Literacy in Education:
The Dictionary App I chose to review was the Merriam Webster Dictionary App. All you have to do is type in the word you want to look up and you get all the information you would get in an actual dictionary. There is even an option to have the word pronounced for you. If there is a word that you have looked at recently you can look up recently viewed words to go back to its definition.
The Visual App I chose to review was the ShowMe whiteboard app. It was basically like an actual white board with features that you can get on a powerpoint presentation. You can, of course, draw and write on the boards with different colors and sizes. But, you can also add graphs, charts, and pictures. Once you are finished with a board, you can save it. To use this in the classroom, you can make several whiteboard shots for different visuals and pull them up as you need them. This could save time from actually writing on a whiteboard while lecturing.
The Story App that I chose to review was StoryKit. On this app, you can choose pictures from your phone or take pictures for the illustrations of the story. Then you add text to go along with the illustrations. You can even record sounds for the story. The features on this app seemed to be very simple and user friendly for children.
Disciplines in Education:
The first app I looked at was a book so it would be classified under the language arts section. It was called Love You by Sue Shanahan. I absolutely love children's books! My favorite thing to do with children is read stories to them. I feel like it opens up their minds to learning and creativity and if you can get them to appreciate and enjoy reading at an early age, their possibilities for the future are endless! This book was so sweet! It even brought tears to my eyes. It describes loves, never telling who the love is coming from. I immediately thought of my mother, but it gives children the opportunity to think of anyone in their lives that love them. This was a neat app in that it allowed you to read the book on your own, have it read to you with highlighted subtitles, and even allows an option to record a voice reading the story so that a child can hear the story read my mommy, daddy, etc. you can also click on pictures as the story is being read and labels pop up, telling the reader what the object is called and how it is spelled. Again, I love children's books and I loved this app!
The next app I looked at was Railroad Lite which would be classified in the music section. It was an interactive sing-along app. The train rode through different scenes playing familiar songs in each. Children would be able to recognize the songs and sing along. You can also click on people and objects in the scenes to make them come alive! Very cute!
The third and final app I discovered was icoloring book lite which would obviously be categorized under the Art section. It is a perfect App for younger elementary aged children! It had a very simple layout and few options making it an App that children could be comfortable using all on their own! It had 15 different pages to color and also pictures to trace. After an art piece was created, the artist could save their picture or they have the option of sending it. This would be a great thing to allow the children to do I'm the classroom and then send it to parents via e-mail.
I loved all of these apps! I could definitely see myself using these in my classroom someday, especially the books! They are much cheaper than paperback or hardback books and it gives the child the option of hearing a book or reading it without the help of an adult! This is definitely the most excited I have ever been about technology!
Bye-bye spreadsheets, hello fun! : )
Hooray!
ReplyDeleteWell done. :-)