Using Technology in Middle Years

Dropbox

*****A must for every classroom. This is a great way to share files/assignments with students and/or to collect them from students. You can create one class Dropbox for all to use, or students/teachers can each create their own and then share folders. In Middle Years, I recommend the students creating their own. At the beginning of each year, I get a permission note from the parents allowing the students to create their own Dropboxes using student generated email and student passwords. The students generate their email and passwords according to class criteria, allowing me access to the Dropbox at any given time. At the end of the year I turn the Dropboxes over to the students, and they change their passwords. Dropbox can be accessed online, or it can be downloaded onto your computer for easy access. You can earn more free space by referring others, so be sure to invite your students to join. If they join through your invite, and they download Dropbox on their computer, you will have more free space added to your Dropbox account. There is an app for mobile devices as all.

Google Calendar

*****This is another must (in my eyes) for the classroom. It doesn't matter if you use a Google calendar or another online one such as http://www.calendars.net/, but this is a great way to keep students and parents informed as to what is happening in your classroom (trips, deadlines, tests, etc.) I couldn't live without my Google calendar! I have both a classroom and a personal one set up, so that I can access either/or on any of my devices. You can also have them send you an email every day informing you of your daily agenda. Link your calendar to your school web site, and your parents and students will always know what is happening in your classroom (fieldtrips, assignment deadlines, etc.). Keeping my calendar updated and linked to the class website is one way to get your parents checking your web site on a regular basis. Another way is putting the daily agenda on the site. Students can also,set up their own online calendars, and use as their agenda, making it very accessible both home and at school (and easy for parents to check agendas).

Blogger

Blogger is a blogging tool, but much more. I use it for our class web site. It is free to sign up for an account. It doesn't have an education version, but you could use a class account if you were using it with your students or the students could sign up for their own account. My personal opinion is that a class web site is a must. When creating a class web site for the first time, I suggest you start small (perhaps just a calendar of events and a daily agenda - the two things my parents most appreciate) and then over time, build on that. By using a free web creation site (and there are many out there) instead of the school site, I find you have more options to change the appearance, make it the way you want, and more options of what you can add. Room 205's class web site: http://hawrylak205.blogspot.ca/

Weebly

*****Weebly for Education is a free online site for web creation. We use this in our classroom to create student online portfolios. By using the Weebly for Education version, you can create/manage student accounts. I have upgraded to a paid version ($39.95 a year) as it has allowed my students to upload video and audio to their portfolios. To see a student example, go to http://kyla205.weebly.com/#/. If asked for a password use 205. There is a Weebly app that my students use to post to their portfolios, but for 'fixing' and 'enhancing' their portfolios, they use the computer.

Kidblog

THERE ARE MANY SITES OUT THERE FOR BLOGGING, CLASS WEB SITES, ETC. Here are some of the ones I tried out. Find one that meets your needs. I have tried them all, but in the end, I picked the one that best met my needs (Weebly). If you want to try blogging, and keep it simple, but still have some control, try Kidblog.This site is free for teachers. You can set your kids up with blogs in a safe environment. This site can be accessed from the computer as well as through an app.

Edublogs

Another platform for blogging (both computer and mobile device)

Edmodo

If you are feeling adventurous and would like an 'all-in-one' learning platform (class website/blogging/etc.), you might like to try Edmodo, or the site below, Schoology. I have looked at both and used features of both, but so far, I have not used either one to their full capabilities. Edmodo is free for educators.

