Technology for the K-12 Classroom
5 Mobile Apps for Teachers and Students
Poll Everywhere
This is an app that allows teachers to create polls for their students to answer using their individual mobile devices. This app gives teachers the ability to quickly and effectively check for understanding, get to know their students strengths and weaknesses as well as their interests, as well as instigate group or class discussion. Whats great about Poll Everywhere is that it allows students to voice their opinion while remaining anonymous to their peers while giving teachers the ability to review individual responses.
Virtual Manipulatives!
This is an app that is strictly math based, so its use it limited, however I think that it cane very useful for aiding student understanding. Fractions are often an area of math that many students struggle with, and this app provides students with manipulative's and examples to thoroughly explain how fractions work. The best part about this app is that it provides visuals cues as well as written instructions for multiple learning styles.
ChooseIt
ChooseIt is a multi-faceted app that has literacy, numeracy and science components. Each section has numerous categorized multiple choice questions to check for and foster student understanding. These questions provide students with positive reinforcement for correct answers with animated sequences, music or spoken words after each correct answer. In addition to the clear and well organized format of the app, all questions were designed by teachers for teachers, which adds to their value and usefulness.
Rainbow Sentences
This app is an app for reading and literacy development for younger children. In this app teachers are able to track student progress, as well as increase the complexity and student independence level as the children grow in their competency level. The app provides a picture as well as words for students to use to cue the accurate construction of the sentence. After they have successfully chosen the correct word combinations, students can record themselves reading the sentence aloud. This app is great because it tackles reading, literacy and grammar all at the same time, with visual, audio and written cues that play to the strengths of multiple learners.
Science 360
This is an app created by the National Science Foundation that provides teachers and students with access to current and up to date science news and information. This app is great because it presents the information that students are learning in a variety of formats such as video, audio, written and pictures.