Top Apps of 2011

I have noticed a lot of sites doing top app picks for 2011. I didn't want to feel left out so I decided to create a list, well more like LISTS. There are so many great apps that I felt I needed to choose the top apps in a few different categories. All apps have been used by myself and/or students within my classroom. These are the apps that I try to incorporate into the curriculum and daily schedule as much as I can (with the limitation of 1 iPad, 1 teacher, 3 assistants, and 7 students). 


If you would like to see a complete list of the most used apps within my classroom, visit my list at the Technology in Special Education website. I have to admit, with over 850 apps in my itunes account, narrowing these down and keeping them all organized was a little difficult!

Also, check out my special ed counterpart from northern Ohio, Miss Kolis. Here is the list of her top 20 or so apps of 2011. 

Looking for app for older students, check out Golden Communications, LLC's list of apps for older students to enhance language and learning skills. This list was created by an SLP working with students grades 7-12 and is the developer of Enchanted Dictionary (an app worth looking into for vocabulary development and language).


~ Melanie

Top AAC/Speech and Language Apps

** AAC apps are suggestions, it looking for a voice output app/device, please consult SLP or AT specialist to request a AT/AAC evaluation **
SonoFlex- LITE version FREE, voice output app, customizable

Answers: YES NO - simple, easy to program AAC app

Toontasic - FREE, create 'puppet show' videos; add characters, voice, and video is created
Verbally - FREE version, w/paid upgrade available; although I do not have a student that can use this AAC app this school year (as it is word based versus picture based), I had to include it because it made quite an impact for a student at the end of last school year

Top Fine Motor Apps

Bugs and Buttons - app that incorporates fine motor, sorting, patterns, colors, visual motor...I could go on! Great for fine motor, but also works on pre-academic skills as well.

injini - a multiple activity app that is divided into levels within each activity; this is the app I use most within my classroom; it incorporates activities that develop fine motor skills, matching skills, patterning, colors, visual motor....and another app that I could continue to list the benefits; Project Injini website has tracing printables that mirror iPad activities

iLuv Drawing Animals - simple learn how to draw app; takes user through picture step-by-step; great for fine motor development, teaching how to add detail to drawings, great feature - can email completed pictures

Top Book Apps

Cinderella by Nosy Crow - all Nosy Crow apps are amazing, but Cinderella made me feel like a kids again; a timely story, great interactivity, amazing illustrations create this superior book app
Chuck and Friends: Friends for the Long Haul - book app with the characters every little boy loves, embedded activities to reinforce letters, fine motor, and story comprehension; my review of Chuck and Friends
Penelope the Purple Pirate - an adorable story of a little girl who turns into a pirate; had to add it to this list as it is the one app a student requests frequently

Top (Pre) Academic

Alien Buddies - my review of Alien Buddies, great to reinforce letters, numbers, shapes, colors

Junior BINGO - bingo app for younger students; bingo reinforcing letters, numbers, and shapes
Kandy Fish -  great app for sorting by color, fine motor

Top Reading Apps

Word Wizard - my review of Word Wizard, great to use as an alternative to handwritten spelling tests

Word BINGO - great app to use with individual students as an assessment tool or with 2 students as a turn taking activity; my review of Word BINGO

My Word Wall - my review of My Word Wall, great to introduce letters and word families 
Photo Touch Sight Words -  great app to use as assessment tool, very customizable with built in word lists as well as ability to set word lists
 

Top Math Apps 

iLEAP Touch Spot Subtraction and Addition - very similar to "touch math" concept; various levels: learn, explore, apply, practice; gives more concrete meaning to subtraction/addition

Jungle Coins - customizable app with various levels from penny to all coins, including dollar; app is also customizable by other country's coins as well; my review of Jungle Coins and Jungle Time
Jungle Time - customizable app with various time levels of to the hour down to minutes
Candy Count - not a well know app and it does contain an in-app-purchase (IAP) which I am against as a selling point, but the concepts are great; sorting, counting, number order, greater/less than all in one app
iLearn With Poko: Addition - fun app focusing on the math skills of counting, grouping sets, and addition; my review of this app

Top "for fun" Apps

All Toca Boca apps

My Underwear - the only time it is ok to decorate and play with underwear

Top "grown up" games/apps

Scrabble

Battleship

Words with Friends
Angry Birds  
Zite  - personalized magazine
Flipboard - personalize magazine

My Word Wall ~Review~

My Word Wall
I have to tell you (sorry, Punflay) that I was a little skeptical about this app. I was not familiar with Punflay app when I downloaded. I think I initially downloaded it during a "free" promo and I didn't look at it right away. I was contacted my a representative from Punflay regarding another app (ABC Numbers), then I remembered I had My Word Wall so I thought why not take a look at My Word Wall and see if it was something that I could use.

So when I finally took time to review some of the apps I had downloaded, I was pleasantly surprised by what  My Word Wall had to offer. My Word Wall has several options from matching letters to picture/word memory to placing letters in order to create words. There are several activities that allow for "errorless" learning activities, such as the hide a word section and jigsaw words. See & find is a leveled matching game. Easy levels presents the user with 6 cards to match, 3 picture card and 3 word cards; whereas, the hard level has 8 cards with 4 pictures cards and 4 word cards. Hide a word is like looking for the word with a flashlight. I think this level will be a hit with kids. I think the "search and find" feature will help students to be more focused and encourage students to read single words. Bubble words presents the user with a picture and several bubbles with letters inside. The users are given a visual cue for the number of letters/bubbles needed. The user touch and drag bubbles to spell the word. If an incorrect letter is used, no reinforcement is given and simple floats back to the top. Jigsaw words is a very simple (3-5 piece puzzle). The user completes puzzle to spell a word and display the picture relating to the word. All of these activities fit in well with the curriculum and IEP goals for my students.

