Top Mobile Apps for Education

   As technology becomes the way of instruction in our 21st Century classrooms, it is inevitable that applications will be coming out of the woodwork.  But not all applications are created equally.  And not all applications would be beneficial to all teachers.  So, when I started looking for applications to use I decided on some parameters.  In my district, we have some technology devices that students can use.  But, and this is a big but, we do not have the resources to provide a device for each student.  As much as we would love to have a 1-to-1 program, it is just not realistic at this time.  Because of that our students are encouraged to bring their own devices whether it be their own laptop, tablet or smartphone.  We do have 2 computer labs available for classes but they must be reserved.  And many times, not all those computers are in working order.  I personally have 15 laptops in my classroom I purchased with some funds.  Because of these extenuating circumstances, not all devices are of the same formatting. So, my first parameter was that the app would have to be universal, work on any type of device whether it be iOS, Android, Windows, etc. 

   My second parameter was that it would have to be free.  As I mentioned above, our finances are low.  It is hard to find money to spend on applications.  Plus, I do not want to choose anything that would cost my students money if they are to download it onto their own device.

   My third parameter was that it would be applicable to any grade level.  I teach high school so I could have chosen applications that were geared to only high school students.  But with the idea of sharing this information with other teachers I decided to pick items that were applicable to all.

   I also tried to find a variety of options.  I am interested in trying the flipped classroom approach next year, at least in some units, as a trial run.  So, I was looking at different apps I could use.  I found Formative. Formative is an application that does formative assessment, hence the name!  Formative assessment is a not so formal way of assessing how your students are doing daily.  An example may be on the lines of a quiz as opposed to a test.  I liked Formative because of the options it had in creating the lessons.

   I also looked at Google Classroom.  This is an organizational tool used to distribute and receive activities to students whether it be a lesson, quiz, test or other type of activity.  It would be a great tool for flipped classrooms, distance learning, or independent study courses.

   The third application I found was OneNote.  It is a Microsoft application that allows students to take and organize notes.  Students can take notes, add videos, add pictures, etc. to help clarify the lesson.  If a student has a touch screen they can hand write notes and the application will convert to type.  It also allows students to draw into their notes.  If a student needed to draw and label a diagram they could do that with this program and then submit to the teacher.  

   The fourth application I chose was Slack.  I started using this with my brothers when my dad got sick.  We were having issues with group texting being delivered to everyone on the conversation.  My brothers had both used Slack in their businesses.  After the success, we had with it, I looked at it for my classes.  Part of 21st Century Learning Skills deals with collaboration.  This would be a great tool for students to communicate with each other as well as I could monitor the conversation and offer ideas or help with confusion.  

   The last application I suggest is Cite This for Me.  I have gotten so sick and tired of students copying and pasting information on projects that I could just scream!  I have set in my mind to be diligent next year with making students do more summation, citing their sources and quoting when necessary.  This would be a great tool for them as they produce a product as well as for me in checking it.  The application guides students through proper citation and has a plagiarism check.  I could also use it to check for proper citation and plagiarism.  

   Below is a chart I created to organize the information about each application.  I included a video link to how each can be used.  I also included the website URL for further exploration.