******Monster Math version 2 is about to be launched!*******
What it is:Monster Math is an app that helps build kids mental math skills through a fun game. When students begin their journey in Monster Math, they are introduced to monster Maxx who is working to save his friend Dextra. What makes Monster Math different from most math practice apps, is the narrative and journey that they go on that keeps them wanting to play. Each “level” has them working to defeat a monster with math. This sends them to the Hall of Math where they get challenged to collect candies to defeat a monster. The challenge is to collect only the candies that are equal to the target number. As they play the game, students build fluency in addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Choosing the correct equations earns candies which are then used to defeat the other monsters. Additional challenge is thrown into the game throughout and soon students are not only challenged to find equations to match the target number, but also to do it before the other monster gets to it.
How to integrate Monster Math in your classroom:Monster Math is a great way for students who are building math fact fluency to practice their math facts. It is especially great for students at the 3rd-4th grade level who have learned addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division since the levels default to combine all 4. You can go in and toggle the skills that you want kids to practice. Monster Math is a fantastic alternative to flash cards for building mental math and is sure to be a favorite for kids who are working on mental math skills.
Use Monster Math as a center activity in the one or two device classroom. Students can each create their own account so that they can save their individual progress. You can go into the app and choose the skills to practice so that it is more tailored to each students needs. Building mental math and fact fluency is always important…this is one I like to keep ongoing every week regardless of what else students are working on. I’ve found the best way to build this fluency is to keep the practice regular.
Monster Math is a great app for students with individual devices. This allows them to track their own progress at home or school. Monster Math is a great app to recommend to parents who are looking for alternatives to flash card practice. Monster Math definitely takes the battle out of math practice because the storyline keeps it feeling fresh and challenging.
Teachers get reporting on where students are doing well, what skills they are struggling with, and what skills haven’t been started yet.
Tips: Monster Math is available for the iPhone and iPad. There is a free version and a $2.99 paid version of the app.
October 5th, 2015Comments Off on Seesaw: The ultimate ePortfolio
What it is:Seesaw is the first truly student centered/driven digital portfolio tool that I’ve seen. What makes Seesaw such an awesome option as a digital portfolio is the way that it empowers kids to build and keep a digital portfolio totally independently with features like QR code login for young students. Students can log their learning using photos, videos, drawings, text, PDFs, and links. Seesaw also has direct import features from lots of popular apps. From the teacher perspective, Seesaw makes it simple to access student work immediately from their own device. Content is easily searchable by student and makes it simple to review student progress over time and keep track of growth. In addition to browsing by student, teachers can use folders to organize work by subject area or project. There is also an awesome flag feature that makes it easy to highlight work that you want to go back to for conferences or follow-up with the student. The built in audio recording and drawing tools mean that students can reflect on what they’ve learned or explain how they reached an answer. Parents are also able to login to see work and give feedback on it (you as the teacher can control who sees what and what feedback can be given. Teachers can approve peer feedback before it is seen by students or parents.
How to integrate Seesaw into the classroom:We’ve long used Evernote as our eportfolio of choice, because it was a simple (enough) entry point and gave students enough flexibility to show what they were working on. With each new release of features, Seesaw is quickly winning me over. This is an app that was clearly created with students and teachers in mind. It has incredible flexibility while equipping with just the right tools and features to make it extra valuable in a school setting. I love the options for feedback that teachers can give, and that all stakeholders are able to login and see what kids are working on. The way that Seesaw enables teachers to give quick feedback to students is incredible. I am also impressed with the integrated audio and drawing features that allow students (even young students) to comment and reflect on their own learning and thinking process. The metacognition implications of Seesaw are awesome!
At Anastasis, even non-digital native assignments get captured in our eportfolio through the camera or video. This means that work “travels” with students from year to year. Future teachers can go back through their progress, but students also have this incredible “bread crumb trail” of learning that they can go back through. It is always fun for us to hear students exclaim over the difference in their writing from day one to day 100. Often the learning process is so infinitesimal that students (and sometimes parents) have a hard time seeing the growth. An eportfolio is a great way to capture all learning so that those baby steps can be seen over time. This has been encouraging for our struggling students especially.
Seesaw supports a variety of platforms making it super simple to use in any classroom environment and particularly in a BYOD setting. Supported platforms include iOS devices, Android devices, Chromebooks, and any computer with a Chrome web browser.
Best of all: Seesaw is FREE!!! If you want to store and organize a child’s portfolio beyond the current year, a Plus account can be purchased by parents for $9.99/year OR a school account.
