Explain Everything

by MorrisCooke

Explain Everything is the digital equivalent of scrap paper that you use to quickly sketch a diagram when you're trying to explain an abstract concept.  What your scrap paper can't do, however, is what makes Explain Everything such a powerful tool.  As one reviewer on the AppStore explains, it's like having a mini interactive whiteboard with you during lessons.

This app lets you create or import digital content that can be manipulated, annotated, and explained through a voice recorder.  Explain Everything provides repeated engagement and exposure to any subject or activity.  A variety of tools let the user draw lines, highlight important areas, or type in text. 

 

Here are just a few uses for Explain Everything in the classroom:

• annotate a map, such as the school floorplan, a bus route, or the setting of a story
• use it as a slate to practice handwriting while recording the cues for the letter sounds. For example c, cake, /k/
• self-monitor articulation or reading fluency
• import a document created elsewhere and verbally summarize it using the annotation tools for emphasis

Explain Everything is a definite must-have for all classrooms, from the youngest learners to the most experienced teachers.  $2.99.

 

2/27/13 

Here's a great comparison between this app and a similar one, Educreations: http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/ipad-screencasting-educreations-and-explain-everything/38662



Count to 100

by FuzzyBees

Count to 100 is November's featured app for the iPad Basics workshop.  The title says it all - this app counts to one hundred.

 What makes it worthwhile, however, are the various ways a student can practice counting to 100 (or any multiple of 10 up to 100).  The settings allow for skip-counting by 2s, 5s, 10s, and 25s.  Students can explore the numbers by tapping arbitrarily or follow a forced-sequence. 

Once a number is selected, it is highlighted yellow and a tone plays with a female voice saying the number.  Either of these options can be turned off in the menu.  The developer cleverly designed the home button to activate on two taps, thereby ignoring inadvertent taps by students.  Using the Guided Access accessibility feature of iOS 6 can disable all the option buttons, of course.

Some ideas for using this app in the classroom include:

A scaffolded counting experience for students during lessons to support 1-1 correspondence.  For example, students can put items in a container one at a time and use the app as a counter to augment working memory.

By setting the grid to 30, students can practice counting during calendar activities (except on months with 31 days, of course!).

Students can estimate numbers on the grid with the option of displaying the numbers only when tapped and using the 'tap any' mode.

This app is a must-have for classrooms that have students with early numeracy skills.  While it specializes in one skill, counting, it's many options make it a useful tool in the classroom.

note: some reviews on the AppStore mistakenly claim that the home button doesn't work and that music and speech can't be turned off independent of one another.  After testing this app, I can confirm that the home button does work (requires two taps) and all sounds can be toggled on/off within the home menu.

Inspiration Maps

by Inspiration Software, Inc.

Inspiration Maps was the featured app at the October building meeting.  This is the iPad version of the popular desktop concept mapper, Inspiration.

Concept mapping makes use of position and space to convey relationships, connections, and hierarchy.  What makes this app so powerful is the blending of digital features with the portability of a pencil and a notebook.

Our favorite feature is the ability to change a cell shape using the camera function on the iPad.  Now a concrete representation of a real-world concept can be included in a map.  Examples include pictures from a story, real life items that are being categorized, or part to whole relationships for complex items.

We rate Inspiration Maps a must-have for all classrooms.  Critical thinking by students begins with teachers modeling the thinking.

First Then Visual Schedule

by Good Karma Applications, Inc.

First Then was the featured app at the September building meeting. The app provides a way to create custom multi-modal (text, audio, and visual) schedules that are easily referred to throughout the course of the day due to the portability of iDevices.

While First Then was designed as a schedule support, we found other uses for its sequential nature as well:

• Any task analysis, from recipes and toothbrushing to solving long division
• Directions to a location (like a pre-programmed GPS!)
• Student or teacher created audio-books
• Sentence starters/Answer frame for composing essays

We definitely rate First Then Visual Schedule a must-have for every classroom with iDevices.

Welcome to Rare Apps

The intent of this blog is to collect and share resources for the teachers supported by the Assistive Technology team for our special education schools.  We hope this collection is useful to all visitors to the site and we welcome your comments or questions.

Recommended Apps Reviewed for Education (RARE) are iOS applications that have already received Working List approval for use on iPads in the classroom.  Apps that are selected for inclusion on RARE have been further examined by the team for accurate content, practical application to educational settings, and accessibility.  Rather than being an exhaustive list of all educational apps, RARE seeks to identify the best educational apps.

Stephanie Swan
Assistive Technologist, Speech-Language Pathologist

Eric Carson
Assistive Technologist, Special Education Teacher