Schoology

Another great 'all-in-one' learning platform that is free for educators.

twiducate

*****Twiducate is a 'educational alternative' to Twitter. With Twiducate you can sign up for a free account and set up your classroom, so they can network with their peers in a safe and private setting. I use Twiducate a lot in the classroom with the students when they are doing novel studies. I set up a 'class' for each of the novels being read, and the students are given a password allowing them access to their particular novel. When logged in, they can have novel discussions, create higher level thinking questions for their peers to answer, answer their peer's questions, work on vocabulary and much more. I always provide the structure with which I want them to work within, but I vary it throughout the novel study. As the teacher, I have 'real-time' access to what my student's are doing. I often login as the teacher and project the site on the board. As the students are working, I switch back and forth between novel groups, and then I can give feedback as necessary. This is also highly motivating for the students when they see that their work is being viewed by all the students and not just their novel group. I have also collaborated with another teacher, and we have had our students reading novels together. This can be done within the same school or between different schools. The site allows for saving the 'discussions,' and it also has an export/download feature where you can keep copies of the posts and comments for evaluation purposes.

Twitter

For the more adventurous teachers, or those of you who don't need as much 'control' as I do, there is always Twitter. As of right now, we do have a class Twitter account, but I use it only for the students to take turns posting about our day. It really makes the students think about what they want to say and to be very succinct in their writing. The number of ways to use Twitter in the classroom are endless. All one has to do is google 'twitter uses in the classroom.'

VoiceThread

*****Voicethread is another collaborative online site, but it has lots to offer. With Voicethread, you can set up an account, and within that account you can have multiple identities - one for each of your students. With Voicethread you can create a collaborative slideshow that others can comment on using text, audio or even video. We have used it for novel discussions, book creation with younger students, peer editing, and there are endless other possibilities for Voicethread in a classroom. Unfortunately, they have now started charging for the Education version, but one can still work with the free account and the multiple identities. There is a link right on their site on 'Ideas For Using Voicethread.'

Titanpad

This is a great site for collaboration. You can sign up for a free account or you can just create 'public pads.' If you create public pads, you will have to remember the url if you want to access again in the future. By signing up for a free account, your pads will all be saved to your account. I create a class account. You can create a wall and then others can share to it as well. We use this site for novel studies: vocabulary work and the development of higher level thinking questions. There are several ways to share/export, and this site has a chat feature to go along with it. It has quite a few other options if you sign up for an account (password protect, color options, etc.) Example: http://wsh205.titanpad.com/63

Padlet

*****This is another great site for collaboration. You can sign up for a free account or you can just create 'public pads.' If you create public pads, you will have to remember the url if you want to access again in the future. By signing up for a free account, your pads will all be saved to your account. I create a class account. You can create a pad and then others can share to it as well. We use this site for vocabulary work, quick sharing of our findings as we are researching, etc. This site is quick and easy to use, but does not have quite as many features as TitanPad. Example: http://padlet.com/wall/5oq2pyl48q http://padlet.com/wall/193eezpuuo http://padlet.com/wall/a6wup28lin

TodaysMeet

Today's Meet is another collaboration tool. There is no sign-up needed. It is quick and easy to create a room. You can even set how long the room should be saved (from 2 hours up to a year). It is very easy to share your room with others as the url is just todaysmeet.com/name of your room. You (or your students) can even print a transcript of the meeting. I have used this as a means to have a discussion while watching a video, a way to have students ask questions during class, and the students themselves have found endless ways to collaborate online with this tool.

Trello

*****Trello is an organizational tool (online site). With Trello you can create 'boards' and then keep them private or share them with others. You need to sign up for a free account, so students will need email addresses if you are having them sign up for their own account. When you share a board, others can work on it as well. Sharing is done easily; members are searched by their names. This site is great for group collaboration. Groups can set up their projects and keep track of who is doing what. Everything is updated in real-time, so everyone always knows what is done and who did it. I have also used it for KLW (or KWL) charts, as it makes it very easy for students to set up and then move ideas from one column to another as they are doing their research. There is also an iPad app for this site.