Tips: Seesaw also has Google App integration, if your school uses Google in Education, they can login with the same Google login they use for everything else!
August 8th, 2013Comments Off on Snap! Digital Reading Program for iPad
What it is:Snap! Digital Reading Program is a set of interactive leveled books that can be printed, viewed on iPad, Android, Kindle Fire, interactive whiteboards or classroom computer. All of the books in the program have been developed to help teachers meet requirements in the Common Core Standards in vocabulary and comprehension through the use of direct instruction, close reading, modeling, guided and independent practice, and text-dependent questioning. Each leveled reader has a digital interactive version that includes fluency exercises, comprehension and multiple-choice type assessments. As your students read, you can track what they are reading, view the digital assessments and performance reports. These reports include information about CLOZE scores, multiple choice scores, and fluency. You can also see information about the last book they read (word counts, difficulty, words read correctly, etc.). Snap! Digital Reading Program also includes lesson plans associated with each book. While the program isn’t a free one, a year-long subscription to all materials (interactive ebooks for student, printable PDF versions of the books/lessons/other materials, and the data analytics for all of your students is just $89. Pretty reasonable for access for every student in your class!
How to use the Snap! Digital Reading Program in your classroom: I’ve mentioned this before, but it is worth repeating: when you have a limited classroom library (due to space, as a new teacher, budget, etc.) ebooks are such a great way to instantly expand that library exponentially! Snap! helps you do that and more. Not only are you able to offer your students additional access to reading material, they have the added benefit of getting interactive books that give you data so that you can better guide students in choosing books that will help them fall in love with reading. The readers can also be used for reading interventions, guided reading, shared reading and tutoring. The leveled readers are for students in grades k-8, so even if you have a super advanced second grade student, you can continually challenge them.
The flexibility of this program is fantastic! I’ve long been a fan of Learning A-Z for their printable books, but they are limited to a printout. With Snap! you have the option of printing out books, but students can also access them from home device, on the iPad, Kindle Fire, Android, interactive whiteboard, or classroom computers. The eBook version of the reader includes audio, photo slideshows, glossary terms, videos, fun facts, interactive maps and animations. The PDF version includes lesson plans, alphabet book, word books, assessment materials and individual student record books. Regardless of how much technology you have available in your classroom, the Snap! program works.
In a one to one setting you get the best of all worlds. Every student in your class instantly has access to 128 quality interactive books and activities. Did I mention $89?! That is a great deal! You also have the ability for offline pdf books that can be sent home for extra practice. When I taught second grade, my students loved having a print copy of the ebooks that they read in class. It was always a treat to have those printed to color and share at home.
In a one or two device classroom, you can set up a reading center for students to cycle through. Students can visit the center once or twice a week to read.
Model reading strategies for the whole class using an interactive whiteboard or projector-connected computer. Students can practice reading along and be introduced to new vocabulary.
Tips: The iPad version is not called “Snap!” Digital Reader. The app you will download to access the interactive ebook library is Mobl21 HD.
Price of app:Free* ($89 yearly subscription required!)
Device: iPad with iOS 5.0 or later, Kindle Fire, Android, computer
July 27th, 2013Comments Off on Gasp! It’s not an Apple device
If you have followed my blog or Twitter feed for any amount of time, you know that this review is kind of a big deal. I have been a hard-core Apple evangelist for at least 10 years now. As in: Apple is the only technology product that I own and use. Why in the world, you might wonder, has she suddenly switched gears and started using the HP Envy x2? The good people of Staples invited me to do a review for them. Full disclosure: they sent me a HP Envy x2 to play with. Being the tech geek that I am, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to play with a new gadget!
After taking some gratuitous un-boxing pictures, I plugged it in and got ready to play.
The thing is…I haven’t used a non-Apple product in a LONG time. I forgot that Windows likes you to promise your first-born before you actually get to play. After signing my life away (not really, but it felt like it!) I played with the Envy and did the tasks normally reserved for my MacBook Pro and iPad. I’ve been using the Envy for almost a month (and exclusively in place of my iPad today, @jtenkely snuck mine away for a client presentation) below are my notes.
The Awesome:
The last time I used a non-Apple touch screen, it was a train wreck. I was pleasantly surprised that this touch screen was everything you expect a touch screen to be. It is incredibly responsive and works like you would (and should) expect it to.
The battery life is pretty great. I had it on for 4 days of off-on use without having to recharge. I’m pretty sure I got every bit of the 12 hours of battery life out of it. The tablet alone gets slightly less battery life. The thought that HP put into charging is pretty impressive, the tablet gets fully charged before the keyboard gets charged. This makes a lot of sense since you want the most out of the tablet.
