Educational Apps for the iPad

Educational uses for the iPad

The iPad is making some serious inroads into the educational market and not just iPad textbooks . There are some schools that have already implemented an iPad for all students approach and more are following. Some schools have done this with by using school funds and have given each student an iPad to use. Other schools achieve the one pupil one iPad by making it a non optional requirement in the way that books used to be specified. It doesn’t take the brains of Einstein to work out that there are benefits to the educational process and it is good the kids don’t have to lug around kilos and kilos of books. So which are the best iPad apps for kids?

AlphabetFun

Learning the alphabet on the iPad

You have applications like Alphabet Fun for the very young school age children or even for pre schoolers. With it, they can learn letters numbers and also colours. There is an image of the letter for example and the idea is for the child to trace over it with their finger, accompanying audio lets them know what the letter is called. If they make a mistake then a small shake of the iPad erases what they have done so they can try again. Hopefully they are holding tight to the iPad so that it doesn’t go flying across the room. I would expect an application like this to have some localisation so that British children can say the letters correctly with Z being pronounced Zed and not Zee.

Educational iPad Apps are available for most subjects from ArtStudio that can be used for drawing to Apps that can be used to learn or reinforce learning the periodic table of elements. The Elements: A Visual Exploration gives background information and pictures to make learning the elements much more interesting than an boring old grid with letters on to signify things like argon, lead and gold.

StarwalkEven if you are not in school anymore but want to learn things then there are applications that are going to appeal to the wider audience too. Such as Star Walk for finding about about constellations and other heavenly bodies. Many of these applications are entertaining as well as informative. Why not have a browse in the educational section of iTunes and see if there anything you fancy learning. Learning a language or a musical instrument, then there are apps there to help you.

It doesn’t have to be text only either, there are lots of educational audio books for iPad which can also be a valuable way to extend and expand the learning experience. There are a huge number iPad educational uses and it doesn’t have to be educational apps for iPad specifically. There are so many education iPad apps out there that are not just games that children can be learning something in an iPad application that was meant for some other purpose. You have mapping applications that will show geography and topographical information which would extend or expand a child’s level of knowledge and understanding. Even apps that are meant for authors for writing or blogging could be something that would encourage creativity in children. There are also the music creation or other audio applications which just about anyone can use.

In any case we are going to see a lot more of iPads in schools and the education of school children could be changing for the better. I wish I’d have had this technology available when I was going through the education system.

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12 thoughts on “Educational Apps for the iPad

  1. Please permit me to introduce you to a new children’s educational game for the iPad and iPhone:
    http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/counting-beads/id441820190?mt=8&ls=1#

    Counting Beads is a totally fun way for children to learn numbers and letters of the alphabet. The numbers (or letters) appear as colored beads that you connect by dragging each bead into its next higher numbered bead. As you connect the beads in numbered order, you create a chain that follows the lead bead as you drag. This teaches the numbers visually. You can also move the bead chain by holding the device face-up parallel to the floor and tilting it slightly to let gravity roll the leading bead downhill. Even older folks can have fun with this amusing simple game.

    A brief demo video of this app is available on UTube:

  2. Richard Henry says:

    This is a good application for small kids my 3 year old son enjoys it a lot
    https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/animal-alphabets-free/id578050735?ls=1&mt=8

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