Apps for Education on our iTouch

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 "educational" enough, but I'll probably readdress this at a later point in time.

In addition to games, I have podcasts , audiobooks, and classical "study music" I found for free online.

* Alice in Wonderland
* Archie: Freshman Year #1
* Associate This -- gaming app
* Checkers Free -- gaming app
* The Chemical Touch: Lite Edition
* Constitution for the iPhone
* Covert Units for Free
* Cooking Mama Lite -- gaming app
* Dictionary.com
* Dots Free -- gaming app
* Fairy Tales
* Finger Physics Free -- gaming app
* FREE French Tutor
* FREE German Tutor
* FREE Spanish Tutor
* FREE French Audio FlashCards
* Greek Gods
* Grim's Fairy Tales
* Hangman Classic Free -- gaming app
* History: Maps of World
* iPhopias - 300 FREE Phobias
* iThesaurus
* iTranslate - Spanish (Lite)
* Learn Chess - gaming app
* Mancala: FS5 (Free)
* Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment
* Molecules
* Musee du Louvre
* My Spanish Coach
* NASA app for iPhone
* Periodic Table and Atomic Mass
* Pride and Predjudice
* QuizQuizQuiz -- gaming app
* Romeo and Juliet
* Science Glossary
* Shakespeare
* Star Trek Comics
* Stars
* States&Capitals Free
* Sudoku (Free) -- gaming app
* Transformers Comics
* Twilight: The Movie Game -- gaming app
* The U.S. States & Capitals Lite
* USA Factbook Free
* USA Presidents
* Whirly Word
* Wikipanion
* Words with Friends Free -- gaming app
* World Wide Capitals
* 3D Brain

It's been a great experiment, and I can't wait to see what happens as more and more students get their hands on it.

Anyone have others to reccomend?

Comments

  1. AnonymousDecember 8, 2009 at 7:46 AM

    This sounds wonderful! I hope you are able to get some more iTouches! Sounds like the students would use them. Does your distric's elementary school use them too?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Kathy BarstowDecember 8, 2009 at 8:12 AM

    Good job Lindsey. That's the way to go.

    ReplyDelete
  3. LindsayDecember 9, 2009 at 6:57 AM

    Most of our elementary librarians have at least 1 iTouch for library use -- not really sure what they've put on them, but I know they ARE using them. It's exciting to be on the "cutting edge."

    ReplyDelete
  4. HunterJuly 29, 2010 at 8:36 AM

    It's both because you're learning and having fun at the same time!!!!!!!! ;)

    ReplyDelete

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