Only 1 iPad in the Classroom?

[for additional ELA/Reading specific apps and ideas see Reading on the iPad]

Is only one iPad in a classroom worth it? This question keeps reappearing on the EC Ning and in other blog spaces.

The answer is easy: YES, especially if the teacher has access to a Mac desktop or (preferably) laptop and a wifi network in the classroom.  It is an even larger YES if the Mac device has the most current operating system. Having a computer to which the iPad can sync is not absolutely necessary, but it is a Best Idea.  If you are not feeling confident, get your IT person or another teacher to help you out with setup.  I am focused here on apps to install for MS and HS - and then what to do with them.  Here is a recent post from an elementary teacher called "Teaching in the one-iPad Classroom" that will help k-5 teachers.

If more iPads are in the future, you might want to check out iPad App Reviews and iPad 3C's: Some Planning Questions.  [new] You also should take the time to visit Google Apps for the iPad - ways to use these valuable apps in the mobile environment.  You might want to require it of your students.  Click on the tabs to access the info.

1. Setup and Projection
• You will definitely need to set up a unique Apple ID (iTunes acct.) with a password that is kept secret from the students.  You can do this on the iPad itself.  If your first downloaded app is free, you do not need to attach a credit card to the account.  I highly recommend that you immediately download Dropbox (read about it below and in this post).
• AirDisplay is one solution for using the iPad with your laptop (a Mac works best, but read about it).  This app mirrors your laptop screen on your iPad, so you can use a stylus or finger to control and annotate apps - give the iPad to a visually impaired student who can not see projection - or just use it without projection for a small-group focus session - this does not project the iPad screen/app onto the laptop.   
• [update: Using Airplay, Reflection is a new Mac app that vastly simplifies this process, working on the iPad 2 and the iPhone 4S.  It is worth the $15 download!  If you doubt me, download the 10 minute trial - that's all you will need.  Review.  How-to.]
• Use your iPad as a document camera (requires a projector) - display print, for example - great for all-class review of student responses/annotations, etc.
• YouTube video showing how to connect to an LCD projector (using Favi Entertainment's inexpensive projector, in this case) - will work for other projectors as well - with only 1 iPad, you will not use it for app instruction/directions, but you should use it to project student work.  Of course, you have the option of moving student work to a laptop or desktop connected to a projector (see various options for this in the lists below).
• Ask for an HDTV and Apple TV - many iPad apps will project using Airplay to mirror the iPad screen (try it out before class!). No Apple TV is required if you purchase Reflection (see update above).
• [update: see The Big Problem With iPads in the Classroom for suggestions about network connection and file backup.]  I have provided some other thoughts about using WebDav and DropBox. 
• [update: On the classroom/teacher computer:  make sure to bookmark ScreenLeap - this web-based Java app will make it almost instantaneous for you to share the PC screen with the classroom iPad (also student smartphones)
2. Finding Apps
• I have provided a list of review sites and the best lists on my iPad Apps Reviews page
• AppsGoneFree - daily listing of apps temporarily available free - potentially, a huge savings
• Be sure to review the apps in Blooms Taxonomy of Apps - it will give you additional ideas for using the apps. Below are my current favorites.
3. Apps for Communication and Sharing - whether you have one laptop or desktop in the classroom or students with iPhones (smartphones) or neither (in which case you and students rely on the computer lab, library, or out-of-school machines),  the most important capability of an iPad is sharing. 
•  iMessage can be used by students to input to your iPhone.  First, you will need to set up both devices (IOS 5 only) to find each other.  Settings -> Messages.  Here is nice little tutorial.  By passing the iPad around the classroom, you can read - and project - multiple responses to a single question, or gather multiple questions to be answered
• Evernote - important sharing tool, especially if the classroom has a desktop computer (or laptop) - there should be a classroom account that is controlled from that desktop - many apps upload to Evernote, facilitating sharing (Skitch, Penultimate)
• Dropbox is essential - this free app is for sharing files, images, even video over the wifi network - you will want it on laptops, desktops, smartphones - create one classroom account on a teacher machine, with folders for every student.  Students will then be able to upload into it. Here is my post on it and connected apps: Drop By
• OR you can use CX, a free app that works like Dropbox on fire, has more web-based storage (10.3 GB v. 2 GB), and makes it very easy to create classroom groups. Special features to use in education: Group discussion board! Multiple file upload. Free for all platforms (Android and Blackberry on the way).
