See the tag iDevice. I talk about apps fairly often but here's another roundup after five months with a cart of 25.
(Go here, here, here, here, and here for the original posts when I only had one iPad in the library. And the updates when I had 6 more as well as more experience? Here are Parts 1, 2, 3, and 4.)
Housekeeping ... getting content on and off of devices
Dropbox: still hands down my favorite. It has the cleanest interface.
Drive: a good possibility if you are a GAFE school or also using Classroom or Photos. I use Dropbox more but have used Drive for times like copying text from a doc kiddos shared with me into our BookCreator pages.
Chirp: quick and easy for photos you don't need at highest resolution. And if you don't know what that means you don't need highest resolution so you're good. :) I can get photos for a lesson onto 6-8 devices at a time. It can also be used to send web links though a QR code would work just as well for that. Just the "wow" factor of funny little beeping noises transmitting info.
Scanners
i-Nigma is my favorite QR code reader but they all work pretty much the same. We use Neo-Reader on the library iPad sign in because you can control which camera it uses and when the iPad is locked in the security stand we need to use the forward facing camera. Pretty much for everything else you'd want the rear camera.
Aurasma: augmented reality. I have a Pinterest board but there are lots of them. Again, not hard. The hardest part is getting parents/other teachers to follow your Aurasma channel so that they can see the content!
Daqri: really only useful if you apply for the educator's account (it's closed right now but I'm told via Twitter it will be back up soon) to create your own. It's not hard once you get the hang of it. And once I realized the step I was missing? Less than 5 minutes (not counting the video creation time) to get it set up to scan! Nice because if others have the free Daqri app they don't have to follow your "channel" to see your content!
Book Apps
I don't have any new ones since it became very, very hard to get paid apps the last two years at school and most of the free book ones I've seen, well ... there is a reason they are giving it away. #appsnob Of the ones I know my favorites are still
The Flying Books of Morris Lessmore: love the story! The first link leads you to a book app. This link will lead you to an augmented reality app to go with a print version of the book.
The Monster at the End of this Book: a bit of nostalgia, yes, but they did such a nice job of balancing the book with interactivity.
Harold and the Purple Crayon (which you can't get anymore :()
Check out the Cybills for a nice list of more current titles. And of course SLJ.
OVERDRIVE: we're super lucky in our district to have a nice collection. Apparently one of the biggest in the nation, actually. It's a constant effort to remind staff and students about what's available. So crazy because I know my students, at least, have much more access to tablets than they do to desktop devices. And yet it hasn't "clicked." YET!!!
Stay tuned over the next couple weeks. I'll do an updated Photo Editing one (and talk about Canva, because they asked me to months ago and I am very, very behind) as well as more Media Creation. Did you see my guest post over on FreeTech4Teachers? It didn't make the "most popular" of his week but oh well.
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