Ten Inexpensive Apps for the Classroom
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This document summarizes 10 free apps that can be used in the classroom: Epic!, Quizlet, Kahoot, Edmodo, Brainly.com, Cram.com, Brainpop ESL, English Grammar Ultimate, Newsela, and Google Classroom. For each app, the document provides a brief description of its features and capabilities, as well as potential disadvantages of each app.
Ten Inexpensive Apps for the Classroom
- 1. Ten Inexpensive Apps for the Classroom Tracy L. Jack
- 2. Epic! • This app is free for educators. • Teachers can download the app to their classroom devices, create an account for themselves, and create accounts for up to twenty students. • The students can log onto their own reading page and add personal touches by earning reading rewards. • Parents can also download the app for their children, but there is a subscription cost for non-educators. • Disadvantages: limited number of student accounts, students can only log on at school because they need your password to log into the main account.
- 3. Quizlet! • This is a free app for educators and students. • This app allows teachers or students to create quizzes, flashcards, and learning games to help them learn/review vocabulary terms. • Teachers can upgrade their account for $24.99 per year to receive unlimited classes, picture uploads, etc. • Disadvantages: the app is much more effective if you use the pro version, but it is a costly app.
- 4. Kahoot! • This is another free app for teachers and students. • Teachers can create a game show environment in the classroom, encourage discussions, and make learning fun. • Students download the app to their phones, enter the code given by the teachers, and they turn their devices into digital response tools. • Disadvantage: students have to have their own device, or you will have to have a device for them to use.
- 5. Edmodo • This is a cool app that allows teachers to create a Facebook type community for the classroom. • It is free for teachers and students, and it is closed, so it’s a safe environment for students. • The teacher sets up a classroom page and gives the students a code to enter in order to be part of the community. • The best part of the app is what the teacher can do. It’s not just about communication. The teacher can post assignments, and the students can submit their assignments. • Disadvantage: students have to “buy into” this app. If they don’t log on daily and discuss and add content, it becomes useless.
- 6. Brainly.com • This is an app that teachers can encourage their students to use for homework help. • The app is designed to be used continuously. Students can earn points by answering other students’ questions correctly. • It creates a fun community learning experience for students. • The app is free. • Disadvantage: it could be used for purely for cheating. I’m not sure how useful it would be in a math class setting because the temptation to just get the answers might be too great.
- 7. Cram.com • This is another flashcard and review site. The fun thing is that there are flashcards already created, or the user can create their own flashcards. • The app is free, and it could be used by either the teacher or the students. • For math teacher, there are already Common Core flashcards for grades K-8. • Disadvantage: there do not seem to be a lot of pre-created flashcards for ELA classes. This means that the teacher has to create the Common Core flashcards for their class.
- 8. Brainpop ESL • Brainpop has three downloadable apps for teachers or students, but this is the app I found most useful for the classroom. • This app gives students access to free BrainPop videos that help ESL students. • There are so many wonderful videos available on the BrainPop webpage. However, that is a costly subscription. • This app allows students to watch videos for free that are designed to help those students learning English. • Disadvantage: the videos are chosen by the company, not by the teacher. This means that, unless the teacher wants to pay a large subscription price, they have to be happy with the videos that are available.
- 9. English Grammar Ultimate • This app is a learning game that helps students with their grammar skills. • The app has levels for parts of speech, affixes, verb tenses, etc. • It would be a great app to use for reviewing topics that students should know in middle school, but have forgotten or missed. • It would also be a great app to use for reviewing concepts that will be covered in high stakes testing. • Disadvantage: this is not an app that allows the teacher to “check in” on the student’s progress. You have to trust the student to stay on track and work through the levels.
- 10. Newsela • This is a wonderful site and app. There is a subscription cost for the advanced features. However, the basic features are free. • The teacher assigns newspaper articles that have been written about the hot topics of the day, and the articles are leveled, so the teacher can differentiate based on reading levels. • The students sign in using a class code, read the article, and take a quiz that is designed like the current high stakes test questions. • The results are emailed to the teacher. • Disadvantage: the best way to use this app is to use it in the pro version, but again, that is a costly subscription for the teacher, so although it is great free program; it is better as a paid app.
- 11. Google Classroom • The Google Classroom app allows teachers to create a virtual classroom for students and parents. • The teacher creates a classroom, adds students, and then gives students a code to use. • This app allows teachers to create a flipped classroom. The students can watch pre-loaded video lessons at home, take quizzes, do online activities at home, which gives the teachers time in class to work on project-based learning. • Disadvantage: this app only works if you can get the parents and students sold on the program. They have to log into the app independently and do the work, or it’s worthless.