• iFiles for storing images, files, URL's, voice recordings (can be made within the app) - then sharing those files or folders across the wifi network directly - access web page within iFiles and transfer it to the app for reading offline, sharing, etc. - see this great use of iFiles from Google Apps for the iPad
• Printopia - print directly to a DropBox, Evernote, or designated folder on a Mac host computer that is running the Printopia application set up correctly in Settings - warning - $19.99!  There is a free limited 1-week demo - it works like a charm 
• Twitter or Tweet (my choice) for posting and following Tweets (there are many more apps, of course)
• Posterous - a single or multiple blogs can be created, accessed, and contributed too, allowing for multiple levels of writing, sharing, communicating, creating - images as well as text can be included in posts OR the more powerful Blogsy.  The latter does not yet sync with other apps, but it can fetch Posterous drafts and send media rich blog posts as email.  Either app can be used to automatically post to a class blog, making it a great tool for back-flipping lessons, group commenting on text, or in-class idea sharing.  
• zapd - use on-board camera and text to create a quick web page or blog - as many as you want to make with a class account, or individual accounts for students over 12 - web-storage and totally free (this is an iPhone app) 
• Penultimate - note-taking app that exports to both Dropbox and Evernote is perfect for an in-class archive or for a group archive 
• Syncspace (free),  Upad  ($4.99), or AirSketch (limited free or multi-featured for $9.99) for creating multi-media (draw, image import, annotate, paste) notes (documents) that can then be shared via a cloud service, Dropbox, over wifi (for simultaneous co-editing), and many more options.  
• Skitch - annotate photos, screen shots, images, text, web pages, original drawing - share to Evernote, Twitter, or email - save to Photo library - I love the toolkit, the crop feature, and the export options - use this in the classroom to back-flip and evaluate activities:  trips, labs, hands-on learning, dramatics, image study - use with a blogging, journaling, or digital storytelling app - students can upload Skitch images and add to annotations - Text? the text tool will paste any copied text (from Notes, web page, Pages, etc.) and of course web based text can be instantly annotated with the Web tool - this is a terrific classroom tool! 
• Sketchshare allows you to simultaneously sketch, annotate, brainstorm on 4 iPads - because this app uses the Game Center (not wifi) for sharing, the other iPads can be anywhere in the world - exports completed images to Photos for further sharing 
• FaceTime and Skype are free apps - if you have wifi in the classroom, your kids can converse with anyone else during the class time (yes, you can connect the iPad to a projector if you have the cables - see top of this post) - try authors, researchers, or community experts 
• Voicethread mobile app - can now do just about everything that the online Voicethread can do - powerful literacy application! - you will need to set up a class account that students can access
• QuickMark - my favorite app for creating and reading QR codes - another frequently recommended one is i-nigma
• SoundCloud - voice recording or sound recording (birds, trains, waves, rain...) - storage online (limited free or fee-based) - combines directly with the web app Thinglink to create interactive, sound-supported images - social sharing of sounds facilitated - annotation of sound recordings! opens up great opportunties for the classroom
• TinyVox - audio notes - multiple export and sharing options or Audioboo - free app that records up to 3 minutes of voice and uploads it to a discrete URL in an online space (acct. required - can be set up before student use) - a great way to create book talks, instructions, oral responses, fluency reading checks - Audioboo URL's can be used to create QR codes for posters, websites, assignments, etc.  (see QuickMark for more on QR codes)
• Wifi Photo - to access photos in iPad camera roll from any laptop or desktop on the network - great way for a teacher to gather student projects (eg. ComicLife, 1-page writing response, or any other project that can be captured in a screenshot)
• Stickybits - almost unreal that this exists - use the app to scan a barcode on a product, like in a book or on a sweet sold in the cafeteria - then add your own text to that barcode - unfortunately, not yet available in the US - write them! 
• Reminders or the more powerful Wunderlist should be used to create calendars for class due dates - color coding works well
4. Apps for Literacy (Researching, Reading, Writing, Viewing, Listening, Creative Thinking, Journaling) - I clump these together because in I don't believe that literacy is separate skills in this mobile, digital environment
• READ - Kindle books (download from Amazon or through a desktop/laptop - many free and inexpensive classic texts also),  iBooks (public domain), interactive book apps such as The Artifacts and numerous titles for elementary students, which are great vocabulary builders and great for developing visual literacy as well as great reads, Comics and graphic novels (Comics app) - MegaReader 2.5 indexes and downloads free texts from sources such as Gutenberg 
  
