of the first games that I bought for the iPhone, but I still use it regularly. Move the lines of coloured triangles and try to match up the colours.

Other Apps:

• Backgrounds - Lets you find iPhone-friendly images for the home screen background. When will Apple give us a more useful home screen, which shows events / tasks for the day?!
• Announcer - One of the many ‘sound board’ type of applications available which play different sounds on command. This is made by the X-Factor voiceover man and could be useful in the classroom.
• LOVEFiLM - I’ve been a subscriber of LoveFilm for many years and this new application lets you add items to your account. Very useful.
• vouchercloud - This lets you find discount vouchers for shops and online services. Great for when you’re out and about doing some shopping – get discounts just by using this app!
• Avatar Creator 2 - Lets you create a wide range of avatars.
• Shazam - An amazing app which finds the name of any song just by listening to it. It’s a shame that I always seem to want to use this app when I’m driving and listening to the radio.
• RedLaser - Scan a barcode and this application tells you the item’s price at a selection of retailers. It’s great for comparing prices when you’re shopping.
• Ambiance - This application lets you find and play different background sounds… from dogs barking to seaside sounds to helicopters. This can be useful for finding relaxing audio, or for use as background audio when you’re doing drama / role play work in the classroom.
• Amazon UK - I often find myself using this application to check prices of things on Amazon. It’s far too easy to buy things directly from the app though – far too tempting!
• eBay - Useful for when you’re buying / selling things with the online auction site.
• aNote - A wonderful note-taking application. I don’t use this much now that I’m using Evernote more, but I can’t quite face deleting it yet.
• Boxcar - This sends push notifications for Twitter and is invaluable.

What are your favourite iPhone applications?

I recently decided to investigate other apps that might be useful for teachers and schools. As well as finding some wonderful new applications, I also found lots of really useful iPhone+education related sites:

• Educate 2.0 is an application for teachers, giving them access to timetables, student data, teaching strategies and elearning tools. Find out more in this Youtube video:

• World Maths Day 2010 has a dedicated application which you can use to practise your Maths skills.

• iPhone for Kids is a wonderful blog which shares ideas and advice for ‘iParents’… those parents who want to give children opportunities to use their iPhones. It shares useful applications and offers advice, much of which will also be helpful for teachers.
• The Random Activity Generator generates thousands of learning challenges for students to try. There are over 50,000 combinations of activities.

• There are lots of language applications which would be useful for MFL classes. Free French Tutor is the most popular free education app at the time of writing this, but lots of other language apps are available.
• Don’t forget that podcasts are also a wonderful teaching tool for pupils, whether you are making your own or downloading / listening to those made by others.
• I also use these applications in my own classroom occasionally:
  • Ambiance – An ‘environment enhancer’ which lets you find / download / play a wide range of audio which can be played whilst children are working, or to set the scene as part of role play / drama activities.
  • Announcer – A fun app which lets you play announcements by the voiceover man from lots of popular TV shows. Some of them are not appropriate for use in the classroom, but imagine your pupil’s surprise when they hear ‘Ladies and Gentlemen… please welcome… that’s right… fabulous’ (etc) played out occasionally through your classroom speakers when connected to an iPhone.
  
  • eduTecher – A wonderful tool which lets teachers find (and share) useful resources and web tools that can be used in the classroom.
• BullyingUK have an iPhone app which shares the latest advice from the site for teachers, parents and pupils.
• Many schools are now developing their own applications for teachers, parents and pupils to use. Take a look at this example from Porchester Junior school.
• EducationApps produce a selection of mobile applications for teachers and students. At present, these cover GCSE Geography and AS Level Economics.

• In the iTunes App store, remember that there is a section for Education applications. There is also a special ‘Apps for Kids’ area at the moment which is worth exploring.
• Don’t forget the ‘Interesting Ways to use an iPod Touch‘ presentation on Ideas to Inspire.
• Here’s a useful presentation which gives advice for managing the iPod Touch in the classroom. Thanks to Ian Williams for sharing this on Twitter.

• Macworld have a HUGE list of Education apps, which have all been rated and reviewed.
• John Johnston is involved in a project to use iPod Touches in the classroom. Find out more on his blog.
• Adrian Bruce has shared 16 applications that can be used to support Problem Solving. Brighthub also have a list of the Top 10 apps to use in Maths classes.
• Claire Barnes has suggested Labyrinth and Labyrinth2 which allow you to develop levels on the website and then download them to the device. She also recommends mathemagics, brain exercise games, word games (e.g. Textropolis and Boggle) and MP3 stories which can be played using the iPod.

• Finally, here’s a wonderful concept called ‘Phone Book‘. I’m not sure when or even if it’s available to buy, but it made me smile:

UPDATE – An ‘iPod Touch Conference‘ took place recently, allowing educators to discuss the use of these devices in education. The accompanying web site has lots of useful information, videos, links and discussions which are worth exploring. Thanks to Julian Coultas for bringing this to my attention.

UPDATE 2 – I’ve also discovered an amazing Google spreadsheet which lists useful apps for different curriculum areas.

UPDATE 3 – Since writing this post, our school has received six iPod Touches which I’m planning to use in my own classroom. I’ve posted some initial thoughts about this project in a mindmap. I would love to hear your thoughts about these.

Do you know any useful iPhone applications that can be used in the classroom? Please let us know in the comments…

I’m really pleased to announce a new iPhone application for teachers. The app is called TeachingUK and it’s available in the App store now! The application is a really easy way for teachers to find the latest news (from this Teaching News blog) as well as the most recent additions to Teaching Ideas.

You can also browse the Teaching News and Teaching Ideas sites within the app if you want to see the content in more detail:

The app also allows you to browse the most recent tweets from the @TeachingIdeas Twitter account (which now has over 2,000 followers). To install the app, just visit http://bit.ly/teachinguk or search for TeachingUK in the App Store.

I am planning a future post about other useful iPhone applications for teachers. If you use any great education apps on your iPhone / iPod Touch, please get in touch by email or by leaving a comment below. Thanks.