Educreations

*****Educreations is an online site and/or app that can be used to create lessons. It would be one way to flip your classroom. I use it mainly for 'collecting' samples from students. It is a great way to assess, as students can show AND explain their understanding. I find my students more willing to give more when they can do it this way, as opposed to just writing it out. The file is saved online for access by the teacher at any given time. I use a class Educreation account. As well as for assessing understanding of outcomes, I have used it for reading fluency and RAD oral reading. It is great to be able to save the student's oral reading from Fall to Spring and compare. If you would like to see an example, go to the following link. I will admit, it is kind of 'feeble,' but I threw it together quickly just to show an example. Unfortunately, I had already deleted all of last year's students in preparation for the 2013-2014 school year. http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/08-23-2013-lesson/9738802/ NEW: *** I can't say enough about this free app. Each day we find new uses for it. Right now it is proving invaluable for Math lessons, as it is so easy to import a photo of a math manipulative (number line, counter, base ten block, etc.). The app is well designed and works very smoothly ALL the time. Being able to record and save to the Internet is a real bonus.

Explain Everything

******This tool is very similar to Educreations, but it does not have an online site to save to, and it is not accessible by computer. It saves the file as a movie on the device. In our classroom we use it when we want to include the project in our online portfolios, as the movie can then be uploaded to the site we use for online portfolios - Weebly. If you would like to see a student example go to the following site, and scroll down until you find 'Fraction Outcomes.' If asked for a password, use 205. http://breanna205.weebly.com/my-math-portfolio.html ***NEW This year I have had difficulty with the Smart Notebook app crashing frequently on the iPads, so I have switched now to creating student Math files on Explain Everything. For each lesson I have created an Explain Everything file for the students with all the necessary 'manipulatives.' It makes my Math lessons very hands-on for everyone, and if I would like a quick assessment, I just have the students record as they use that particular lesson-file.

Collaaj

I use this app in much the same way(s) that I make use of Educreations or Explain Everything. With Collaaj, you have the option of using video and having it play in the upper right corner of your screen as you use the rest of the screen to show/demonstrate.

SnapGuide

The next few sites/apps are for 'creation.' This is my favourite use of technology - allowing the students the freedom to be creative and to show their critical and creative thinking skills. SnapGuide is an IOS app that I use for Procedure Writing. The students can create a piece of procedure writing in a guide format using text and photos. While the guide must be created on an IOS device, it saves the guide to an online site that can be viewed on a computer and shared via a link.

Glogster

This online site is great for creating 'online posters.' The students can include text, photos, audio, video, etc. There is an education version (GlogsterEDU) that allows you to set up your students (different levels of cost), or the students can sign up for their own free site. The students love this site, but it is flash based, and therefore it can only be viewed at this time on the iPad (Glogster app).

Mixbook

This online site is easy to use and it can be used to create story books or projects using your own photos. Templates are provided, or you can create a book from scratch. Projects can be kept private, unlisted or public. Finished projects can be shared via link, or they can be purchased and printed.

Book Creator

*****This is an iPad app and one of my students' favorites. When creating project work and given choice, this is probably the app the students most go to. It is an app for creating interactive books. These books can include photos, text, video and audio. The students have created books to go show their learning during novel studies, Social and/or Science units, and they have created picture books for our Tech Buddies in Grade 1. The projects are saved as .epub files (electronic books) and must be opened/read on a device with .epub capabilities (iPad/Kindle/etc.) For those students who don't have access to a device with Book Creator on it, they most often choose to use the computer and the above site Mixbook to create their books. If you have a Mac computer, you can also get iBooksAuthor from the App store (free). It is an awesome tool (slightly higher learning curve than the Book Creator app) for creating textbooks. I created a text for our first Science unit on Diversity that includes video, links to the Internet, quick quizzes and more.

StoryKit

***I am including this app for story writing, as I have recently become a 'free app lover.' :-) With this free app, you can create your own story/book by adding photos or drawing your own pictures. You can also type text and add audio. When finished you can play the book on your iPad or you can choose to upload it to the StoryKit server to share online. This is the one feature (other than price) that I really like that Book Creator doesn't offer. By sharing online, my students can showcase their books in their portfolios. If you watch the video included with Edshelf's app write-up, the lady will say that when you share to the StoryKit server, it will not save the audio. This is not the case though if you are viewing on a computer. If you view online using an iPad, there is no audio (you must view in app), but on a computer the audio is not there. If you are looking for a more professional look and more bells and whistles, then spend the money on Book Creator, but if 'simpler' is okay and you want a way to share stories online, then StoryKit might just fit your needs.