The cameras are decent quality, the resolution of pictures seems better to me than what I get out of my iPad 3.
Beats Audio is a nice touch, the sound quality is good for a notebook/tablet. This let me rock out to Spotify while I worked.
The Envy has inputs on the keyboard base including HDMI, two USB, and SD ports. This makes transferring, adding, sharing content really easy.
The notebook/tablet combination are lightweight at just a hair over 3lbs.
Aesthetically the HP Envy x2 is nice. It feels sturdy but still manages to look sleek (everyone seems to be taking styling cues from Apple these days…hard to go wrong with that inspiration).
Flash works all the time. Not having to open a new browser just for Flash is nice. So many educational websites are still built using flash so for a classroom setting, this feature is handy!
Bluetooth connectivity.
The Less Awesome
I like the HP Envy x2 better as a touch-screen computer than I do as a tablet. The screen size is just a little too big and heavy to hold comfortably as a tablet for reading, typing, etc.
On this device, I constantly used the touch screen instead of the track pad. The track pad drove me absolutely crazy. It wasn’t as sensitive as I was used to, and there are spots on the pad that were way too sensitive for my liking and kept sending me into full screen mode. It also has some little grooves in it that make it feel like it is sticky. When you work with children, things that feel sticky are never good.
Windows 8- I don’t get it. It seems hard to complete even simple tasks. This could just be my bias toward Apple’s OS, but I am not impressed. When I got the hang of navigating, things got smoother. I still wouldn’t trade Apple’s OS for it. One of the things that I missed (and this may just be the apps I was using) was that apps don’t integrate seamlessly together like I anticipated they should. The Windows 8 store is not my favorite. It isn’t easy to search for something specific.
While the camera’s resolution was good, I wasn’t impressed with the response time to get it to focus on something.
What to Anticipate for the Classroom:
The HP Envy x2 would make a fine classroom computer/tablet. I like that students can use it as a laptop, they can type on it easily, can access downloadable content, and it stores away nicely so you are not taking up too much space in the classroom. I also like that it transforms into a tablet so that students can make their learning, and capturing of their learning, more mobile. Our students constantly take photographs and videos of their learning whether they are inside, outside, on a field trip, etc. The keyboard dock would be too cumbersome to tote all over so it is great that students could just use the tablet portion when a task called for more portability. I found the Microsoft store a little lacking in apps that are available. I think that in the classroom, this gets made up for by the free Flash content you can access online. I anticipate that with the Windows 8 interface, the learning curve for using the device would be more significant than with an iPad (which has no learning curve). This is especially true for the primary grades. It really took me some playing around with to get it figured out, and although I’m all Apple, I am also tech savvy.
Fun Find:
Most of the apps that I downloaded are those that I use regularly on my other devices. I was impressed with some (Twitter app was great!) and less so with others (Pinterest app was ridiculous…it was easier to just use the browser). One of the fun finds that I immediately searched for afterward in Apple’s app store was wordBrush (not there). It lets you type some words into a box and then draw with them. Pretty awesome! This could be fun for vocabulary/spelling practice, poetry, book quotes, etc.
I was impressed with the number of free apps available for download.
Overall Impression:
The HP Envy x2 is a nice device that would hold up well in a classroom. My personal preference is NOT for Windows 8, but if you are used to a Windows environment, it probably won’t phase you. I was extremely impressed with Staples customer service, after I ordered the HP Envy x2, it came within just a few days. Everyone I worked with on the Staples side was great! (They didn’t even ask me to say that!) At $699 this is a good competitor for the iPad. The combination tablet/notebook is nice. It really was like being able to use my iPad and then instantly turn it into my MacBook. Being small, it doesn’t have the same capabilities as my MacBook, but for the majority of what kids do in the classroom, it would be great! Now…if you ask which I would purchase for the classroom, my answer would still be the iPad. The intuitive nature of the iPad is so crucial when you are going 1:1. The available educational apps are also a huge factor!
We use Staples a LOT at Anastasis Academy. I’ve been there every day this week getting school supplies true story. They have some great back to school deals that you should check out. The first isTeacher Appreciation Day. 20% back in Staples rewards on all purchases! You can also enter to win a $25 gift card. Check out the website to find out when your local Staples is holding the Teacher Appreciation Day.