• 1001 Books to Read Before You Die - this brand new app is the IOS version of the 900+ page book - not only a list, but critical essays and more - great tool for HS and ambitious MS students (not to mention educators)
• Mastery Connect's CommonCore or EZ Education Tool's EZ Language Core - the ELA Common Core Standards at your finger tips - I prefer the EZ tool
• Tools 4 Students - 25 organizer templates for writing and reading notes - basic organizers that can be used individually (reading support, independent investigation, teacher demo or flipping) or in a group or projected setting - includes KWL/W, word concept analysis, summarize - probably more useful in MS and upper elementary - share only via email, or take screenshot and share that (DropBox, etc.)
• Dragon Dictation - a must-have app - text-to-print - use for fluency, for reluctant writers, for visually impaired - link is to a tutorial
• iDesk Lite (free) allows students to create up to 4 maps or graphic organizers - the purchased version ($6.99) has unlimited storage - my link is to a tutorial - email, save as image
• Literary Analysis Guide - a reference for all of those terms and analysis language
• Grammar Up HD - at $4.99 it may seem pricey, but this is a great way to individualize grammar instruction - quizzes, etc. for the most useful (mostly) range of skills that need developing
• Dictionary.com is the mobile version of the web-based app - huge word bank, word origins, more - my link is to a tutorial
• Singit! Your Musinc With Lyrics - instantly get the lyrics of songs - great resource for poetry study, as many teachers have discovered
• News 360 is a news aggregator - this would allow a class or group to follow a specific news story
• Newsstand displays full magazines and newspapers to which you subscribe - get at least one good subscription with articles you can use in class 
• Video Time Machine - simply provides historical facts in many subject categories for over 200 years of history
• Vintage Radio - one-stop shopping for old radio shows, great for developing listening skills, teaching about suspense, mystery, humor, narrative flow
• TED - search and view TED talks
• Qwiki - gathers information into a narrated (with a better machine voice than most) media presentation - great for quick look-ups of topics related to reading
• iBook - essential ePub reader - readers can annotate text (except for .pdf files, for that you need an app like Notability or GoodReader)
  