Poll Everywhere

Polls are a great way to gather data, take surveys, take quick assessments, deliver class exit tickets, etc. As I have a student response system in my class, I can't say I have used many of the online poll sites, but I have had the students use them for data collection in Math when we are doing our data unit. They quite enjoy creating online polls to collect data on their own topic, and then they are much more willing to graph and analyze this data. There are several great poll sites, and Poll Everywhere is just one of them. Weebly (the web site I use for student online portfolios) has a poll widget built right into it.

Wordle

Free online site for creating very visually attractive word clouds. No login or account is needed. We have used Wordle with vocabulary word, finding main idea of text, Introducing Me projects and more. There are tons of possibilities for using word clouds. Here is one idea: find some text on the Internet. Copy and paste it into Wordle (or one of the apps listed below). Create your Word Cloud and project it on your board. Wordle will remove all the 'less important' words and create the word cloud with only the most important ones. Have students look at the words and determine the main idea of the text or have them write out a topic sentence stating the main idea. You might extend this by then having students write their own pieces of text and turn into Word Clouds. Their peers could then try to find their main idea from the words or write a topic sentence to compare with the original student's topic sentence. This is a great way for students to learn to write or 'fine-tune' topic sentences and proper paragraph structure. Here are some sites you can check out for more ideas. http://www.edudemic.com/2010/07/45-interesting-ways-to-use-wordle-in-the-classroom/ http://www.slideshare.net/PastorRandyLee/52-interesting-ways-to-use-wordle-in-the-classroom

Tagxedo

Another word cloud creation site with a few more features than Wordle and a bit steeper learning curve.

Cloudart

****Great tool ($0.99) for creating word clouds. I finally chose this app over the free app, Wordsalad (see below), as it seemed to have more features and no restrictions. If you choose CloudArt, be sure to get the correct app, as there is another $3.99 app also called CloudArt, but it is not a word cloud creation app. These apps work much the same way as Wordle/Taxedo do. We use this app a lot to help find main idea. The students will take a paragraph of text, paste it into Cloudart. Once the text is pasted into the app, they will join all the words together that they feel should stay together in the finished cloud. We also love the fact that once you create the cloud, you can then remove any words that you don't want in your cloud. The students go through their clouds, deleting any words that are not considered important, and with the remaining words, they are then quite easily able to write a $2.00 summary (20 word sentence giving the main idea). See an example here: http://jeeyoonp205.weebly.com/ This sample can be found under the Language Arts tab. If you like it, leave her a comment; she will be thrilled. :-) If you get asked for a password, it is 205.

Wordsalad

This is an app for creating word clouds on the iPad. Another similar iPad app is CloudArt. Wordsalad is free, but has restrictions, and CloudArt is $0.99.

Photo Measures

***This is a great app to use with the students when studying angles. After learning about the different types of angles, I send the students off with their iPads to take photos of the various types. Then they can use this app to label the angles and name them. The app will actually give the angle measurements of each angle. Great hands-on, visual way to learn about angles. My students love this activity! After taking the pictures and labeling the angles with Photo Measures, my students create a collage with a picture app of their choice. To see an example go to this site: http://marenr205.weebly.com/math.html If asked for a password, it is 205. You will find it under the Math tab. If you like it, leave a comment, and she will be thrilled.

ForAllRubrics

I have just begun to use this site, and so far, I love it. I use rubrics all the time in my assessment, so now, after I create a rubric, I just upload it to this site (make sure you save it as a .cvs file). You create your class, add your students and you are ready to go. This is a great way to keep all your rubric results together and be paperless. You can publish the results, email the results or print the results. I use my computer to upload the rubrics, and then my iPad to record scores. This is great, as I can be walking around the room, watching students, viewing their work and assessing all at the same time, or I can sit quietly with my iPad and their assignments and score at my leisure.