Staples also recently introduced Reward a Classroom. Sign up and then invite parents to help you earn rewards by buying the school and office supplies they do already. This could help keep you classroom well stocked all year-long!
**The thoughts and opinions expressed in this post are strictly my own. Thank you Staples for letting me step outside of the Apple world to explore!
Cross posted on my other site, iLearn Technology.com. Just like iLearn Technology, you can search any app by Bloom’s Taxonomy level. All of the websites I share on iLearn Technology are completely FREE, the apps I review tend to be a mix of free and paid apps. At the bottom of each post, I share the cost of the app.|
|Kelly|
Fluency Finder
What it is: Fluency Finder is a fantastically handy app that I learned about from my friend @dkapuler. David was kind enough to offer Team Anastasis some download codes so that we could try the app out with our students. Any teacher who has ever done fluency tests knows that they can be a little bit of a pain. Folders and folders of passages to store, stop watch, scribbled notes on the page as they read, calculator, and keeping track of it all in an orderly fashion to refer back to later. I’m a huge fan of anything that can help minimize the paper I have to store and keep track of in my life. Fluency Finder takes care of all of this! Not only can you record results, you can also maintain records on a class full of students and share information. You can easily find and track fluency rates so that you have more time to help students strengthen reading skills and find books that are confidence-building and enjoyable.
Fluency Finder makes it simple to assess reading fluency in 1st-8th grade reading levels. To get started:
Add students to the app
Select an appropriate grade level passage for the student to read
Print the passage from the www.fluencyfinder.com website (students could also read from their own iDevice or computer if you want to save paper)
Begin assessment, start the app timer as the student begins reading
Student will read from printed passage as you follow on your iDevice marking any mistakes
Tap the (+) button when student makes a reading mistake
Tap the (-) button if the student self-corrects a mistake
End the timer when the student finishes
Tap the “finish assessment” button to instantly see results
Now instead of focusing so much on keeping track of the fluency and score, you can focus on what actually matters: listening for fluency, comprehension and expression.
Being a paperless school, we are LOVING this option for helping students choose books that are at a level that is “just right.” It gives us the opportunity to help students hunt down the perfect amount of challenge and really focus on a story they can love. We are all about encouraging an absolute love of reading!
September 20th, 2012Comments Off on 40 Day Countdown to Revolutionized Education: Call to Action
*** If you need the cliff notes version of this post, skip down to the Call to Action section!
Last year I had a “hunch” about learning…specifically about curriculum. That hunch turned into a full fledged idea and a mission to do better for kids. Everywhere. Along the line I met some truly incredible people who taught me things I didn’t know how to do before. Like wire framing (thanks @ianchia), and pitching ideas (thanks @houseofgenius), and how to go about picking up programmers (thanks@toma_bedolla). Now I’m ready to share the culmination of all this work with you.
This isn’t just a post to tell you about what I’m doing, it is a call to action for everyone (yes, even you). It is a request for you to join me in this mission in whatever form that may take.
I have a vision: to make personalized learning a reality for EVERY child.
I know, it is big. It is also doable.
For those who are new to following me, here was my original “hunch” written on my other blog,Dreams of Education:
“The problem with curriculum and textbooks is that they complete thoughts. Curriculum and textbooks give the impression that learning has an end. That when you have made it from cover to cover, the job is done. I know in my own schooling this was true, I thought that school was teaching me what was important and that anything outside of the curriculum wasn’t important or relevant to my life…wouldn’t they have included it otherwise? How did curriculum get this way? Well, people realized that there was no possible way to cover every facet of learning, so they stripped it down to what they thought was important. The problem? What is important to you may not be what is important to me. What’s more, something that is very important to me may have been cut all together so I don’t even get the chance to know that it is important to me. Humans tend to like things that are definable, we like things that we can put into a neat, orderly box and carry out in a predictable way. It feels safe and manageable. This is what led me to the following hunch:
What if curriculum was more flexible? What if curriculum/schools/learning looked more like Pandora. If you aren’t familiar with Pandora, it is an online radio station that plays the music that it thinks you will like. You type in an artist or song and it creates a customized radio station just for you. It is remarkably accurate. Pandora almost never gets it wrong for me. It is like they have a direct line to my brain and can predict what song I would like to hear next. When it is wrong, I can give the song a thumbs down and it apologizes profusely for the error and promises never to play that song again on my station. The other thing I love about Pandora: I can have multiple radio stations. Because sometimes I really couldn’t think of anything in the world better than Frank, Dean, and Sammy; but other times I also want a little Timberlake, Whitestripes, or Bangles. What if curriculum looked like that? What if learning happened as a result of typing in one subject or topic that a student was enamored with and a completely personalize learning journey began playing out for them? What if students were led through a journey that was completely customized? What if they had several stations mapped out for them?”
