Haiku Deck

Do you have a presentation coming up?  Of course you do...everyday you present information to your class in a variety of ways.  For your next presentation, why not try Haiku Deck?  Haiku Deck is an app that is available for the iPad and essentially it is a presentation application but not from the same mold as it's predecessors.  Haiku Deck is a quick and easy way to create beautiful and effective slidedecks (presentations) with very little text...which is why I love it for students.  Another great selling point for Haiku Deck (don't worry...the app is free) is that you can find crisp, clean Creative Commons licensed images for your slides right in the app and it happens on each slide as you type your words.  Each image then fills up the entire slide with your words displayed over it and you can choose a layout for the text.  If you can't find an image that you like in Haiku Deck you can always import your own images from your gallery or Facebook/Instagram.

Now What?

If you have the luxury of iPads in your classroom definitely check out the Haiku Deck app and get started by transforming one of your old PowerPoints or whiteboard lessons.  Once you've modeled it for your students set them free to explore and create their own presentations for class.

Nearpod

Nearpod is a FREE iOS app which allows teachers to share and sync with the student iPads in their classroom using wi-fi.  Teachers can use this app to deliver their lessons or even share a student's iPad with the rest of the class.  In addition, teachers can use Nearpod to create quizzes and polls and view the results in real time either individually or whole class. As a bonus...once you create your account you can then upgrade your account to their silver membership for FREE!  As a silver member you can create up to 10 multimedia presentations using Nearpod's content creation tool, attend live webinars, and export your detailed student reports.  From within the teacher app you can even access other excellent presentations for use with your class.  Click here to download the teacher app.

Now What?

If you have a classroom set of iPads this app is a must have.  It reminds me of the SMART Synchroneyes software which I used in my classroom while teaching computers.  The best application, in my opinion, for this software is the ability to share other student's work with the class.  It's also a great way to get immediate feedback from students.

Subtext

Subtext is a cool app that is currently available for iPad only and it's purpose is to provide a place for students (and teachers) to have digital book talks.  Once you install this free app you can read and annotate ebooks, create questions about the books and even write blog posts as you read.  As a teacher or group facilitator you can create bookshelves for your members as well as set your group as public or private.

Now What?

For those schools who have deployed a 1:1 iPad solution, this would be a great tool for encouraging students to engage in meaningful discussion while reading books.  The teacher could also facilitate this discussion by creating questions and highlighting content.  Subtext is currently offering a contest for users who supply suggestions on how they would use this in the classroom.  If selected you could win 10 iPads for your classroom.