An iPod Touch in Every Classroom?

An iPod Touch in Every Classroom?: Yes, with Education Focused Apps >> Wired Educator

I got an iPod Touch for Christmas as a surprise. And I was very surprised. Since then, I have fallen in love. As a teacher, I wondered what I could do with it in the classroom. This article gives some great ideas. Now, I'm wondering how many of my students have an iPod Touch! I'm sure not even half do, but I can see future classrooms with a more sophisticated version of this instead of laptops.

Since most of the iPhone applications (i.e. apps) work well with the iPod Touch, Top 50 iPhone Apps is a great read, too.

Other apps that are up and coming:

Kaplan teamed with app developer Jirbo to release its first test prep application, SAT Flashcubes. 'Education' apps of all sorts are on the drawing board, especially with study guides and college applications. Here are just a few that I noticed:

Kaplan's NCLEX-RN exam

SAT vocabulary (It's free!)

Amino Acids

Where else could you find a Medical Dictionary for $24.99?

PI-83 Graphing Calculator

Free Graphing Calculator

Brain Tutor 3D (this is awesome!)

Basic Maths (free)

Oh, and so much more! Language dictionaries of all sorts, vocabulary builders, and more. Check it out.

Scribd

A content creation tool for publishing your own technical papers, schoolwork, a novel or more online, Scribd is free and available to the public. Check it out!

Gliffy, flow-charting program

Check out "Gliffy"! There are icons for networking, office design and organization charts to help you put some order around any idea. Line connectors automatically snap into place, or avoid certain shapes when you move them around the screen. No download is needed.

Twine - Organize, Share, Discover Information Around Your Interests | Twine

Twine is a smarter way to keep track of your interests. Use it to collect and share bookmarks, notes, videos and other content. Twine organizes your content, learns as you use it and recommends new things to check out. You can use Twine alone and with groups of people who share your interests.

To read more:Twine - Organize, Share, Discover Information Around Your Interests | Twine

Remember the Milk (and assignments and meetings and...)

Remember the Milk helps you keep track of your tasks. It is simple to use and grows on you. Students can keep track of assignments, activities and more.

Slideshare

Slideshare is a free service which allows you to present PowerPoint and OpenOffice presentations in a flash environment. These may be embedded, also, into your webpage or emailed to others. The site will remind you of YouTube's site.

Here is an example:

Technology...it's all around us...

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: web2.0 digital)

Dabbleboard

What a neat idea for flow charts, data modeling, or just about any subject. Your students can pick this up quickly. If you need a quick chart for a classroom presentation, Dabbleboard works well, too! And try using it with your Smartboard and/or Active Board.

I did the following very simple ERD (entity relationship diagram) in less than a minute.

Elluminate me (yes, it's spelled with an "E")

Elluminate allows real-time conferencing. It's free for up to 3 people at a time. For collaboration with more than three, there is a fee. Here are some of the features:

Enjoy real-time collaboration with up to three participants using interactive features such as:

• Two-way audio
• Interactive whiteboard
• Direct messaging
• Application sharing
• File transfer
• Synchronized web tour
• Live webcam
• Breakout rooms

Learn more....

SmartBoard Activities

Free activities to use with your SmartBoard are on the Smart website. I perused all the countries/regions and found just a few activities that weren't in all. Enjoy.

Audacity

Want to create podcasts? Record audio for a project? Audacity is a wonderful, free, cross-platform sound editor that is easy to use.

Audacity is a free, easy-to-use audio editor and recorder for Windows, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux and other operating systems. You can use Audacity to:

• Record live audio.
• Convert tapes and records into digital recordings or CDs.
• Edit Ogg Vorbis, MP3, WAV or AIFF sound files.
• Cut, copy, splice or mix sounds together.
• Change the speed or pitch of a recording.
• And more! See the complete list of features.

I recently used Audacity to make a podcast for my chemistry students with the element symbols and their names, including the spelling. They can use it while traveling for sports events or with family or anywhere they usually use their iPods or other mp3 players.