Seems like the world of apps is constantly shifting with an abundance of tools that promise just about everything except make coffee. I imagine that will happen soon. Here is our updated list of apps and ‘yes’, we like to keep the list to under 20 (leaving lots of space for saving creations). Again, some of our best have stayed and new ones added that have proven their consistency. This time we’ve connected each one to the core competencies.
| Audio -*Communication Competencies |  |
Voice Record Pro (free) – A professional voice recorder that has a visual feedback to show how loud your voice is recording. Possibilities for use might include supporting reading fluency, self assessment, oral speech, radio show, embed in video. Save in standard formats and export to multiple locations including the camera library. |
| Audio/visual –*Communication Competencies |  |
ChatterPix Kid by Duck Duck Moose (free) – Take a photo of anything, draw a line to represent your mouth and record your voice. Teach a lesson, share a story, sing a song, do a rap. You’re only limited by your imagination. Share it on your class blogs. Stitch a few videos together to make a longer video. Or keep to “shorts”. There’s something to be said for brevity (30 seconds or less). |
| Audio/visual –*Communication Competencies |  |
Tellagami-Edu ($6.99) – Create a custom avatar to share your story, lesson or learning. Includes backgrounds, draw your own or take a background picture. Products can be saved to the camera library. Great for oral language development and speeches, explaining processes (records up to 90 seconds). No in-app purchases needed. There is a free version that save 30 second videos. (*Hint: use other apps to stitch the ‘shorts’ together.) |
| Image Editor – *Communication, Creative Competencies |  |
PicMonkey ($1.38) – Worth every penny especially if you use your ipad to take pictures. Our favourite web tool is now an app! Use it to resize your images before uploading, and edit using a range of effects. Personalize any image and use in your presentations, photo albums, eportfolios, posters, infographics. (*Free on phones – capture, edit, upload from your phone) |
| Draw/Sketch –*Communication, Creative Competencies |  |
Drawing Pad ($2.79) – Everyone needs an art/sketch app to give possibility to your creative self. Use photo-realistic crayons, markers, paint brushes, coloured pencils, stickers, roller pens. An entire box of tools is at your finger tips. Products are saved in the camera library for export or upload. Use to enhance artistic voice, upload to eportfolios or blogs, presentations or smash with other apps like ChatterPix. |
| Draw/Sketch –*Communication, Creative Competencies |  |
Paper by FiftyThree (free) – Sketch notes are all the rage now. This app gives freedom to design, take notes, create diagrams in detail. A stylus pen is helpful but not necessary. More complex than Drawing Pad. |
| Video – *Communication, Creative Competencies |  |
Adobe Spark Video (free) – Create stunning videos with voice, music and images. Add cinematographic motion and share your product. Saves to camera library for easy export. As if this wasn’t enough, use this to illustrate ‘work flow’ in organization. *Requires login. |
| Design/Video – *Communication, Creative, Thinking Competencies |  |
Green Screen by Do Ink ($3.99) – Take any green coloured background and turn it into your own TV studio. (Yes, this is how newscasters do it.) Tell a story, teach an idea, share your research, be a newscaster and include an interactive weather map or video behind you. Consider how this might access oral speech, critical thinking, sequencing, design, dramatic skills. |
| Design/Video- *Communication, Creative, Thinking Competencies |  |
Explain Everything 3.0 ($5.49) – “They know when they can teach it.” Communicate learning by screencasting and using an interactive whiteboard to annotate, teach, narrate and animate. New feature – collaboration! Incorporate products from other apps. Export to/from anywhere, which makes this app incredibly flexible. |
| Design/Compile – *Communication, Creative, Thinking, Personal Competencies |  |
Book Creator ($6.99) – Create stunning ebooks that can be saved, uploaded, or saved as pdf. Incorporate images, video, audio, music, text. Import your ChatterPix, Tellagami, or Explain Everything files. Turn the pages like a book and see the magic unfold before you. A great tool for a portfolio presentation. |
| Productivity tool |  |
Compressor (free) – While using the video camera on an iPad is great, what happens if you want to upload the results to a blog, eportfolio or other web presence? iPads are notorious for huge file sizes. This app compresses a video file size using a target slider – what could be easier? Saves to camera library ready for you to upload to any other site. |
| Productivity tool |  |
Video Slimmer ($3.99) – While there are many in this category, this one is worth the price if you use video a lot and would like to upload the results to a web presence (eg. from camera, iMovie, Adobe Spark, Book Creator …). Shrinks video files while keeping the quality. Simple editing tools include trim, merge multiple videos, rotate, and customise. Saves to camera library. |
| Productivity plus – *Communication, Creative Thinking, Critical Thinking, Personal Competencies |  |
Google Drive (free) – Still at the top of our “go to” list. This suite of tools include Docs, Slides, Drawing, Forms, Sheets allowing for writing, collaborating with teams any time, anywhere, commenting in real-time (think formative assessment), an accurate speech-to-text synthesizer (imagine having those words magically appear on the page as you speak). Contact your Learning Technologies team for more information. The educational suite is G Suite. (*To apply for a G Suite account > click FORMS. We do the rest to set up your classes. An authentic place to practice digital citizenship and collaborative communication!) |
| Math practices – *Thinking, Personal Competencies |  |
MathTappers Family (free) – Find Sums, Subtraction, Multiply, Geometry… These activities go beyond drill designed to help make sense of math concepts. No internet access needed. Individuals can save own work to reflect on their personal strategies for problem-solving. |
What are your most “can’t live without” apps? Leave a comment below. We’d love to hear about them.