I’m always on the look out for free apps that are easy to integrate into the classroom. I classify an app as being flexible if it can be easily integrated across a range of curriculum areas for different age groups. I keep coming back to these five apps as simple but effective means of integrating ICT into the classroom to engage and inspire students. The apps in this post are what I categorise as “Creation Tools” where students are transforming their learning to create a product.
1. PicCollage: A incredibly simple means of creating digital posters using pictures, photos and text. All your objects can be arranged in frames or collaged in free form. The collage is easily shared and exported to the Photo Library. I’ve used this app with Year 6 classes making posters about National Parks and with Kindergarten students for 2D shapes.
2. Lino: A wonderful collaborative resource where students can work together to collate research and ideas by posting stickies on a large corkboard. It integrates text and images seamlessly. It allows you to customise your background and then export as a URL or embed using HTML code. I’ve used this app in Year 4 researching Space and in Year 2 brainstorming rhyming words.
3. Popplet Lite: A brainstorming app that allows students to connect ideas, text and images on a topic. The mind map can be shared via email as JPEG or PDF as well as exported to the Photo Library. I’ve used this with Year 3 for research on the human body and Year 5 displaying properties of triangels.
4. Comics Head Lite: This app allows you to create visually appealing comics using eye catching templates, backgrounds, characters, speech bubbles and many other assets. It integrates your own photos seamlessly and exports as JPEG . I’ve seen this app used in language classes to practice conversational French and in Year 2 classes to plan a narrative.
5. BookPress: An ebook creation app which allows students to create, design and then produce their own ebook. The app allows you to capture photos, embed images and annotate with text. Some eBook apps have limited export and sharing capacity, but this app allows you to upload the eBook to the BookPress website which can be easily shared or printed. I’ve used this app in Year 6 classes to record scientific experiments and in Year 2 classes to produce a procedure such as tying your shoe laces.
6. Educreations: This interactive and recordable whiteboard is perfect for recording the thought process of students. It allows import of images to be annotated with digital ink and text. Teachers can also use this app to create annotated lessons. Lessons are uploaded to the Educreations website and you can share the link via email. I’ve used this with Year 5 students to explain factor trees and Year 1 students to illustrate multiplication.
