Mobile Apps in the Classroom
5 Apps to use in the Classroom
Khan Academy
Subject: Any
Khan Academy offers online videos and interactive lectures for a variety of lessons and grade levels. The videos are offered with subtitles for students with hearing disabilities. It is completely free and easily accessible.
Khan Academy can be used in the K-12 classroom in a number of ways. Firstly, it can be used as a UDL tool to meet various needs of students. It is a great way for students to access information about what they are learning in class and rewatch areas they are struggling in. Students can sign in to create personal experience and track their progress.
This app could also be used as a class tool. Teachers can set us a class to assign certain lesson and manage student progress. This could be used as a formative assessment, teachers could monitor if students are studying the lesson assigned in Khan Academy and celebrate their successes and see where students may be struggling.
EarthViewer
Subject: Biology
EarthViewer is a great interactive app to explore the world throughout different time periods. You can choose a time period and the globe changes accordingly. The app is full of information on the different time periods, major biological events, and key ideas and concepts such as the carbon cycle.
This is a great tool that could enhance a science classroom. Students can have a hands-on and visual experience of a typically boring, memorization lesson. The app has so much information that students can explore at their own pace. They can either stick to the basics of looking how the world has geographically changed over time, or they can read into the origin of photosynthesis or Eukaryotes.
Not only can this tool be used individually by students as an exploration tool, it can also be used by the teacher to demonstrate concepts to the entire class. Explaining an ice age or the effect oxygen had on the world will have a much greater impact if you can show a visual representation.
Babbel
Subject: Languages (ex. French, Spanish, German)
Babbel is an app that helps you learn up to 14 different languages. You can start either at a beginner or advanced level. There are a variety of different ways in which the app helps you to learn the new language. Some times you are given a word in english and asked to find the translation, or vise versa. Or you might be given a matching game or asked to fill in the missing words of sentences.
Babbel could be a great tool to integrate into a langues class. This is a great tool because it can be used with or without a teacher present. This could be used as a great study tool for students out of the classroom. It could be benificial to students struggling in class or have different learning needs. Information is presented both visually and auditory so it appeals to a greater audience.
Using this app individually by students lets them go at their own pace and their own understanding. Once a teacher teaches a lesson he/she could assign a Babbel lesson and walk around the room to assess student progress. Students who finish the task early could move on to more complex tasks while the teacher is helping students who may be struggling with certain terms or ideas.
Endless Reader
Subject: English (Spelling/reading)
Endless Reader is a very interactive app that allows you to choose a word and learn how to spell and use it in a sentence. When you are spelling you can click on letters to hear what sound they make. There are constant visuals to remind you of means of words and you get positive feedback throughout the activity. Although this is a really great tool, the downside to it is that you are only given a limited amount of words before you have to start paying for new content.
This tool could be used in Kindergarten to early elementary classes. For students who are just beginning to learn how to spell and read this interactive tool could be a great tool. It is interactive and encouraging. With a teacher guiding use, students can all learn at their own pace. This app reaches so many different types of learners! There is learning through images, text, sound, and hands-on interaction. It is a great tool to keep students engaged and interested in learning how to read and write. As students develop they can level up. One thing you could do as a teacher then is split the class into groups depending on what Endless Reader level they have achieved to give them reading resources that fit them best.
Splash Math
Subject: Math
Splash Math is a very interactive and visual app which offers practice math questions for students grade 1-5. For each grade level you can pick a concept to explore. You then go through a series of interactive activities and answer questions. With each correct answer you receive coins in which you can buy rewards. As a future math teacher this is probably on of my favourite educational apps.
This app can be used in the classroom in a number of ways. Again, like most of the other mobile apps, Splash Math can be used individually so that students can work at heir own pace. This way students struggling can start and the basics and work with the teachers, where as students who excel at math can move onto harder levels. Students could also use this app in groups and help each other answer questions. Because of the great visuals in the app, it can also be used as a teacher lead activity. The app could also be used as a source of example questions to use in the class