Educational Apps are being purchased on Students' Personal iPods

You know the excitement of learning is taking place when your students go home and ask parents to purchase the apps they are using in the classroom.  Some of their favorites are  Fraction Factory, Motion Math, and Flashcard Touch.  They are also starting to use their iPods to read novels.  It's exciting to have your students ask if it is okay to read or study flashcards for an upcoming test using their iPods. 

I post announcements of which apps we are using in class along with cost on their homework page. 

Quizlet and Flashcard Touch

Flashcard Touch:   $4.99           Quizlet:  Free

http://quizlet.com/ - create a free account on Quizlet

With Quizlet you can create study cards to use with Flashcard Touch for your students. 

Quizlet provides you a resource to use with computers, iPads,  and iPods.  It provides students and you a variety of options.

On the computer and/or iPad students can use Quizlet’s webpage to:   

• Review and study flashcards
• Cards can be shuffled so they do not appear in the same order
• Learn by typing the correct answers to the questions
• Take practice on-line test which will provide instant feedback on how well they did and can be regenerated if needed
• Provides games for review
• You can print test that includes multiple choice, true/false, matching and/or short answer for your students
• Allows you to listen to the cards if needed, so you are not just reading but hearing the information as you study
• You can insert images

On the iPods students can download you set of cards to FLASHCARD TOUCH where they can review the cards as well as listen to them. 

We found that the iPod screens were too small to play the games and take tests because of the amount of scrolling you need to do while on the Internet.  However, if they need to study prior to taking a practice test or completing one of the activities, then an iPod works great using FLASHCARD TOUCH. 

1.   To download a set of cards, make sure your iPod is logged into the Internet

2.   Find your FLASHCARD TOUCH app, open and choose “Browse for More”

3.   In the top right corner, click on the “Magnifying Glass” and then choose “USERNAME”  is should appear dark gray when selected.

4.   Enter your User ID for Quizlet and press “Search”

5.   Your flashcards will appear and you need to select the set that you want to review, a list of the questions will appear.

6.   Select “Download” on the bottom right corner.

7.   You will be prompted with “Download Successful, Do you want to review?”,  click “YES”

8.   Select “ALL” at the bottom of the page and then click on the first question and your flashcards will appear.

9.   To manipulate, slide your finger left or right to show the front and back of the card.  To advance to the next card or return to the previous one, slide your finger up or down. 

Since each iPod needs to have the card set downloaded, I walked my students through these steps.  This eliminated my needed to backup and sync each iPod.  The first set of cards are now stored in the App ready to view at a moment's notice.

Quizlet allows you to share your cards with others and provides you a library to search various subjects.  Make sure you share your user name with your students so they can search for you at home.  

In addition, students can create their own accounts at home and download study cards to their own personal iPods as well as share their cards with their classmates.    

SOL Review Flashcards

We are beginning to review for our upcoming SOL test.  I have created a series for math vocabulary review cards for my students to practice with as they finish classwork each day. 

I used Keynotes to create the flashcards using two different pages.  An example would be to use the “title-center pages” as your question cards and the “title-top pages” as the answer cards.  You can also use two different color backgrounds.  A blue background can be used for the questions, while a yellow background can be used as the answer cards.  This helps the students keep track on what they are working on. 

Once the presentation is complete, I save it to a folder.  I then export the presentation as images making sure that I save to the same folder.   Each page of the presentation will become a single photo, therefore; if you presentation is forty pages long, you will have forty images. 

To get your images on the iPod, you now need to import the images into iPhoto. Within iPhoto select “File” then “Import to Library” then locate your folder on the computer and select “Import”.    Your photos are now ready to be uploaded to the iPods. 

Plug in your iPod to the computer.  Select the iPod in your iTune account and click on the “Photos” tab.  Put a check in the square beside “Sync Photos from” and choose “iPhoto”.  Now choose “Selected albums, events, and faces, and automatically include “no events”.  This will pop up your current albums and events and enable you to select only the files that you want.  Select “Apply” and then “Sync”.

You are now ready to use your photos as flashcards for your students to review.  Turn you iPod on and select the photo app.  It has a picture of a sunflower.  At the bottom of the screen you can select either “Albums” or “Events” to view your photos. 

I have my students view individually to study and then I pair them up to quiz one another.