The writing ABC section allows for direct match of lower case letters giving letter name, letter sound, and word beginning. The writing words section works on word families. The user can choose a word family, match letters to spell word, then is presented with a sentence using that word. Additional activities with that word family are presented. My favorite part of this app is taking the initial word (i.e., -am) and allowing the user to choose what letter to put in front to create own word. This allows the user to feel in control of their reading as well as allows for the app to have some variety. After new word is made, the app shows a sentence and picture with that new word. Again, this provides the user with a way to complete reading activities with success.  I always try to listen throughout the apps to see if there are any voices or sounds that may work well with my students. Throughout the app, the voice of the 'narrator' is a very pleasant child's voice which I think would help keep students engaged versus being a distraction.

Additional IEP applications

My Word Wall has many IEP applications. Obviously, this app would support goals/objectives relating to pre-reading skills (direct match of letters) as well as those beginning reading skills. The incorporation of the word families makes a nice app to use to teach and assess those readers who are working on those phonetic skills. The hide a word and jigsaw section would work well with students who need to practice with visual perception and increasing focus. Lastly, I think that My Word Wall would be a great asset to speech therapists as well. The word families section would be a great way to incorporate practice of beginning and ending sounds as well the creation of new words.

Suggestions
My word wall is very straight-forward with the matching and word wall activities. One suggestion that would make this app even more engaging and beneficial for my students would be to allow the pictures within the activities to be interactive. For example, when the user matches z and it says z-zebra, it would be great to take it one step further and allow the user to interact with the zebra (have it run across screen, change color, or make noise). Another suggestion occurred to me when I was playing with the bubble words section this weekend. Some of my students who are spelling and have good coordination would be able to touch and drag without a problem. However, some of my students might be able to choose correct letters, but are not as skilled at the touch and drag. For my students, it would be helpful if the incorrect responses (incorrect letter bubbles) would disappear. Even better than that, it would be great if that could be a feature that could be toggled on/off depending on student using the app.

I am so glad that I discovered My Word Wall. (Thanks for sending that email Nicola!) It is so versatile and I see it being used with most of the students within my classroom from the pre-readers who are working on simple match and cause/effect to my readers who are working on word families. This app would be great for teaching skills as well as assessing student knowledge through playing the app. This app would be a nice addition to a preschool or Kindergarten setting. The ABC section kind of reminds me a little of the Starfall alphabet with which students are familiar. If you are looking for a beginning "academic" app for your child, I would suggest this app due to variety of activities and price. My Word Wall is a great purchase at $0.99. It's like getting 5+ activities in one!


If you would like to learn more about Punflay, check out the posting on Moms With APPs site by team member at Punflay: Insights from India: Punflay Talks About International App Development.

APP INFO

developer: Emantras Inc.

website: http://www.punflay.com/

itunes:My Word Wall

category: Education

recently updated:May 18, 2011

ABC Numbers ~Review~

ABC Numbers
This app is from Punflay. I would consider it a baby/toddler app. It incorporates music with basic letter and number identification. It is set up to look similar to a few commercial baby/toddler toys that I know my kids had when they were little. The numbers section gives a simple visual representation of the numbers up to 10. Users can choose colors displayed and pictures that light up (fish, flower, bird). Users can activate pictures and app counts for them OR they can choose number an appropriate number of pictures light up. This section has a music option, playing 3 different songs. The ABC section displays a ABC wheel. The user "spins" or moves the wheel to a letter of his choice, a picture starting with that letter appears along with a traceable space to practice tracing letters. A singing star, activated by "pulling a string" sings ABC song. The song is very good quality and pleasant to listen to unlike some other apps I have encountered.

Additional IEP applications
Since the app is quite basic, I think it would most appropriately be used with students to work on cause/effect who need a developmentally appropriate activity, but want to use a more age appropriate tool (such as an iPad). This app could be an effective tool for students who need to work on developing the correct finger motions to activate the iPad with the various areas that need single touch or swipe to activate app.

Suggestions

The app is very simple and easy to use.
My only suggestion:

1. In ABC section, it would be nice if when picture is touched, the app would say the sound, word and/or sentence about the picture.

For future, I would like to see a more age appropriate app (maybe 5-7 y/o) that would work on same basic finger motions needed for iPad use, maybe with more popular music or pictures that were more age appropriate (sports pictures, environmental words, etc.)

Conclusion
In conclusion, this app mirrors similar baby/toddler toys that are commercially available. In this case, I would go with the real toys versus the virtual ones. If you want an app to use in one of those "entertain" the baby times, then this app would be ok to have on hand if you don't mind the $1.99 price tag. Due to the developmental level of the app (baby/toddler), this app would be best suited to use within resource and therapy room versus within the general education classroom (when working with school aged students).

APP INFO

developer:Punflay/EMANTRAS

website: http://www.punflay.com/

itunes: ABC Numbers

category: education

Released: Aug 20, 2010