Using iPad Apps to Engage and Enhance Creativity and Inquiry

While I'm currently out of the classroom on maternity leave I find myself frequenting some of my favorite blogs during the late night feedings (trust me...there's not much on TV at 3am!). One of my favorite blogs, Minds In Bloom recently hosted a guest blogger who wrote about iPad apps that can be used in multiple ways throughout the year to enhance creativity and inquiry among students. My classroom was lucky enough to continue with our 1:1 iPad initiative this year so, having looped with my 2nd grade students into 3rd, we're able to deepen our experience with this technology!

This post brought about some great points about the difference between what the guest blogger, Katherine Fountain refers to as "content/skill apps" and "creator apps." A content/skill app is one that is used to practice a certain set of skills, such as fractions or geometry, and usually, once the skill is learned, the app is set aside as the students become bored and find no need to continue practicing. No creativity or critical thinking is needed.

Then there are creator apps: these apps or websites are resources that can be used across multiple curricular areas throughout the year and give the students a "platform within the app to create a product to share." A few of these apps are Screen Chomp, Educreations, Show Me, Story Me, Doceri, Drawing Free and Drawing Desk.

In a prior post I blogged about how I've been using Educreations to allow my students to send me their learning while I'm gone on leave. I've had a few students do this consistently and I LOVE getting a lesson from them showing me what they're up to. However, Fountain suggested another great way to use this app that I'm hoping to implement when I return in February. When she plans to be out of the classroom, instead of typing up pages of sub plans, she's chosen to use an interactive whiteboard (Educreations, Screen Chomp or Show Me) to create her lessons ahead of time and simply posts them to a class website. The sub then plays these lessons for the students. While I've used Educreations to create differentiated lessons for my different groups, I've yet to use this app in this way but am anxious to give it a try!

Another app I'd like to try is "Story Me." This app allows students to use real pictures, captions and word bubbles to create a sketch, actual photo or comic strip. I'd love to use this as an incentive of sorts for when a student reaches the publishing stage in the writing process. They could create an accompanying picture or one that shows a "how-to" writing. I think this would highly motivate my students and allows them to show their creative side!