Module 1 - How to creatively use iPads in the classroom

          A very creative tablet the iPad, has great apps when it comes to using the device as a classroom technology tool. It has a great collection of apps and a lot of them can be used creatively and with purpose. I own an iPad and I love all Apple devices for their creative apps. You can do pretty much anything you set your mind to do with an iPad, but for classroom use, I believe that the iPad can be used very easily. Mike Amante's presentation of Creative Uses for iPad in the Classroom opens the eyes to a world of a multitude of apps.

          One of the iPad's very creative apps is called Scalability. This is a program that allows the teacher to work with students K-12 and it's very good for projects because it can import and export data easily. Google Search is one great app that allows the students to do research and web search, it finds anything from text to pictures and audio. Instapaper, another great app that gathers articles from the web. Box.net and Dropbox are two storage and sharing apps. They are great with storing pictures and docs because you can store a pretty large amount for free and Dropbox lets you invite friends for which they award you with 500 MB of extra space. So basically, every time you invite someone you get 500 MB added to your account. I use Dropbox to store and share pictures because they are easy to upload and you can add a lot of them compared to sharing them through email which only allows you to send around 12-16 MB of data at once, depending on email. GoodReader allows you to read, move, store files, edit (underline, add sticky notes, highlight, draw lines, draw/write over and so on). iCelsius, another great app, useful for science classes, that allows you to take live temperature and live graphs among other things. The Elements, great app for students to use for chemistry classes. Star Walk, now that's an awesome app that allows you to see the star system. It not only shows you the position of the stars but it also has the name of each star, constellation and planet, all you have to do is position your iPad with the camera up to the sky. I used this app for so many camping trips but I find it extremely useful for science classes. Colabra Cam, allows the student to make video projects and editing video. APPitic is a website that holds a collection of 1,800+  apps for education. It has a variety of apps tested in classrooms by teachers.

          Overall, the iPad constitutes a multitude of apps and as a teacher if you decide to use it and add a great deal of this educational apps while teaching, students will learn not just how to use technology, but also how technology is a good tool in their learning. Nothing is more rewarding than discovering how your students grow in imagination, creativity and learning through the methods you use. As a future teacher I find the use of the iPad and these amazing apps a fresh breath of air in the way we approach teaching and our students. It's time we take a step towards the future and realize that the iPad is not just a device, it is a creative object for every teacher's tool box.