I believe this is possible. I believe it is within our reach to create a completely personalized learning experience to every unique child. I believe that we can honor humanity instead of treating our kids like widgets in a factory. I believe that teachers should be teachers, focused on the needs and development of the child instead of teaching the masses through scripted curriculum.
The Learning Genome Project will empower teachers and parents to become engineers of learning by providing each individual student the exact content they need, at the exact moment they need it. The Learning Genome will enable students to explore the process of inquiry, experimentation, discovery and problem solving. Instead of learning how to pass the next test, we will enable students to construct meaning and learn how to transfer that meaning to new life context. At the hub, the Learning Genome is a platform that aggregates resources and, using a series of algorithms, provide recommendations of the BEST resources to meet the individual learning needs of a specific child. The Learning Genome creates those serendipitous moments of finding just the right learning tool to meet the needs of children at the right time.
Much like Pandora finds that perfect piece of music, the Learning Genome will find the perfect piece of learning material to aid the student in learning. The key to the Learning Genome’s success is crowd sourcing. I will be drawing on educators around the world (that’s you!) to help me tag curriculum, books, lessons, videos, apps, websites and other educational content. This collection of tagged content lives in the centralized ”cloud” and wil allow users around the world to find and access materials that best suit student needs. By gathering information about the individual student’s learning style preferences, multiple intelligence strengths, social/emotional levels, interests and passion, the Learning Genome can help teachers to create customized learning maps for each individual. This portion will be free. Every child deserves a unique learning experience.
In addition to the Learning Genome Hub (the aggregate), the site will include a complete Student Information System, planning tools, e-portfolios, e-learning, individual learning plans, assessment and blogging tools. All of these will work seamlessly together for you go-to for learning and planning.
4. Tweet about this project…a lot. Let’s completely take over the Internet with tweets about the Learning Genome and taking over education for kids! Please make sure to link back to the indiegogocampaign so that others can learn about it! Use the hashtag #standagain (because after all, we are helping children “stand again” in their learning)
6. Mention us on Facebook and like us on Facebook!
7. Did I mention spread the word? Seriously, that is SO helpful! You never know who might see that tweet and drop a couple thousand (or more) to make this project go!
8. Time is of the essence. I have 40 days starting NOW to make this happen. eeek! I need your help!
So, what are the perks to helping with this project?
$5 gets your name on the Learning Genome Change Makers page. You are changing education. That makes you a big deal. I want everyone to know what a big deal you are! I know many of you don’t think that your $5 can do anything. Wrong. According to my cluster map, I have hundreds of thousands of visits to this blog. If each of you pitches in…we all win fast!
$10 Remember all those cool Bloom’s Taxonomy posters I made? This campaign is now the ONLY place you can get them. These are 8.5″ x 11″ versions of the poster.
$30 Learning Genome beta tester. You get the inside scoop and ability to play before ANYONE else. I know, pretty cool.
$60 EXCLUSIVE A full size large-format print of my Bloomin’ Peacock mailed to you. That awesome little Peacock looks even better large. Did I mention this is the ONLY place you will get a big version of this?
$500 Even more EXCLUSIVE you get all of my Bloom’s re-imagine posters in the large format. Perfect for your classroom, library or as a gift to your favorite teachers.
$1000 My Searching for daVinci webinar for your school. What better way to spend your professional development dollars than learning how to create a daVinci like culture of learning at your school? Worth it!
$5000 For my corporate friends who want to see their logo in lights as a company that supports education and changing the world. If you have an education company, The Learning Genome Project will be the place to be seen.
We have $85,000 to raise. It sounds like a big number. We can do it together. I figured if I am going to lean on crowdsourcing to transform education, the funding should be crowdsourced too. How awesome will it be to join together as an education community to say, together we transformed the way learning is done. We changed things for every child in the world. Yeah, it’s big.
September 20th, 2012Comments Off on Guided Access in iOS6: Helping students properly manage their freedom on the iPad
iOS 6 comes with a very handy new addition called “Guided Access”. Guided access lets teachers (and parents) limit use of the iPad to one app. This is helpful for keeping students on the task at hand without being lured into “multi-tasking” in other apps. I created the following for our parents (since Anastasis is a 1:1 iPad school) and thought I would share it with all of you as well! This is especially great for kids who are still navigating how to properly manage their freedom with technology.
