Unfortunately, the only way to see the app store is to download iTunes and create an account or to gander at the preview via the iTunes website. Also, I am not one of the proud owners of an iPhone or iPod touch, so my ability to use the app store currently is limited to...not at all.
But I do have an active imagination and an open mind to possibilites...so here goes.
For this course, Blackboard has been an excellent tool to use. And viola, Blackboard has an app that allows you to access courses using the software. Although the customer reviews are not kind, the app is free which makes almost anything worth a shot.
For math teachers there are flashcard apps to help memorize what 12x12 is.(144 if my TI-85 is still correct) There is also an app called Quick Graph that has rave reviews from users and appears to do everything my $150 calculator did, but in color and with touch ability.
History teachers have some options in using the newest and trendiest gadget. The History News Network details a few apps that range from daily historical calendars, to history hangman, to access to encylopedic works. Now if only I could convince my wife to let me get an iPhone...
Of course purchasing an app comes with inherent costs. Space on your device is usually limited and may require shuffling apps to suit your current situation. Also, even if the app is "free", iPhones still use AT&T's network and must purchase the requisite data plan which is, unfortunately, not free. However, the popularity of the iPhone and its apps store has created a growing market of competitors, including the tag team of Google and Verizon's Android phones. Competition always benefits the consumers, so perhaps soon, data plans will become cheaper, devices more useful and cheaper, and champagne will rain from the sky.
Well, one can dream, right?
Pete,
ReplyDeleteThese are excellent resources to use with iPhone or iPod Touch. The number of apps would only grow continuously if not exponentially. I was at the National Education Computing Conference in Washington DC this summer. In a conference that targets at K-12 administrators, staff, and faculty, I was surrounded by people flashing iPHone left and right. Rumor has it that Edina School district has equipped every teacher with an iPod touch. That's what I call "forward thinking." I will definitely check out the apps on Blackboard and other apps you mentioned.
Wow, every teacher have one Ipod touch. I gotta apply for a position in that school district.
ReplyDeleteNice blackboard application. The only thing I saw with ipod/iphone is free application is useless and paid application is unlimited in term of category and area of live but so limited in usage. And one think that I hate ipod/iphone for the reason that they cannot run flash application.
If you look close enough, ipod/iphone is not the first system support small application. PC gadgets have tons of application too. However, I don't think many people have tried them out. Maybe because they are not good at advertising these software and people not checking for new gadget everyday.
I can add some info, being an iPhone user since day one myself!
ReplyDeleteI am hopeful the Blackboard app will be cool, but I have been waiting a week for St. Thomas IT to provide me a simple but crucial piece of info to allow log-in, the school Blackboard portal url...so unfortunately I can't give you a review.
Space is not an issue. I have 141 apps on my iPhone, and they are so small (most in the 10mb range) that they only take up a total of 1.28 gb, a tiny fraction of the 8 or 16 or 32 gb size of the iPhone or iPod Touches out there. It is hard for me to imagine apps filling up one of these devices, video is the real space killer.
Happily, one does NOT need to have an ATT plan to use either device, both work on any WiFi hotspot (the Touch exclusively so) so no ATT plan is required unless one wants to make phone calls or get online when out of range of a hot spot. Many of my apps (e.g. collected works of Aristotle or Shakespeare, Historical Maps of the World, or ebook readers Classics, Eucalyptus and Short Covers) function without connectivity.
Finally, the free apps are fantastic, ubiquitous and highly functional. Not all, of course, but many, many of them are just great. And the vast majority of the paid apps are slotting in at 99 cents.
I think the true genius of the iPhone is the app store, and that's what gives it a lead over the other phones. Having had a Treo and having friends with Blackberries I understand just how easy and painless Apple has made buying, installing and using these apps, and that's why they are blowing the doors off. It's like candy grabbing new apps and trying them at free or 99 cents a pop!
Update. After not hearing anything from St. Thomas IRT I sent a follow up request and they responded that they had not set up St. Thomas Blackboard for the iPhone app and had no plans to do so this semester (or, apparently, at any time in the future). Sadly, we won't know how well this technology works after all.
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