It’s a new year, a new decade! What better way to celebrate the new year than with a few new iPhone apps for your classroom. I daresay this may be the best batch I’ve looked at yet. Click on past the break and read why these five are worth you tapping your screen a few times. Oh yeah, they’re all free-so nothing to lose, but plenty to gain.
Dictionary.com
Dictionary is just what it says it is. While there are other dictionary apps (may are good), this one stands out. It is super simple to use (like just about all the others), but it is lightning fast. Click on a word to lookup and almost in a blink of an eye, there is the definition. Want to use the thesaurus? No worries an easy tap on the screen and then a second later, you are looking at synonyms and antonyms. They have a Spanish word of the day as well and a full fledged thesaurus. It also has a function where you say the word and it looks it up, but to be honest, it works OK. This app is great and it works very well offline too. It is free from the App store.
Statware
Statware is a stat keeping app for basketball coaches or managers. There are others out there that cost money, but for the basics this is free and as long as you’re not trying to log every rebound, assist, turnover, and the time it happened you should be OK. In other words, it’s not a bad shot chart keeper. It needs to work on setting up teams and players, and the display on the iPhone is a little small to keep up with all the action, but like I said, if you’re just looking for one stat-this app is worth the time to figure out. It gives you detailed shot chart quarter by quarter and you can even keep up with who shot. It’s free and on an iPad is probably the way to go here.
Metronome
Learning an instrument? Are you having trouble keeping the beat? The old school metronome is now on the iPhone. It does exactly what you expect it to do. You set the beats per minute, and then swipe the arm to get it going. On the down beat it makes a different note and you can set the time to 4/4, 3/4. or 2/4. Is feature rich? Will it do your laundry? No, but it will help out students who need to practice keeping the time with the music.
Logic Box
This is a straight up game app. So why am I putting it with my educational apps? Well, the games are engaging, easy to learn (most are classics) and do not involve the following: guns, explosions, body parts exploding, death, violence, etc. These games are mostly puzzle games that students need to use some lateral thinking skills to solve. I mean-it’s not going to get them an A on their test, but their not just mindlessly tapping the screen either. A good app as a reward for students or children.
Wordball
HEY YOU GUYSS!!!! This app is developed by The Electric Company. Not familiar with the Electric Company? It is a show developed by PBS and the Sesame Workshop. The app is basically a game to help children learn different letters, their sounds, and how they function within the words. It is very well made, graphically impressive, and responsive. It is rather enjoying and can be a bit of a challenge for students as well. It’s free and worth the download.
Technology in the Classroom 