Apps for Teacher Productivity

As we said earlier, if you are more comfortable with Microsoft Office, you can download an app called OnLive Desktop for free from the App Store. Before you download the app from the App Store, you first will need to sign up at the OnLive Web site. You get 5 gigs of free storage which is plenty of storage for most educators. You only pay a fee if you need more than the free allocation. One limitation is you must be connected to the Internet to use the app, the reason is all of your files are kept in the cloud (this is the future of computing) which you can easily upload or download from your iPad using a traditional computer. Check it out! It really is Windows and Microsoft Office 2010. This would be a great app for you to share with your students!

Here are a few you might consider:

Teacher's Wire allows you to develop an individual digital portfolio for each child where you can track individual progress on the tasks you define. You can instantly record the info, take a picture of it, and e-mail the information to parents! This is excellent for tracking those students that have IEPs or for rewarding students for improvement. It also fosters parental involvement.

Are you ever surprised when you go on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or even Facebook and all of the suggested items and ads seem to be tailored to your interests? Zite is an online reference page that allows you to customize the resources to your particular areas of interest, not a computer program. You select those categories of greatest importance to you and Zite searches for recent news stories, blogs, articles, etc. in those areas. For each item viewed, you then select whether you would like to see similar types of information or not. Gradually the program ‘learns’ what particular types of things you prefer and that is what you receive. This is a quick, easy way to stay current on educational best practices, scientific discoveries, the latest news, and particular areas of interest for your subject matter.

You probably have experience of searching on the Internet and finding a site that would be perfect for a unit in your classroom, but, unfortunately you don’t teach that unit for another three months. How do you keep track of the site? Live Binders is the answer. It allows you to create folders for units, sub-units, or for whatever structure you use in your course. In each of these binders you can store app names, documents, videos, Web sites, photos, tests and quizzes, or whatever else you use to teach that particular curriculum. When you find that Web site, article, or document you want to save you can create a folder or add to an existing folder.

Dual Browser is a simple app to use, but it makes your online searching easier. Basically, it splits your screen and allows you to view two sites at one time.

Gone are the days of carrying a heavy planner to keep track of appointments, notes and addresses. This can now all be done on your iPad or iPhone. There are a number of different options for online planner, but one free one that we really like is CalenMob. This allows you to select between a daily, weekly, or monthly view of your calendar. In addition, you can separate your personal from your professional items or view them together. Finally, there is a section where you can add notes or create an agenda, if needed.

These are just a few of the many great apps that are available to you to assist with your productivity. In fact, if you go to the Apps Store, you can search using the term productivity and it will show you some of the recommended sites. Again, if you haven’t used the App store before, there will be some tips for doing so in the Me, Myself, and iOS section later this week.