• Comics - download inexpensive comics (classics, contemporary) and graphic novels from ComiXology - use to supplement reading (thematic, graphic versions, etc.)  
• Read Hamlet, Midsummer Night's Dream, Macbeth or Romeo and Juliet?  Or perhaps you have students ready to read one of the plays independently? Purchase the Shakespeare in Bits app from MindConnex.  At $14.99, these seem expensive, but the range of teaching supports are amazing.
• Zite allows you to set of a classroom "magazine article feed reader" based upon student interests - for the elementary classroom, Timbuktu is the iPad magazine I recommend
• EasyBib - mobile version of the online tool creates citations by scanning the ISBN bar code of print resources - not as good as a mobile version of the online citation tool should be, but an option
• GoodReader - view and annotate (typed text or by hand or by drawing) .pdf files, connect to other Macs and devices on a wifi network - will work with Holt Interactive Graphic Organizers (share them via. Dropbox)
• Pages - purchase this as the writing platform, especially if you are in a Mac school - also an important tool for viewing downloaded or emailed documents (public domain texts, student work, lyrics, poems, etc.) - will open most Word documents - and publishes to the ePub format (so students can create and easily share texts to iBook
• GoDocs - access, share, upload and edit your Google Docs files - editing only when wifi connected and you can not create docs in the app (you can download them to read offline and create in Pages, Numbers, etc. to upload when online)
• myMemoir is the app I prefer for jounaling - keep an on-going record of each class (in separate journals) or of individual/group projects - journals can be published in the ePub format or as text or .pdf document files - photos (images from Photos file) and videos can be attached to entries, making this a great tool for building a class portfolio 
• Taposé is a new journaling tool, more fully loaded - it features side-by-side drag and drop object entry (it's about time this feature of the environment has appeared in a good app) - at $2.99 you might pass until you have multiple iPads in the class, or you can purchase this and use it to frame group projects
• Penultimate - note-taking app that exports to both Dropbox and Evernote is perfect for an in-class archive or for a group archive - can be used with a stylus - drawings as well as writing make it a very different tool than myMemoir 
• Keynote - purchase this for your presentation tool - will open PowerPoint presentations
• Storyline for Schools (free)  - in elementary, great for story writing - in MS and HS, perfect for a "silent conversation" about text or an essential question - all levels, great linear "concept mapping" of vocabulary
• Posterous - a single or multiple blogs can be created, accessed, and contributed too, allowing for multiple levels of writing, sharing, communicating, creating - images as well as text can be included in posts
• Audioboo (see above) or TinyVox - audio notes - multiple export and sharing options
• i-Prompt Pro turns your iPad into a teleprompter - use for fluency checks, for recording presentation narration, with Photobooth for videocasts...  - purchase optional wireless controller for smoother projects and/or an external mic to cut out background sounds
• Onlive Desktop - a free app, with online file storage, that provides Windows users with the ability to edit Microsoft Office documents on the iPad - not needed for Apple classrooms, but might be useful for many students (and teachers) who have PC's elsewhere
• Skitch - annotate photos, screen shots, images, text, web pages, original drawing - share to Evernote, Twitter, or email - save to Photo library - I love the toolkit, the crop feature, and the export options - use this in the classroom to back-flip and evaluate activities:  trips, labs, hands-on learning, dramatics, image study - use with a blogging, journaling, or digital storytelling app - students can upload Skitch images and add to annotations - Text? the text tool will paste any copied text (from Notes, web page, Pages, etc.) and of course web based text can be instantly annotated with the Web tool - this is a terrific classroom tool!
• Webnotes - shows a web page and a note pad side-by-side 
• Side By Side - view and interact with (annotate) multiple screens simultaneously - web, document (opens a wide range of file formats), note-taking, chatting...   free version is ad-supported - share via DropBox
• Screencasting Apps for the iPad - lists entry level apps for the flipped and back-flipped classroom - use for storytelling, group-writes, descriptive challenges (like you might use VoiceThread, which also has a mobile version) - Explain Everything should also be on the list - ShowMe has recently made a significant upgrade, making it one of the better screencasting apps - use SonicPics for narrated slide shows (you control the timing - an important feature)
• Doodlecast Pro - more than simply a screencasting app - this allows for editing of the narration, making it wonderful for teacher or student "analyze" videos - Doodlecast Kids  is more like ShowMe
• Voicethread for: audio and text commenting and annotation on a text, image, question - uploading student work (poems, paragraphs, images) to a thread for peer comment or grading, much more!
• InAWorld...Drama add snips from a professional voice artist to your own photos to create a movie trailer - but students can easily use it for book trailers and original stories as well - share via web gallery, email, or Twitter or YouTube. 
• Words With Friends (older kids) or Nerdy Birds Social HD (all ages) to build vocabulary and spelling skills - and for fun!  Play socially or by oneself.
• 7 Little Words - not entirely like any other app - word play for the sake of it - set up informal competitions
• iCardSort Lite - virtual index cards or post-it notes has multiple uses in classroom: vocab, sorting, classifying, describing...  my link is to a great tutorial
• Words Frequently Confused or Commonly Confused Words to support vocabulary study
• Instapaper - capture web text for reading offline - or use iFiles or the new Readability app (tied to a web-based app for your laptop or desktop)
• FlashCards is the mobile version of Quizlet - access quizzes, make quizzes, print quiz questions, flashcards, answers
• Robozzle - mobile version of online programming (as in computer code) "teach by doing" site - and yes, programming skills do transfer to both reading and writing - it is also a collaborative environment
• SurveyBoy - if you include field surveys in project or inquiry learning, this is the tool you want to get
• inDecision - if you include group projects in your classroom, consider this tool to help groups arrive at final solutions or to narrow thinking about topic, problem, etc.  An optional tool (just replaces paper for the task)
  
