Word for iPad
The school season is fast approaching for some – unless you live in Hawaii or go to private school where there are no summer solstices. Nonetheless the 2014 school season is fast approaching. That means pencils, books, teachers dirty looks…
Wait. Maybe we don’t need any more pencils or books. Not if you have an iPad.
Lets take a look at some great apps you can get to make an iPad purchase more justifiable.
The most important apps might just be those office apps you can use to take notes, build presentations and more. For that, I am going with the tried and true apps of Microsoft Office 365 like Microsoft Word. The best part of these apps is you can easily move to a PC at home to continue working if needed.
I switch between computers all the time. More important, I send documents to others on a regular basis. This morning I just filled out a Word document form for an event I’ll be participating on.
If anything, Word and PowerPoint are going to get their use on an iPad for school. If anything, OneNote is free and useful in its own right.
Evernote
Evernote is another app which you will get great use from. Especially for those who like to take pictures of the teacher’s writing – Add a Dropbox account to this and you have a powerful note taking device.
How does that work? Load Dropbox on your phone and tablet. When the instructor brings up a slide or fills the chalkboard with tons of facts, snap a picture with your phone. The phone then sends the image to Dropbox which you can then use IFTTT to send the image into Evernote.
This process can also be done with audio snippets. So you can put together a whole lecture in one Evernote document.
Encyclopedia Britannica
Wikipedia is a great resource but sometimes you need more. That is where the Encyclopædia Britannica can jump in. Over 80,000 articles curated and edited, you can find what you are looking for.
Could you imagine what our yearbooks would have looked like if Instagram and Google Enhancement were around back then? It is estimated we will take almost 900 billion photos with our mobile devices in 2014. From pictures of friends, slides on the overhead, or just those fun pictures of cats.
If you use Jostens for your student Yearbook, you can download the Yearbooker’s Field Kit by Jostens, Inc., which organizes your photos as you go.
Jostens Yearbook
As for textbooks – there are a series of apps that can get your book electronically. Kindle, iBooks and more. One of these groups is called Kno Textbooks. You find your book then pay the in-app purchase price (which can be just as expensive as a physical textbook).
The best part about these books is you can highlight and share your notes with others that have kno textbooks as well. They have a library of over 200,000 books from kindergarden to college.
Another app I like a lot is Phoster by Bucket Labs. This app allows you to make posters for events, school elections, dances and more. Even the lunch lady can use this app to create the weekly specials and make them look appatizing.
Phoster for iPad
There are a lot of apps I haven’t touched yet. From those focusing on History, science, mathmatics and more. All of these teaching aids could help children and adults brush up on their skills.
Yes, parents. I mean you. Sometimes you have to show junior you know your stuff. So why not do some homework of your own?
Even the artist or musician can benefit from apps like Garageband, ArtRage by Ambient Design Ltd., Photoshop, Loopy HD by A Tasty Pixel and more. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are classes offered to learn how to use these apps. A band, choral or orchestra teacher who adds an iPad instrument into their groups. The iPad can organize scores of music, tune instruments, keep the beat, record your practice and highlight where things went wrong, and more.
Even an art teacher can take progress photos of complex art piece to show off to other teachers or colleagues. They can put it together in a video with music in the end. A perfect companion to a work of art.
Yep. The iPad truely is becoming an important part of the education system.
Its interesting how much we can justify mobile devices for kids. Of course, when we were kids, it was #2 pencils and college ruled notebooks. Now kids can take tablets, ultrabooks, phones and more into their education.
I haven’t found any yet, but I’ll bet someone is creating a student desk for the classroom equipped with a USB charging ports. Maybe even a locker adapter that could be solar powered . In the meantime, it might be a good investment to get a couple USB charging units such as the Mophie charger or more.
If I was in school nowadays, I probably would walk around with a power strip in my backpack so I don’t have to huddle around a wall plug. I would probably also be looking for longer cords – because lets face it: 3 foot cables can get really annoying at times.
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