TECH, 5-16-15

Taking spelling tests is one of my fondest memories from elementary school. Why? Because I was good at it. I loved to have my mother call out words from the book and I'd write them down or spell them back. So naturally I was intrigued by an app that would help with spelling. After watching the video on My Spelling Test, I found myself impressed at what all it can do and how easy it is. A user can create a test by typing in a word on the iPad and record themselves saying the word, maybe along with a description just to clear things up. The student then starts the test, hears the recording, and spells the word by typing it correctly. This allows the student to set up practice quizzes for themselves so they can solo study. While I don't plan on going into elementary education and I don't necessarily see myself giving spelling tests, I think this app has potential for more than spelling. A student could use it for learning vocabulary words. Someone records the definition and the student has to enter in what the answer is correctly to get it right. That may be thinking too outside the box, but I think it's worth a shot.

On the other hand, I have use the Dictionary app a lot. Back during undergrad when I was a paper writing machine, I was always using the app to figure out if I could use the big words that I had heard before or seeking alternatives to overused words. I love the app. They have all the words that I could possibly need (even though the reviewer complained because they didn't have a Hawaiian word). I love the Thesaurus option too. The recent searches comes in handy because, for example, if you happen to forget what words you've previously searched and used while typing the paper, the app keeps a list of them. The listing of all definitions and pronunciations of the word(s) is a really big help too. I'm a fan of the app, as you can tell. For a free app, it doesn't get much better.

I have never used photo shop. I am not a big picture taking person, so editing photos is not my forte. I thought I'd check out the Adobe Photoshop Express just to see what it could do, but after watching the tutorial, I went and downloaded it myself. It's super simple to use. You can take an existing photo and edit it in almost any way you want at the touch of a finger. Now while I don't plan on going and editing every photo in sight, this will come in handy when the lighting isn't right or something like that. And again, for a free app, it doesn't get much better.

I had heard of ComicLife before, but had never used it or seen it being used. I like the template options that the app has. That kind of gives the designer a background of what to do. I also like how each separate slide can be different layouts and themes and stuff. One thing that bugs me though is that when I think of comics, I think of a drawn picture. This app only allows you to draw using pre-designed shapes which doesn't leave much room for creativity. Now one could go draw a picture in a different app and save it as an image, but that involves going back and forth between pages and apps so that's a pain. The uploading options are nice though. You can print it, open the comic with Chrome or iTunes just to name a few. The app itself can certainly be useful for like having kids do a comic strip for a project or have a group work on it for a presentation, but it definitely has some areas that it could improve in.

I've been using Newsy since high school. Each week, we had to turn in our brief thoughts on five different current issues. I plan on doing something similar in my classroom. Staying involved in what's currently happening in the world is essential to being a good citizen. Newsy condenses stories into easy to digest sound and video bytes. Attention spans are growing shorter and shorter and its becoming harder for younger generations to sit and watch CNN for a while and gain something from it. Newsy makes news short, sweet, and to the point. Like I said earlier, I could definitely use this in a classroom setting by having the students report on current events and offer their own opinions on whatever topic they choose.

The USA Factbook app really didn't do much for me. I like the part about having access to maps and original copies of the great documents of this nation at all times, but it defeats the purpose of what I want to show history to be like. History is more than just random facts that can be accessed on an iPhone, it's a cause/effect system. It's themes, the whys and hows rather tan the whos and whens. Don't get me wrong, facts can be cool, but using this app as a teaching tool will not be something I will be doing. The app itself is convenient to use, laid out simply, and has a lot of information, but to me personally, this app has more use in spouting off random knowledge to friends than it does in a classroom setting.

Google Earth is amazing. I know we've covered this in class and how ro use it in the classroom, but it's still very neat to me. In the video, Paul Hamilton shows how you can use it in the classroom in a way that I had never thought about before. He brought up the suggestion of using it as an icebreaker to get to know students. They could type in the name of a place they've been and tell a story about it. This would help gain familiarity between the students and teacher and between the students themselves. Google Earth can go anywhere on earth and zoom down close to ground level, which shows vivid detail. Although many places' photos haven't been updated, it's still a neat tool to use in the classroom, and one that I definitely plan on utilizing.