Sentence Builder App

This is a great app if you have EAL students in your class. You can use the existing sentences with your students, create your own custom sentences and/or have the students record their own sentences/voices. There is a free version, as well as a paid version ($3.99) that has more sentences. I am using it this year with a student with limited English. Right now I have built sentence activities to learn the Math vocabulary we are using right now in class and 'text feature' vocabulary for our Language Arts unit. You can customize (add) your own sentences and choose to use your own voice. The students listen to the sentence, then build the sentence by manipulating the words into the correct order. You can also add your own photos.

Penultimate

***I use this app to keep anecdotal records, as well as other information on my students. I set up a notebook for each student, and then I can add as many pages as I want to each one. As well as write notes, I also take pictures of student work (from within the app) to show progress, struggles, etc. You can add written details/information to the photos. If you have an Evernote account (also free), the Penultimate app will sync with your Evernote account, so you can access your 'notes' from any device.

Newsela

*****Great site for finding leveled informational text. It claims it goes as low as grade 3, but so far I haven't found any articles that I would have considered a Grade 3 reading level. Each article is given at about 5 different reading levels for students to choose from. Many of the articles have quizzes attached, so you can create an account and have students join, so you can access their quizzes.

Teaching Kids News

Site for finding relevant news articles that have been re-written in kid-friendly language. Also includes curriculum tie-ins.

iBrainstorm

By having one person using the iBrainstorm app and others using the iBrainstorm Companion app, this can be a great way to do some group brainstorming. One person starts by opening a file in iBrainstorm. Others can join them by using the iBrainstorm Companion app. Students can then 'flick' their ideas over to the person who is using iBrainstorm. This app works over wifi or Bluetooth, but the downside is that only a few people (4) can connect at one time.

Rory’s Story Cubes

I just downloaded this app, but haven't had a chance to try it out with my students yet. I can see it being used as a way to get the kids telling 'impromptu' stories and having lots of fun with it.

Smore

***A website for creating online brochures. It can be accessed on the computer OR the iPad. There are many uses in the classroom, but right now in Room 205 we are going to be using it to show students' 'learning' of sentence structure. Each student is creating a brochure that shows the difference between simple, compound and complex sentence structures. They will need definitions, as well as examples.

Moxtra

I just came across this app this weekend, so I haven't had a chance to try it out with my students yet, but from first glance it looks like it has great potential. It is an app for collecting and/or collaborating on files. The app is free and you sign up for a free site. Then you create binders and add files (pictures, documents, pdfs, etc.) You can share binders with others so collaboration can take place. Collaboration can be done in real time with the option of using a chat (text and/or audio). A record is kept of the chat, so you can go back and look at it at anytime. I want to try collaboration in my classroom with this. I love the idea that you can actually write on the file, but you could also give editing suggestions through the chat room. The owner of the document could then go back at any time to look over the suggestions. For those students who are very slow at typing, they could use the audio feature to give their suggestions. I am looking forward to trying this app out. It integrates with Dropbox, Evernote, and more. It even has an app for your desktop which you can install and then have access to your computer to upload files. I tried this out, and it works well.

Movenote

This is another app I came across this weekend, and I want to try it out with my students, as I see it has a lot of potential as a presentation tool for my classroom. This will be good for those kids who like to create PowerPoint or KeyNote presentations with lots of text on each slide, and then they present by reading the text. In the past, I have used an online site for these kids (MyBrainShark-see below), but now I am hoping to add an iPad app as well. This app allows you to show content while a video of you plays in the corner, as you 'present.' I plan to have the students collect their information in the form of pictures, charts, graphs, and other visuals. Then they will write up what they want to 'present' and practice before putting it all together. Using this app, they will then speak to their audience as the visuals show. This is also great for those who do not like to get up and speak to the class.

