Thursday, December 13, 2012

Apps Galore at the Apple Learning Tour

I took advantage of a great opportunity to attend an Apple Education Seminar today.  I learned all about Ibooks, Itunes U and lots of education apps.

To be honest, I almost feel embarrassed when I admit that I had no clue there were so many fantastic educational apps available out there that I didn't know about.  I usually consider myself to be knowledgable about using technology in general but I guess I missed out on this somehow.  I've downloaded my fair share of apps but never delved into the world of educational apps.  Here's how to do it in case you are also a bit clueless.

First of all, check out the Apple Education page for lots of useful resources.  For apps in particular, you can explore the Apps page.  You can find apps for various subjects there.  There were dozens of apps available on the IPads provided for us to use during the seminar.  I could have sat there for another week just playing with the IPad and checking out the possibilities of all those apps.  I took some photos of the ones they provided and plan on downloading some of the apps that looked the most useful for either my students or my own children.

Of course, you can also find education-related apps on the Itunes store.  If you go to "Apps" and then click on "Education", you will find hundreds of education related apps.  Some are free and some are much more expensive.  I expect the cost for useful apps will be covered for teachers depending on their funding for such things.

I hope to blog a bit about the apps as I use them and learn more about their effectiveness.  I am particularly excited about trying some of the language learning (ESL) apps with my students and seeing how their interact with the devices.  I expect that using IPads will really help engage some students and hopefully motivating them to learn! 

Finally, I am interested in trying out the Itunes U course manager and seeing if it would work with the devices that students have available.  Just for fun..here I am looking happy in my Itunes U course manager profile picture today.  More to come...


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