5.  Apps Specifically for Creating
• Apps for time-lapse video, such as claymation or animated storytelling, are reviewed in this article: Time Lapse Photography Apps
• with Animoto mobile, student groups can shoot pics and turn them into a polished, free 30 sec. video - advertisements, book trailers, character interviews, propaganda shorts... or use Magisto - free app will combine iPad video clips (or imported clips) into a short movie - contains a sound bank as well
• zapd - use on-board camera and text to create a quick visual story or visual record of a literary response event - as many as you want to make with a class account, or individual accounts for students over 12 - web-storage and totally free
• Garageband - not essential, but recommended - avoid copyright issues by having students create their own music!
• PhotoBooth (installed as part of the IOS) 
• iPhotoAlbum - organize your camera roll / photos into albums - great if you have multiple groups working on image-heavy projects
• PS Express - free photo editing - mobile version of PhotoShop Express - easy to use and works very well - essential for cropping screenshots
• Prezi Viewer - use the iPad to view and now edit Prezis made using the web tool
• Comic Life - like the desktop app, use this tool to create comic books from stored images and student text - link is to an excellent tutorial
• Mindo - webbing, brainstorming - email, send to Dropbox, send directly to another device on the wifi (Mac is especially easy) if the device has the Mindo app installed
• TinyVox - audio notes - multiple export and sharing options
• MagBooth is a little app that takes an image and makes it a magazine cover - add "article titles" to the cover, date, etc.  - a splurge, but may be just the thing needed to differentiate a project 
• Deezine (used with Deezine Reader) create an entire digital magazine-like publication - a project alternative
• Free Music Download Pro - source of free music for student projects
• Audioboo (see above) 
• Stickybits (see above) - not available yet in the US
• Doodlecast Pro - more than simply a screencast app - this allows for editing of the narration, making it wonderful for teacher or student "analyze" videos
• iStopMotion, especially when used with iStopCamera, makes it easy for students to create stop motion videos.  Giffer is another app to do this same thing.
• GifBoom or Giffer (also for iPhone) - easily create short animated gifs, which can be 20-frame animations from photos, or can be edited from a previously shot video, or can be an instruction set (diagramming a sentence, or marking a rhyme scheme, for example) - useful for student projects, for flipping a short lesson, for fun - share via email, texting, or Dropbox
• Phonto - very simple app adds text to a photograph or screenshot - excellent for focused practice with literary terms, visual literacy analysis, textual element analysis 
• Paper by FiftyThree - a lot of features in a free paint app - I am not sure that iPad illustration will catch on, but it is good to expose kids to it - several stylus options in the classroom would be a nice addition

• Other - Teacher Focused
• StickPick - this is a great way to make sure that every student speaks in class - and gets the best type of question - a virtual Popsicle stick jar
• Tap Forms Database - you will need to practice, but this can be used for short formative assessments, for lit circle and fluency records (saves audio), or even for CCSS progress recording - share databases with other teachers

OK - I have apps, now what can I do with them?

Here is a brain-storming list I created after using the iPad 2 in my classroom and at home for a year:

• Reminders or the more powerful Wunderlist should be used to create calendars for class due dates - color coding works well
• Students with iPhones or smartphones can input images to the iPad for projects or sharing via email or DropBox (free app for mobile devices and non-mobile devices, allowing for quick sharing)
• Use Skitch to have a student or a group annotate just about anything digital (web pages, images, text files, drawings, screenshots...), and the device can be passed around so that many can input - upload annotations to Evernote, email, Tweet, download to photo library
• Run a class blog using Posterous, Blogsy or other iPad blog app - use for archiving content, class decisions, rubrics, just about anything - responsibility can be passed around
• Use zapd to archive each class (a student can do this), to archive student work, to create student projects
• Create a class or group (reading circle, etc.) audio blog using DropVox - use QR codes to quickly access individual posts
• Audioboo URL's can be used to create QR codes for posters, websites, assignments, etc.
• Capture a webpage for research, for student reading, for discussion using iFiles (from within the app itself)
  
