Top 50 Educational Apps of 2011

I have compiled a list of the apps which I have used and highly recommend as "tools in the classroom". Used under supervision of a great teacher, these apps can provide a solid foundation to some outstanding lessons. I suggest that as a teacher you take just 2 or 3 relevant apps, and really deconstruct them. Evaluate how they might compliment your lesson plans. It is all to easy to get overwhelmed at the choice available on the App Store.

New apps for the Australian classroom

1. Four Corners 50 Years - Australian Broadcasting Corporation Celebrate 50 Years of Four Corners... with more than seventy hours of content available, this is a unique archive of Australia’s current affairs history.
2. Asialink - DreamWalk Mobile Asialink is Australia's leading centre for the promotion of public understanding of the countries of Asia and of Australia's role in the region. This app features the Asialink Essays - a series of monthly essays written by leading commentators who explore key issues in Australia's engagement with Asia.
3. MyEnvironment - Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities Find the Australian environmental places that make up your neighbourhood or area of interest
4. Constitution of Australia - UNILEX® This free app contains the full text of the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act (The Constitution), as well as hundreds of links to case law references on the AustLII website (internet connection required). With great features like full text search, keyword highlighting, and email, this app aims to be a highly useful and educationally rich companion guide to the study and practice of Australian Constitutional Law.
5. Please Touch The Exhibit - icity2r mobile Celebrate Melbourne Museum’s tenth birthday and rediscover, explore and share some of Melbourne Museum’s most iconic stories.

My favourite apps

1. WolframAlpha - Wolfram Alpha LLC
2. SimplePhysics - Andrew Garrison
3. Al Gore – Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis - Push Pop Press, Inc.
4. Prezi Viewer - Prezi Inc.
5. Explain Everything - MorrisCooke

Developers to check out for 2012

1. iDevBooks.com - Educational Math Apps
2. RealSimpleEdu.com - Handy reference apps across many subjects.
3. Oxford University Press ELT - eBooks of famous stories with illustrations.

The complete list of my top 50 education apps of 2011

1. 3D Brain FREE
2. AsiaLink FREE
3. BrainPOP FREE
4. Calculator ++ FREE
5. Cell Structure 1.99
6. Chicktionary 1.99
7. Clickview Player FREE
8. Composer FREE
9. Constitution of Australia FREE
10. Dropbox FREE
11. Evernote FREE
12. Explain Everything 2.99
13. Four Corners FREE
14. Gallery FREE
15. GarageBand 5.49
16. Gibson L&M Guitar (iPhone) FREE
17. Google Earth FREE
18. Grammar Up 5.49
19. Guardian Eyewitness FREE
20. Hiragana 0.99
21. History Maps FREE
22. iBooks FREE
23. iMovie 5.49
24. J-ENesis FREE
25. Keynote 10.49
26. Kindle FREE
27. Learn Chess FREE
28. Mathemagics 0.99
29. Monarchy The Definitive Guide 1.99
30. Moxie HD 1.99
31. Multiplication - iDevBooks 4.49
32. MyEnvironment FREE
33. NASA FREE
34. Our Choice 5.49
35. Pages 10.49
36. PEEK Evernote FREE
37. PleaseTouch FREE
38. Popplet Lite FREE
39. Prezi Viewer FREE
40. QRReader FREE
41. Shakespeare FREE
42. SIB (Shakespeare in Bits) Romeo and Juliet 5.49
43. Simple Physics 0.99
44. Simplex Spell 1 0.99
45. Star Walk 2.99
46. TED FREE
47. Voice Thread FREE
48. Whiteboard FREE
49. Whiteboard Splashtop 20.99
50. Wolfram Alpha 2.99

Self Control - assisting students

Do you or your child constantly give into temptation and waste hours on Facebook when you should be working? Let me show you a great little application for OS X which will help you manage your time better and become more productive. This is a good method to help your child/student manage their own time while online. By downloading an application called Self Control you can restrict access to a predefined list of websites for a specified period of time. In turn putting control into the hands of your child/student and teaching them the importance of self regulation. Here's how,

• Visit http://visitsteve.com/made/selfcontrol/ and download Self Control 1.3.
• Double click the ‘SelfControl-1.3.zip’ file in your Downloads folder.
• Drag the SelfControl.app icon into your Applications folder.

