Ed-tech: Bringing Apps into the classroom
Wed 23 June, 2021
Tablets can support teachers in schools in many ways, but you can’t just have a tablet. You require apps that are dedicated to education to allow you to plan a lesson successfully. There are so many apps out there that can help you in the classroom with a range of subjects that are also safe to use. So here are some ideas for apps to use in the classroom.
TED-Ed
This is TED's education initiative. It allows you to make short video lessons worth sharing, aimed at educators and students. You can also access TED-Ed’s growing library of lessons, where you will find carefully curated educational videos, many of which are collaborations between educators and animators nominated through the TED-Ed platform.
Haiku deck
This is a presentation designing app that allows pupils to design and create presentations. Helping pupils to draw, show and tell.
Animoto
Animoto is a cloud-based video creation service that produces videos from photos, video clips, and music into video slideshows, and customized web-based presentations. This is a really fun and interactive tool for presentations and also introduces pupils to video editing tools.
Hopscotch
Hopscotch is the #1 coding app for iPad and iPhone. Kids ages 10-16 use it to learn to program, make their own game, and share it with the world. This is a fantastic tool for encouraging children to try coding for the first time, which is a skill in high demand within the current job market. By allowing them to create a fun game, the app also improves their engagement and desire for success.
Instructables
This tool has been around for many years now, first as a website and now in app form. It offers a huge range of instructional and educational videos. Showing pupils how to do anything from science experiments to merit badges. This app offers instructions for more than 100,000 DIY projects.
Looking for a classroom maker project? You’ll find it here. Did your students create something awesome? Encourage them to upload their instructions and share their ideas. The platform has such a wide range of videos that there is something for every age group and ability level allowing you to effectively tailor work for pupils at different stages of confidence and ability.
Explain Everything
Basically, it’s an interactive whiteboard. It’s one of the most versatile apps you can have in your toolbox and perfect for working through maths problems or explaining science experiments.
Oxford Dictionaries
This one should be self-explanatory, but it is a great app to have on every tablet at your school. This enables your pupils to look up words they are unsure of without having the disruption of getting a dictionary out of the cupboard. It also engages pupils with dictionaries in a new way which is particularly useful for visual or audio learners.
Google Apps for Education
Now we move onto e-learning portals. Google for education provides a whole host of apps that are perfect for digital learning. If you have been using Google for Education during remote teaching this suite of apps will allow your students to access all their previous remote learning work and continue to use the same tools while in the classroom.
The apps can also be accessed from home either via a home tablet or through the desktop version of the app, allowing pupils to seamlessly transfer work between home and school.
Moodle
Another great e-learning platform that will have similar capabilities to the google apps but another option you may have used before covid.
This is just a small selection of the huge range of ed-tech apps available to UK schools. Key to the successful implementation of apps and tablets in schools is tablet maintenance and IT support. At Soft Egg we can supply and maintain tablet devices so that they stay at the best of their capabilities. We also offer training for teachers on new IT systems and how best to implement ed-tech in your school. Finally, we are always on hand with tech support through our dedicated customer services team.
Get in touch to find out more today.