Field Trip - free mobile app to help discover your world

Field Trip is a free app for Android and iOS that runs in the background on your phone and will pop up a card with details about your location when you get close to something interesting.

It's a great way to learn something new about the area around you, from history to local eateries and more. It gets information from users and from multiple sources and databases and is a lot of fun.

It can be useful for students to learn something new about their home and neighborhood. Teachers can use it to find interesting things about an area before taking students there.

I had fun walking around my home town and using it on some trips to find some cool info.

 


 




Related:

Some Excellent Virtual Field Trip Resources, including lots from Google Maps




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CK-12 announces mobile apps with adaptive learning

CK-12, a great resource for free e-textbook and curricular resources, has just announced new student mobile apps that provide you with the ability to learn math and science, anywhere, anytime. 

The apps, available for iOS and Android, are easy to use and contain over 100,000 adaptive practice questions that adjust in difficulty based on your results. In addition, if you struggle with a concept, it will recommend resources, like articles and videos, to help you. The resources are excellent. The dashboard shows you your progress.

This is a great way for students to study math and science concepts, whether for their own enrichment, extra help, or for studying. 

Related:

CK-12 has over 100,000 teacher created digital textbooks available for free

Android for Education Resources

What I use with Physics classes instead of textbook

PhET - excellent, free, virtual labs and simulations for science




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Gen Z: Growing and Learning with Mobile (Infographic)

Mobile technology is huge - smartphones, tablets, laptops, Chromebooks - and provides some great learning opportunities. 

itslearning has gathered statistics from sources like the “Harvard Gazette,” Ambient Insight, and PBS regarding the effect of mobile devices on the education of Generation Z. The findings have been
summarized in an infographic titled “Generation Z: Growing and Learning with Mobile”
(http://www.itslearning.net/gen-z-growing-and-learning-with-mobile-infographic), and they reveal that incorporating middle school students’ mobile habits into classroom instruction can have a profoundly positive influence on their learning.

Among the facts that the infographic shares are the following:

* The small screens of mobile phones allow dyslexic students to read
faster without sacrificing comprehension.

* Studies show standardized test scores are higher in courses where
students use mobile devices than in offline classrooms.

* Of the middle school students using mobile devices, 78 percent use the
devices for checking grades, 69 percent use them for taking notes and 64
percent for writing papers.

See more in the infographic below.

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CloudConvert - online file format conversion

CloudConvert is a free, online file format conversion service that lets you easily convert files from different formats. Simply select, or drag and drop, your files, select options (email when done, send to Dropbox, send to Google Drive) and off you go. As it's name implies, everything is done in the cloud with no software to download. It also works in mobile browsers so you can convert files on the go to be able to view them on your mobile device.

The send to Dropbox and Google Drive are options that most conversion services don't have. Most of them send  you an email with a link that you click on to download your converted file. This makes things more streamlined.

It supports over 100 audio, video, document, archive, image, ebook, spreadsheet and presentation formats with advanced options for each.

Guest users (no login) get 5 daily conversions, with up to 2 concurrent and a 100MB file size. Registered users (can user Google+, Facebook, Twitter, or create account) get 25 daily conversions and up to 5 concurrent conversions with a 1000 MB file size.




Related:

VLC - Awesome free video and audio player (and converter)

Lots of PDF resources - print, markup, convert and more

Media Converter - fast free online audio and video converter

Free Video Format Conversion Software (3 of them)

Zamzar - free online file conversion - great resource

Online Converter - convert file formats of audio, video, docs, eBooks, images and more

Mobile Apps and Resources for Students and Teachers

Smart phones are an incredible educational tool for both educators and students. I have an Android Smart Phone and I can do pretty much everything with it that I can do on my computer or laptop or tablet. This means that I always have access to my data, files, information, and can do work anywhere. Students have the same ability with their smart phones. They have access to information, class resources, and so much more at any time. Instead of buying a $200 graphing calculator, they can buy a $0.99 app. There are tons of great apps out there for educators and students to use.

Here are some mobile / smart phone apps and resources for students and teachers:

100 Mobile Tools for Teachers - mobile sites and resources for teachers

Android for Education - resources, apps, links, and much more

10 Great, Free Apps for Students for Notetaking and Class Planning
My students used their cellphones in class - and I encouraged it!

Google Calendar and cell phones

Infographic on Mobile devices and Studying - and free apps to help

Mobile Learning Resources

Infographic - What do High School Students want from mobile tech

Google Mobile Apps - access your Google apps on mobile web browsers

QuickOffice - essential app for mobile devices

Essential Apps and Installs for Windows, Chrome, Android

5 Must-Have iPhone Apps for Students

Related:

10 Important Skills Students need for the Future

Infographic - What do High School Students want from mobile tech

    

ASCD (Association for Curriculum and Development) has taken statistics from a variety of sources and coalates it into a nice infographic about students, mobile learning, learning methods and what high school students want in mobile learning.

The research shows that banning mobile devices in school does not work and that schools should be embracing these devices and helping students use them for learning. Some of the stats:

63 percent of students attending schools carry their mobile devices despite the rules (probably conservative)
63 percent of students want online textbooks with communication facilities;
40 percent want online texts with collaboration tools.
43 percent stated social media is one of the main ways they communicate with friends online.
62 percent of student use the Internet as a new source; whereas 17 percent use it to gain knowledge concerning topics generally difficult to talk about — such as drug use.

I am one of those teachers who hastes the rule banning these devices. I've allowed my students to use them in class before and, along with some other faculty, is pushing to change the rules. 

Check out the infographic below for more data on this topic.

Source:  ZDNet - http://www.zdnet.com/blog/igeneration/what-do-high-school-students-want-from-mobile-tech-infographic/15843


Related:

My students used their cellphones in class - and I encouraged it!
Android Smartphone and Apps I use as an educator

Android for Education resources and apps

Infographic on Mobile devices and Studying - and free apps to help

I found this infographic this past weekend and found it interesting. It shows how students do use their smartphones for studying and other educational tasks. I know many of my students do too. The company that put together the infographic did research on mobile studiers. The company noticed an huge increase in mobile study sessions using their apps, so they did some more research.

The company, STUDYBLUE, makes iPhone and Android apps that let you make flash cards. The apps are free, so check them out. http://www.studyblue.com/mobile-flashcards-app/

Teachers can also create a free account and create study materials for their students.

Via: STUDYBLUE.com



Disclosure: I did not receive any compensation for this post from StudyBlue. I simple found the data in the infographic interesting.