No Shhing Here

It's been another month, and it's time for an app update! Here are the apps we're using on our iTouches and the ways we're using them: 8th Grade Social Studies (American History) Puppet Pals ($.99) allows users to create and record animations in a snap. It can be used for a huge variety of curriculum . Our 8 th grade social studies teachers are using it. The students will create animations where one character interviews another character (in this case, a famous reformer from the Progressive Era). It's great because it's so simple! Students hit record, then move the characters around on the screen and speak into the little headset microphone. The app records their actions and voices, and saves the animation in a movie file for easy playback. It is a little bit easier on the iPad with the bigger screen than the iTouch, but it should work. We also sprung for the "Director's Pack" - an in app purchase ($3.99) that adds a host of new characters a...

We've spent the last month experimenting with a **BRAND NEW** iTouch cart. I forgot to take a picture, but our cart looks exactly like this ( image from Mindshift ). The cart is stocked with 20 32 GB 3rd generation iTouches and a MacBook Pro for management. I'm mostly happy with the set-up, though the cords connecting the iTouches to the hub aren't of the highest quality. We spend a lot of time wiggling and giggling to make sure they're connected for charging and syncing. In addition to the twenty iTouches on the cart, I sometimes supplement them with two library iTouches and a library iPad, bringing our device total up to 23. Whenever we roll out a new technology, it takes a while to figure out exactly how to use it with classes. Honestly, integrating the iTouches has been almost pain-free . They seem to work themselves seamlessly into our lives, and I'm not quite sure how we ever survived without them. Here's a list of the things we've used them for over ...

Our School Library System has blessed us with a free iTouch. Kids are borrowing it left and right -- so far it's been checked out 36 times in about two weeks. It's available for use in the library during studyhalls - they check it out, use, and return it before the bell rings. Our 8th and 9th graders much more into using this than a "plain old mp3 player" with audiobooks on it. I initially struggled with what to put on it. My first thought was NO GAMES, but I have games ALL OVER my library, so that didn't make sense. After a little research and some serious time exploring the iTunes store, I decided on the following downloads. I've marked games with "gaming app." The ones I picked all have some "educational" content, whether it's building vocabulary, using physics principles, or manipulating numbers. I tried to avoid games that focused on manual dexterity, like racing or shooting, as my gut instinct says they're not "education...