Monday, August 8, 2011

So many apps, not enough space! Or, how to choose the bast apps.

My iPad tells me at I've tried out well over 800 apps so far. Despite having a 32 iPad2 I find myself having to delete apps to make room for new downloads. (wishing I had bought a 64!). It is a painful process, choosing apps to delete.
Apple's changes to the app store helps, of course. I can always go to the purchased section, not on this iPad, to find an app previously purchased, and deleted. But still, I find myself agonizing over which apps are worthy of my coveted space.
Even worse, my classroom iPads ONLY have 16gb's. Soon I will have to pick and choose from the 800+ apps to decide which apps are going to make the cut.
My criteria:
+educational- a broad term, I know.
+Fun
+Ease of use. Ie. Intuitive
+Free! (I will be much more selective of which ones I'll choose to pay for a class set. Some add up quickly!)
+Skill specific or easy to navigate. Ie. Work on short vowels only or clearly defined sections. This is important when choosing which folders to place them in.
+teaches and/or reinforces
-lite versions, or in app purchase versions
-obnoxious noises, and even worse 'wrong' buzzers
-expensive... Even with 1/2 off via VPP a set of 24 apps still adds up, quickly.
-Complex menus...
-tells their answer was wrong, but the correct answer is not shown
Apps I will pay for:
Montessori crosswords
Montessori 100 board
Park Math
Word wizard
Teach me K, or maybe Teach Me: 1st 
Pocket phonics
See? Already just these six apps would cost a lot. Cost/2*24=yikes. I really want developers to make money... But my husband will only let me spend so much of my own money, and now that I'm in charge of the budget I can see why. Food for my family or apps?
I really wish the buy an app-put it on up to 5 devices rule applied to Education. I would still be buying 5 copies of the app and would be likely to get so many more.
So wish me luck. And if you have a list you've already made up, send it to me. I'd be curious to see if you've found any hidden gems. I will be sure to use applist.me to share my final classroom iPad apps for fall 2011.

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for sharing your recommended apps list! It IS hard isn't it once you realize you have to multiply the cost by classroom sets?! We came up with a list of apps for our elementary schools last year - and then had to cut the list by 75% because the list cost 4 times what our tech director had available :-(

    ReplyDelete
  2. How many ipads do you have? And how did u get so many?

    ReplyDelete

Comments with links to other webpages WILL NOT be published. All comments are moderated due to spam and links to spam pages. Thank you!

Popular Posts