The first app I chose to review is the Stack the States Game App. for the i-pad. It is an interactive game, that helps students learn the states, their shapes and placement on the map. It allows you to study the states first, if wanted on flashcards. You can then concentrate on game play. You basically answer questions about the states, and if you get the answer correctly, you begin a "pile of states." You continue to stack your states to a certain point to win. The more you win, it unlocks more games to play with states. You can also click on states for some brief information about that state. This app also allows younger students to learn the shapes of each state and where they belong on the map. The app is very colorful and the states are given faces which makes it attractive to younger children. I felt this app would be very useful for students in the classroom, for probably 4th grade and under. It helps students learn social studies and uses thinking and reasoning skills. This is a free app.
The second app I chose to review is the Sketch Pad Explorer app for i-pad. It is rated as one of the best educational software programs. It can be used for most all grade levels 1st grade and up. It uses activities and workbooks and has the ability for students to create and share with others. It is very easy to use, you can drag shapes to explore math. Teachers can create lessons and then the students can bring it up on the i-pad and perform actions by using the action buttons and hot text links. It helps with understanding of fundamental concepts of math. Students can explore and interact and investigate concepts. The touchscreen aspect makes this fun for the students. It also has a tool for interactive whiteboard use. It meets the CCSS for chart and graph use. I felt this would be very useful in the classroom for many age groups and it seems it can be utilized to fit the lessons the teacher is focusing on.
The third app in disciplines for education I chose to explore is the Globe app for i-pad. This is an app that contains a 3-D globe that students can explore. It can be rotated with your fingers by touch or drag motions. It shows all the countries of the world. By pinching the screen you can zoom in or out to look more closely at details. There is a search button to tap on that tells some brief information and flags of the different countries. I'm not sure if I would use this app in the classroom. Although it is a free app, I'm sort of old school in that I think an actual hands-on globe is more interesting and fun for younger children. They could always research the countries on the computer if detailed information is needed. I guess the advantage would be that more than a few students could be learning the globe at the same time.
OK. Fair enough...
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