The Best 10 Educational Technology Apps of 2014

January 11, 2015
Wondering what were the best educational technology apps of 2014? Common Sense Graphite, the popular app and EdTech tools review platform, has compiled this list which comprises 10 of the most popular EdTech apps of last year. Erin Wilkey  is behind this work and she based her compilation on the reviews of hundreds of educational apps shared on Graphite. The apps featured in this list are multifarious and cover different content areas and skills. While some some of these apps are available only on iPad (iOS devices), the majority do work across different devices.

The two apps that stood out to me the most from this list are:

1- Tinyapp

This is an app I have shared here in several past instances. Tinyapp allows students to create interactive games and books based on a wide variety of ready made resources and tools provided by the app.

2- Shadow Puppet Edu

This is a very good storytelling app that enable students to make videos to tell stories, explain ideas, or document their learning. Shadow Puppet Edu provides over 30 lesson ideas supporting Common Core to make it easy for students and teachers to crate videos in the classrooms.

Check out the full list of the best 10 EdTech apps for 2014 from this LINK.

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The Best 30 Educational iPad Apps in 2014

November 28, 2014
I am not sure if you have seen this or not, but our colleagues in Teachthought have created this wonderful list featuring some of the best educational iPad apps in the year 2014. The selection attempts to provide teachers and educators with powerful apps to help them perform a variety of digital tasks including : note taking, PDF marking, file sharing, video and presentations creating and many more. I have actually spent some time sifting through its content and found it really worth bringing to your attention. Have a look and share with us what you think of it. Enjoy

The 30 Best Educational Apps For iPad In 2014

View more lists from Terry Heick

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3 Good Educational iPad Apps That Are Free Today

November 24, 2014
Several powerful educational apps have gone free this week most notable of them all is the popular creativity app Puppet Workshop ( it's no loner free now). I have looked into some of these apps that are still free and pulled out the three titles below. I learned about these apps from  Apps Gone Free. Again, these deals are valid at least here in Canada and the States, I am not sure about other places in the world.

1- Language lab

This exciting app will address all four language objectives to help early language learners as well as children with expressive language delays who use augmentative and alternative communication methods.
2- Preschool Learning: Activities, Books and Puzzles

This app combines videos, sing-along songs, mini-games, puzzles, and e-books to create a fun environment where young children can learn while playing: colors, shapes, counting, the alphabet, animals, science, music and more!
3- Over

Over is the app for adding text and artwork to your photos. Designed with mobile creatives in mind, Over features standard and custom-made fonts and well-crafted artwork combined with a sleek design, easy-to-use functionality, and immediate sharing ability.

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A Great Collection of Teacher-tested Apps to Engage Students

November 16, 2014
A strength of mobile devices is enabling students to learn anywhere. This means they can practice their math, history, and language arts at home or on vacation. Here are some teacher-tested apps to engage learners outside of school.

StrataLogica 

Study geography, history, and earth science with this interactive 3D globe and its multimedia annotations.

Speakaboos Stories 

 A collection of 150+ animated and interactive children's stories and songs, plus read-along text.

Word Creativity Kit 

 Create sentences and stories with virtual word magnets spanning seven categories and 4500+ words.

Tracks 'n' Trains: Zoo Train 

Arrange tracks in this virtual train set for zoo animals to learn basic logic and engineering skills.

Want more? Check out these collections 
App Friday Apps 

This collection is curated by children's media specialist Julie Brannon.

Indian Springs ES - Language Arts 

This one is curated by the Indian Springs Elementary Technology Leadership Team.

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Explain Everything Is Now Available on The iPhone

November 14, 2014
Good news! Explain Everything is finally available on the iPhone.  After tinkering with it a little bit on my iPhone I found it really amazing. It syncs seamlessly with iPad version and provides almost the same features you will find on iPad.

For those of you who are not familiar with Explain Everything, this is a great educational app I have included in several instances here in EdTech and Mlearning. Explain Everything is an easy-to-use design, screencasting, and interactive whiteboard tool that lets you annotate, animate, narrate, import, and export almost anything to and from almost anywhere. Using Explain Everything, you will be able to create slides, draw in any color, add shapes, add text, and use a laser pointer. Rotate, move, scale, copy, paste, clone, and lock any object added to the stage.Add existing photos, objects, import PDF documents from local storage, Google Drive, Dropbox or insert a fully functioning web browser window. Export MP4 movies, YouTube videos or save Explain Everything XPLX projects locally, to Google Drive and to Dropbox. No account is necessary to use Explain Everything and share creations.

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4 Great Educational Web Tools Are Now Available for iPad

October 20, 2014
Over the last few weeks, a bunch of educational websites have become available for iPad users. I am pretty sure you are all familiar with their web-based versions for I have reviewed them in several posts in the past. Besides their educational relevance all of these apps are easy, simple to use, and free. Check them out below.

1- EDpuzzle

EDpuzzle is an easy and effective way to deliver videos in the classroom. Video is no longer a passive experience, with EDpuzzle video comes to life with audio-notes and questions. An interactive an unique experience for your students. Make any video your lesson. For students, EDpuzzle provides an easier way to learn through video-lessons outside of the classroom. Students can download the app and opt-in to receive video-assignments directly with questions, so they can check their understanding through the video.
2-  Glogster

Glogster app allows you to create interactive glogs. A blog can combine images, graphics, audio, video and text. Goglster has a very easy and simple to use canvas.You can start with a predesigned template from the gallery and choose from the 10.000 unique educational graphics to add to it and when you are done you can share with others using different sharing options.

3-Weebly

Weebly, the popular website creation platform, has now a powerful app that works on iPad. Besides Google Sites, Weebly is one of the best free web tools I have been recommending for teachers to use for creating classroom websites and students portfolios. Weebly has a very simply and easy to use editor that allows you to create your website within a couple of minutes. You can simply drag and drop different elements into your template and add your content and share your website with the world.
4- Canva

The popular web platform Canva has recently released a great free app for iPad users. For those of you who are not yet familiar with Canva, this is a web tool that allows you to create beautiful visuals, posters, and flyers. The simplicity of Canva is what makes it a viable tool for using in class with students. You do not need to be a graphic designer to use Canva. All you need is a computer or iPad and internet connection. Canva provides you with a variety of pre-made templates and layouts that you can choose from to create your poster. It also provides numerous images and illustrations to use on your layout.

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Two Powerful iPad Apps Are Free Today

October 15, 2014
Here are two excellent iPad apps that have gone free today (at least free here in Canada and the USA).

1- Translate Photo (used to be $5)
TranslatePhoto app extracts texts from any printed sources: documents, books, signs, instructions or announcements and allows to immediately translate them to any of 70 languages. Take a picture of the text and after the text is recognized, you can immediately edit, hear, translate, share it on Facebook, Dropbox or simply send by email.

Some of its features include:

• Full text translation for more than 70 languages (Internet connection is required) 
•  Listen to the text that has been recognized and translated into more than 30 languages! 
•  Edit the text, copy it to clipboard, and save in other apps 
•  Share the text on Facebook,Dropbox or send by email 
• All texts are saved in History and can be later recovered at any time 

2- Canva

Create beautiful designs with Canva. Choose from more than one million layouts, stock photographs and illustrations. Search for the best graphics, photos, and fonts (or upload your own) then use Canva�s simple drag and drop tool to create a design.

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