Review of "20 Free iPad Apps Educators Can't Live Without!"

Some of you have asked me about this list, which is a free ebook from the people at simplek12.com. Below is my take on the apps.

Good tools I would recommend from this list:

3. Educreations -- allows you to record a lesson. It's good, except that it does not import/export from/to dropbox. See my post on this type of tool: recording-lesson-on-your-ipad. 4. Google Search -- yes. If fact, this app gives you access to all Google Apps (mail, calendar, docs, etc), in addition to search 6. Quick Graph -- graphic calculator.  18. Kindle -- book reader from Amazon. 22. Dragon Dictation -- current best speech recognition technology; works well for some.

These tools I do not know, but I prefer having ideas and task list in the same place as my other information. For me, that place is either Google Docs or Evernote.

8. Lino -- brainstorming 21. Wunderlist -- task list

These apps are content, rather than tools:

2. TED talks -- awesome, on iPad, on your computer, anywhere. 9. NASA app -- looks neat; I have not played with it. 11. History pin -- awesome. 13. Science360  -- looks neat; I have not played with it. 17. Free Books -- good collection of free books. There are many others.

These seem to be geared at earlier grades:

5. Math Quizzer 7. Today in History Lite 10. Puppet Pals 12. Project Noah 14. Toontastic 15. Red Stamp 19. Era of Dino Lite

No knowledge or opinion:

16. Virtuoso Piano 19. Flashcardlet 23. How Stuff Works

Incidentally, the site (simplek12.com) contains good info and the associated blog is worth reading.

Some lesser-known Google tools

Google Correlate  -- "finds search patterns which correspond with real-world trends."  -- correlations of search terms of Google search users.

Public Data Explorer  -- a searchable repository of public data, together with visualization tools (Google's post on this, Slate article on this). Starting in 2011, you can also upload and visualize your own datasets.

Fusion Tables -- awesome visualization tool that Google uses with Public Data, and that you can use in Google Spreadsheets.

If you are into Bloom's Taxonomy and various infographics on it...

Short thoughtful post on why these inforgraphics are bogus:

Heidi Beezley's  "Bloom’s Doom – The misapplication of an important taxonomy"

iPad apps for Windows users

Apps of particular use to people who live in Windows/Microsoft Office world:

Top iPad apps for Windows users Part 1  Part 2 

Tablet trends

Good article on the trends (of tablets and laptops, Windows vs Mac) and strengths and shortcomings of various tablet platforms.

Your next computer could well be a tablet

The State of eTextbooks

The best of the recent (2012) articles reflecting on the state of etextbooks and Apple's announcement:

Apple and the Digital Textbook Counter-Revolution

Required reading for everyone who's high on Apple's iBooks KoolAid from an excellent blog HackEducation. Here's just one quote:
"See, you can't really say that you're going to "change everything" when it comes to textbooks and announce that your partners are the 3 companies who already control 90% of the textbook market."