• Double click the icon to launch. You may also want to drag this icon into your dock as a shortcut.
• Once SelfControl opens Click on the 'Edit Blacklist' button. Here you can add website which you would like to restrict.

• Alternative you can change the Blacklist to a Whitelist. This will mean that you can only visit the sites listed and no others.
• Now move the slider to the chosen time starting from 15 minutes to 24 hours and hit the Start button
• Once started, it can not be undone by the application, by deleting the application, or by restarting the computer – you must wait for the timer to run out.

Now as a parent you can head out for the evening knowing that your child will not be wasting time on social networking sites, and hopefully focused on their homework for a set period of time!

Excluding files from Time Machine backup

Time Machine has to be one of the most useful tools on the Mac. It's one of those options you hope you never have to use, but when you do need it, it becomes invaluable. Under the Time Machine preferences, you do have the option to exclude files & folders. I use this feature when I am storing large files (usually videos), knowing that I either have a backup somewhere else, or only want them on my machine for a short period of time. This helps if you only have a small Time Machine drive, or know you will never need those files/folders again.

To enable this feature, open your Time Machine preferences:

Then click on Options:

And finally add any files or folders you wish to exclude:

Click Save and you are done. Time Machine will now exclude these files & folders from your backups. Your welcome!

Syncing multiple devices, sharing iTunes content

I want to share/control the apps on the devices in my class? How many iPads can I sync to iTunes? You can sync as many as you like... You can literally sync 100's of iPads to one iTunes library. There in turn allowing an entire class of students access to your collection of Apps. However be aware of Apple's T&C's in the App Store.

You can also authorise up to 5 accounts on one iTunes library. So I can authorise 5 separate iTunes accounts all to play on my copy of itunes. If the content plays on my copy of iTunes - I can synchronise it to my iPad/iPhone.

If I can sync limitless iPads I can ensure that all of my students have all of the correct apps, films and podcasts on the device, when they are borrowing my device.

The above statement is true, and a solution initially trialled by some educational institutes. However please note the App Store T&C's which address this.

"(ii) If you are a commercial enterprise or educational institution, you may download and sync an App Store Product for use by either (a) a single individual on one or more iOS Devices used by that individual that you own or control or (b) multiple individuals, on a single shared iOS Device you own or control. For example, a single employee may use an App Store Product on both the employee's iPhone and iPad, or multiple students may serially use an App Store Product on a single iPad located at a resource center or library. For the sake of clarity, each iOS Device used serially by multiple users requires a separate license."- http://www.apple.com/legal/itunes/au/terms.html

Thank you reader Deon for bringing this to our attention.

At present it appears that some schools may purchase an app one time and distribute it to all their iPod touches, iPads, and iPhones. This makes purchases inexpensive and distribution easy for schools, but was not properly compensating App Developers for their time. This issue has been addressed in the USA with a "App Store Volume Purchase Program"  - http://www.apple.com/itunes/education/faq/

Here in Australia 2 methods have been discussed:

1. Purchase Apps via credit card and distributing those apps to students as gifts.
2. Purchasing iTunes vouchers pre-loaded with credit and trusting the students to purchase the correct apps as instructed.

The subject area can be confusing. The App Store Volume Purchase Program seems to be the way to go, but here in Australia we need to wait a little longer.

Apple support for teachers

At iSupport we have made it easy for teachers who find themselves in an Apple 1:1 environment. If you require a basic introduction to the Apple iLife or iWork suite then head over to our new Apple in the Classroom page. We have created a selection of PDF documents which you can download and use in class. New and old teachers will find our free resources very useful.

Please visit: http://isupport.com.au/apple-in-the-classroom/

We have been contacted by a few people and some requests have been put in for a demo of 'Green Screen in iMovie' and also using a 'wiki or  blog in the classroom'. We will have these documents prepared in the coming weeks - we promise! But please keep the request & comments coming in.

Also we are preparing video guides on the use of the iPad in a learning environment - due out this week. We look forward to seeing you on the site soon!