• keyboarding practice (there are apps for that)
• Tweeting and following twitter streams (apps for that - all free)
• Assign TED talks for independent viewing 
• Write collaborative eBooks (in the ePub format) - read about how here and here
• Create a Home icon for sites like Open Culture or other curricular integration media sites
• Have kids create an audio-visual screencast of the key ideas at the end of each class - these are posted to freely hosted web spaces - free apps for that can be found at Screencasting Apps for the iPad
• Appoint a class "researcher" for the week - use Literary Analysis Guide, Dictionary, Safari, QWiki, etc. to answer questions that come up during the class period
• You can use the same apps for flipping many lessons too - kids needing more practice or who missed the class can quickly catch up by viewing these pre-lessons on important skills and concepts
• Use Webnotes to annotate a web-based text (article, poem, lyric, image, online text, diagram, infographic...) - have students respond to question then pass it on, ask questions, have a conversation
• Maps! Find out what your texts are happening - quickly - the Maps app is pre-installed and Google Earth is a free download
• Quick research (Safari is on board) - use WebNotes to annotate a website
• Use ComicLife to create 1-page comments with figurative language themes (metaphor, figure of speech, hyperbole, simile), vocabulary, alternate endings, digital hot seats...
• iDesk Lite to create thinking maps, vocabulary study (connotations, inferences - use with Commonly Confused Words or text-based vocabulary lists)
• Quick looks at Video Time Machine - find video from any year back to 1860 - great tool for historical or historically based fiction (ads, games, sports, news, TV, music, movies) - provide historical background for novels
• Create your own discussion assessment tool, allowing you to enter evals and notes and pics as they happen (wish someone would develop that app, but there isn't yet) - use Mastery Connect's CommonCore or EZ Education Tool's EZ Language Core to quickly copy/paste standards
• Zite (free) - create your own daily magazine that meets the interests of a student, a class, or the whole class, or just a topic you are interested in together
• Use Side By Side as a research tool and to develop critical reading skills - bias, point of view...
• Music - iTunes to organize, play and Garageband to create
• Use iCardSort Lite to study affixes, to study character traits, to compare/contrast anything, to create plot lines, to brainstorm group ideas for projects, to create concept definition maps...
• Prewrite and plan projects with Mindo
• Have students capture text to Instapaper for sharing, for annotating in GoodReader, for printing
• Write lessons, vocabulary lists, assignments, just about any text in Textforce and export directly to Dropbox for sharing to all student devices
• Use Taposé to organize a reading group's responses
• Eyewitness - top news photos can be used to spur discussion and provide visual writing prompts
• iPad time can be a reward (not my thing, but it works for some teachers)
• Add comments to a VoiceThread or create a new one using the mobile app (not ed.voicethread.com, just regular public voicethread)
• Communicate with an absent student synchronously or asynchronously
• Use TinyVox for voice annotation, for fluency checks, for recording voiceover text...
• Take the iPad on field trips - archive with images and voice memos, blog, create website (find apps for this above)
• Use Stickybits to have students attach 25 word stories to the bar codes of actual products, or reviews to library books (not yet available in the USA)
• Make book/story trailers or original video shorts (suspense, mystery, romance, humor would be good topics) using InAWorld...Drama
• Broadcast HW, announcements, texts to all students via email: send messages to all students using email 
• Make quizzes and vocab lists / flashcards in FlashCards
• Use QR codes (made in QuickMark) on assignments, posters, announcements, web pages - send students to URL's, to short poems, to specific questions or answers...  They will need a mobile device, like a smartphone, with a QR reader
• MagBooth can be used in place of a character map, false Facebook character page, etc. to demonstrate understanding - or have a group use Deezine cooperatively to create a magazine (for example, to demonstrate understanding of a complexly plotted novel)
• iStopMotion or Giffer can be used to create stop motion animations in response to a thematic challenge (sorrow, love, failure, etc.),  to tell a story, to create a visual genre narrative (suspense, historical fiction, SF, etc.)
• Use Phonto to quickly label trip photos, to create vocabulary pictures, to make "mini-motivation" posters 
• Use Sketchshare to hold brainstorming, analysis, creating conferences with another student in another school - or with an author...
• Did I mention reading?