Monica Sevilla

Differentiating Learning with the I Pad Monica Sevilla

Chapter 7: Learning Apps for the I Pad I Pads are incredible learning tools capable of many tasks and used for a variety of purposes. One of its most useful features is the ability to download applications (apps) through the internet and storing them in its memory. The I Pad?s convenient touch screen allows users to access these apps in one click. What I find personally amazing about this type of technology is the variety of apps you can find and use at home, at work, and when you?re out and about. In this way, I Pads are versatile and have revolutionized our lives in many ways. Apps can be purchased and downloaded from the I Tunes ?app store? application on the I Pad. Educators can find a variety of apps for free, and others that must be paid for through I Tunes. To find these apps, educators can browse through ?categories? to find topics such as books, education, health and fitness, medical, productivity, travel, music, news, reference, photo & video, utilities, and more! Educators, when thinking about and developing their curriculum and planing out the projects students will create to demonstrate their mastery of content area material must think carefully about the applications that must be purchased and used for this. This is where personal expertise with the I Pad comes in handy. You must be familiar with the features and capabilities of each of the applications to be used, and decide which ones will be the most useful to download. My advice here is to take the time downloading and getting to know how the apps work. The important message here is to make sure you yourself know how the app works so you can explain it to your students. Try to choose apps that are relatively user-friendly. Some of the most useful apps to use are the ?productivity? apps. These are the apps students can use to create projects. Good examples of this are Pages, I Movie, Numbers, and eBook readers such as the cloud reader. These apps are the equivalent of the computer programs students would use to create their projects. Think of these as the foundational apps as the ?Canvas? for learning. They are the slates students will use create their masterpieces on. Other apps educators may consider are informational apps from which students can access learning material in the form of text, pictures, photos, videos, and movies from. Make sure that these applications contain information that will directly support topics the students are currently learning. This can be done by accessing these apps and specifically noting the applicable learning material students should learn, and instructing students about where and how to find this information once they access these apps.