MyBrainShark

*****This is an online site that I have found to work very well for getting your students to use more visuals and less text in their presentations. My students love to make presentations, but they have a habit of putting way too much text on the slides, and then they just read from their slides when they present. A few years ago, I came across MyBrainShark, and now I teach them how to use more visuals - graphs, pictures, diagrams, etc. when making their presentations. Then they upload their presentation to MyBrainShark, and they record what they want to tell their audience. This also works well for those students who find it very hard to stand up in front of their peers and present. This site allows you to add voice (audio) to your presentation, while the app, MoveNote, has video with the presentation.

Google Drive

At our school, we provide students with an iGo account which enables them to use an online word processing program, presentation creator and spreadsheet program. This works well for students working on assignments between home and school, as all work is web-based. Google Drive is the app we use on the iPad to access our iGo accounts.

Quickoffice

QuickOffice is a free word processing app that ties to our iGo (GoogleDocs) account. It is much easier to create or work on a document in QuickOffice than to try to do it in GoogleDrive. They do connect, so the students can create their document in QuickOffice (easily sharing it with their GoogleDrive), and then access it from home. We have just started using this on the iPad, so we are still figuring out the 'ins and outs' of it. I will say that it is not as easy as using GoogleDocs on the computer, and it does not have all the same bells and whistles. but it is workable, and it is a great alternative to having to pay for a word processing app on the iPad. Working between home and school on QuickOffice (GoogleDrive) is also much easier for some than having to use DropBox. There is no more 'I forgot to put it in my DropBox, so I couldn't get it done.'

ZooBurst

Zooburst is a website for creating digital storybooks. These books are pop-up books and can be created with augmented reality, but the books are pretty neat even without viewing them in this way. There is a free iPad app that you can use to view the competed books with. Last year my Grade 6s created 'penquin' stories with their Grade 1 Tech Buddies who were learning about penguins in class.

Sketchlot

A great whiteboard site that works on the computer and ALL devices. I am using it for collecting answers to 'exit' questions. You set up a teacher account and add your students. The students log in from their devices and they can view any 'drawing' I have shared with them (or that their classmates have shared). They can then create their own 'drawing' and share it back to me, or they can also choose to share with classmates. You can only view a whiteboard that has been shared with you, but not edit it, so you have to create one of your own to share back. I put the question up on the board or verbalize it to the students, and they then create a whiteboard containing their answer to share back to me. It also has an embed option which I love as my students all have online portfolios.

ThingLink

Be creative! Make your images come alive with music, video, text, images, shops and more! This website also has an iPad app to go along with it. I am thinking it will be great for those of us who use PWIM in our classrooms. The PWIM picture can be put into the site/app and students can 'tag' the images with their PWIM words. It will also be a great tool for labeling diagrams. It looks like the app is more 'limited' than the website. I can create a ThingLink on my iPad, but I can't seem to go back and edit it later. I can edit on the website though.

Number Pieces, by the Math Learning Center

*****Number Pieces is one of those 'free' apps that are truly awesome. It is a great way to teach regrouping to younger kids (Number Pieces Basic), and also a great way to teach decimals to older students. Right now, my Grade 6s are using the app to learn how to multiply decimals. Both versions (Number Pieces and Number Pieces Basic) are free, and so far, I have not found many differences between the two apps. For multiplying decimals, Number Pieces seems to work better, as you can resize the pieces.

Number Pieces Basic

Number Pieces Basic is the primary version of Number Pieces.

Gooru

Read With Me

***Assessing my students' reading fluency has always been a difficult task for me, but this app, Read With Me, makes it manageable. I like that it has a fair number of graded passages within it, but what I like more is the ability for me to add my own passages. The app costs $4.99, but the web site to go along with it is free. I can spend a few minutes with each student listening to them read a passage at their individual reading level and mark miscues along with their reading. The app does the timing and the calculations of the words read per minute. Results are saved to the web site, and it produces awesome reports for both individual students and the entire class. These can be emailed off to whoever you wish. There is also a video component if you want to video the student while reading. With this app, I am actually able to test the student's oral reading fluency several times a term. I haven't used it for this yet, but I could see it working for silent reading fluency, as well. There are other fluency apps out there like Fluency Finder and OneMinuteReader, but Read With Me is my favorite for its ease of use and features it has to offer.