Thanks to Tony Vincent who tweeted about this feature this morning!
August 31st, 2012Comments Off on How it Works: Machines
What it is:How it Works:Machines is another spectacular app from Geek Kids. The app includes 9 vehicles and machines that students can assemble including: a car, washing machine, hair dryer, lawn mower, vacuum cleaner, rocket, steam engine, wind mill and pump. Not only do students get to see the inner workings of everyday machines and vehicles, they also get to learn how to put them together to make them work. The puzzles in How it Works: Machines are easy enough for young students to put together the major parts of the machine. When students complete the puzzle, their is a short animation that shows how those parts work together to make the machine operate.
How How it Works: Machines can enrich learning: How it Works: Machines is a great way for students to be introduced to engineering and the mechanics of how things work. I love the way that this app guides students in the discovery of how things work. Students play their part in putting a machine together and then see the result of how all of the parts work together to set a machine in motion. This would be a great app to use when learning about simple machines. Students can identify the simple machines and forces in each machine they build.
Devices: iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad iOS 4.0 or later
August 31st, 2012Comments Off on Move the Turtle: Introduction to Programming for Kids
What it is:Move the Turtle teaches kids the basics of programming and coding. Student learn the basics for creating computer programming by using graphic commands. A friendly little turtle teaches students how to plan complex activities composed of simple elements, how to reuse previously completed work, and how to use graphics, spatial orientation and sound in programming. Students will also learn about loops, procedures, variables and conditional instructions. Move the Turtle was created specifically for use with young students (5+). Using Move the Turtle, students will use their imagination to create their own programs from scratch or based on some of the built-in examples!
How Move the Turtle can enrich learning: Programming is becoming a universal language. Whether students will become the next Steve Jobs or not, programming is a skill that spills into, and enhances, many other areas in education. Programming teaches students logical thinking skills and taps into creative problem solving. It can be helpful in understanding of more complex math (algebra, angles, measurement, two dimensional geometry) and lends itself to connections being made across multiple disciplines. Move the Turtle is a really wonderful introduction to this type of thinking. It is easy to navigate, has friendly graphics and instructions, and students see the results of their work right away. I love this type of trial and error learning!
At Anastasis Academy, we offer students Crave classes. Each block students get to choose an area of passion/interest to explore for an hour each week. One of the classes we offered was programming. It was a popular class for students in first through eighth grade. All age groups wanted to learn how to create their own games and apps! Move the Turtle will be a great addition to teaching the youngest the building blocks of programming.
Devices: iPhone, iPod touch, iPad iOS 4.2 or later
What it is: mobimaths is a brand new math app for iOS and Android devices. I love the mission of mobimaths: to move away from textbooks and rote memorization and toward real world problems with an emphasis on communication and collaboration. It doesn’t get better than that! I wish more education app developers would take note and follow suite! The app has great learning tools including the angle of elevation tool, the outside distance tool, the angle of rotation tool, the inside distance tool and the visual mapping tool. There is also a rods game that focuses on fractions, decimals and percentages.
The current version of mobimaths for iDevices is a lite, free version. It includes the angles and distance tools. The Visual Mapping tool that is coming will allow learners to take a picture and overlay a grid to work out ratios and areas. Students will be able to move and resize the grid and add points on the grid to measure area. On the mobimaths website, you will find fantastic lesson ideas for using mobimaths to learn. Math teachers will love this launching off point, I’m sure you all will come up with new brilliant ideas for using the apps in your math classroom.
How mobimaths can enrich learning: mobimaths is a great addition to the math class. Just like a protractor, ruler, or compass this app aids students in measurement. I like that the app doesn’t focus on drill and kill (the way so many math apps do), instead it acts as a tool to make learning more authentic. There are some fantastic lesson plans on the mobimaths website, but the sky is really the limit. If you teach measurement, this app can be used by students to get them out of the textbook and applying their learning to the world around them. Currently the lessons include: an angle of elevation activity, angle of elevation exercise, and trigonometry activity guide.
Devices: iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch iOS 4.2 or later
At $699 this is a good competitor for the iPad. The combination tablet/notebook is nice. It really was like being able to use my iPad and then instantly turn it into my MacBook. Being small, it doesn’t have the same capabilities as my MacBook, but for the majority of what kids do in the classroom, it would be great! Now…if you ask which I would purchase for the classroom, my answer would still be the iPad. The intuitive nature of the iPad is so crucial when you are going 1:1. The available educational apps are also a huge factor!
Fluency Finder