Geoboard

*****Free geoboard app. Great visual for Math. I am using it right now to teach the different kinds of angles and polygons.

Sock Puppets

****There is a free version, but I bought the paid version to have more options and the ability to save camera roll, so my students can upload their creations to their online portfolios. There are a zillion uses for this app, and a couple of ways I have used it recently is for Static Electricity presentations and persuasive scripts.

Toontastic

***Another great 'puppet' app, but the free version is quite restrictive, and the paid version is very expensive.

FlipSnack

*****A fantastic way to turn PDFs into beautiful interactive books. We used it to showcase our 'collaborative' informational text projects. http://www.flipsnack.com/5B78E986AED/ftm01ywe I also used it to create a 'rubric' book online for my students. http://www.flipsnack.com/5B78E986AED/ftu82utx There is a free version, but I partnered with another teacher to share the cost of the paid version in order to get unlimited books, and this made it very reasonable.

Teaching Table

Great Math Manipulatives app that you can customize to meet your needs. One drawback for Canadian primary classrooms is that right now they only offer American money. There is a Lite version and a paid version ($2.99). I have the paid version on my iPad and the lite version on the student iPads. While the students are quite limited as to 'creation' of their own lessons/files/notebooks, I can create a lesson and put it in the DropBox. They are able to open the file and use it, but not save any changes to it. I find it works well for providing the Math manipulatives needed in the lesson/assignments. Right now the only 'sharing' method appears to be email, so I use my 'send to dropbox' email account to get it into the Dropbox. If you don't have a 'sendtodropbox' email account, you can always email the file to yourself and then put it into your Dropbox for the students to retrieve.

weKWL

I just discovered this app and have only had a chance to play with it. At first sight, it seems awesome. I am always on the look-out for great collaborative apps, and this one looks like it might be a good one for KWL charts. Up to now, I have used Trello for this purpose, but I think I might give this one a try, as it seems very easy for the students to join together. The only downside I see right now is that it will not run on anything less than OS 6.0, and we still have several first generations iPads in the classroom.

weMap

This is a mapping collaborative tool by the same developer as WeKWL.

Plickers

Don't have a costly response system, or enough mobile devices in your classroom, but would like to collect some 'quick and easy' data from your students? Try this app - Plickers. It is somewhat limiting, but a neat way to collect student data without using mobile devices. Each student has their own 'paper device' - a paper with a unique code on it (kind of like a QR code) that they can hold up to your mobile device to show their answer (A, B, C, D - multiple choice). I really like the idea that they can change their answer if they choose. The answers are on the paper - one letter on each side. The students just hold their paper up with the letter they chose for their answer at the top of the code. IF they change their mind, they just turn their paper so that their new choice (A, B, C or D letter) is at the top, and hold it up to your device again. The data can be shown in real time from your website (sign up is free), and the Plickers app is also free. If you watch the demo video, the teacher is using a web cam, so the papers can be held up from vitrually anywhere the web cam can see.

Haiku Deck

A great free slideshow app. You can purchase extra themes, but they are not necessary, as you can use your own photos for backgrounds. I like this app, not only because it is free, but also because it limits the text that students can put on their slides, forcing them to truly 'present' and not just stand up and read from their presentation. It also has a 'note' feature much like Keynote and PowerPoint, so the presenter can make notes for each slide to help him/her when presenting.

Stick Around

BiblioNasium

BaiBoard

This is by far the best iPad app I have come across so far for collaboration. It is easy to set up, and I love the idea that you can add multiple pages. One downside we found in class is that when a student adds to the 'brainstorming/collaboration,' you don't know who added it, but we quickly found a way to overcome that by having the students add their name to whatever they added.