29 Days of Android Apps for Teachers and Students

29 Days of Android Apps for Teachers and Students Android4Schools.com

At first glance Power Vocab appears to be just a set of vocabulary words that you have to select the correct definitions for, but there is more to it. You can also work on spelling of the words that appear and play word search games. In my testing of the free version of the app featured words that were appropriate for middle school and high school students. The paid version of the app offers more difficult vocabulary.

Words, Words, Words is a free vocabulary app from Socratica. I like that the Words, Words, Words interface is very visually-pleasing and easy to navigate. Words, Words, Words can be used in a flashcard-like manner for familiarizing yourself with the words or in a quiz mode.

Words, Words, Words offers audio to help users with pronunciation.

Vocab Builder I like, in part, because on my phone it loads very quickly. The simple interface offers two ways to play; match definitions to words or match words to definitions. The words in Vocab Builder are little more challenging than those found in some similar apps.

SnaPanda is a free Android app that could help students expand their vocabulary. With SnaPanda installed on your phone you can point it at any clearly printed word on a page in a book, in a magazine, or on a sign and get the definition of that word. To do this just activate the app, point your phone's camera at a word, and touch the word.

SnaPanda then provides you with definitions for that word and examples of the word in use. SnaPanda users can save scanned words to a list for later review. Your lists can be shared via email, Twitter, and Facebook.

Any.DO is a free Android App for creating todo lists and sharing them with your friends and colleagues. On Any.DO you can type out a list of tasks or enter tasks by speaking into your phone. Once you've entered your task you can assign it to a day and time for completion. After assigning a completion deadline you can share that task with anyone in your contacts list even if that person doesn't have the Any.DO app installed on his or her phone.

Color Note is a simple note-taking app that I've been using on all of my Android phones for the last year (yes, it's been a rough year for phones in my life). Color Note offers a sticky note environment, a calendar option, to do list options, and the option to share your notes via email and sms.

CamScanner is an Android app that you can use to scan documents, business cards, receipts, or any other pieces of paper that you have.

To use CamScanner just center your phone or tablet's camera over a document and take a picture. CamScanner then converts your image to a PDF that you can send to DropBox, Evernote, Google Docs, and many other online storage services. CamScanner provides options for trimming the edges of your scanned documents before converting to PDF. You can scan documents and save them as individual files or combine scans into one file.

Vocalyze is a service that reads the content of popular websites to you. You can subscribe to popular sites across twelve different categories. To build up your playlist just click on a category then click on a site. If you want to delete a website from your playlist just click the "x" next to it in your favorites list. Vocalyze works on your computer, on Android devices, and iOS devices.

StudyBlue, a free service for creating flashcards and sharing them, offer a free Android app for creating flashcards on the go. The StudyBlue Android app allows students to not only study their flashcards on the go, but create new ones as well. Flashcards created on a phone can be synced to and accessed from a computer too. Even if an Internet connection isn't available, students can still study pre-existing flashcards on their phones.

Study Blue account holders also have the option of setting reminders to prompt them to review their flashcards at regular intervals.

EasyBib, the popular bibliography creation tool for students, offers a handy Android app. One of the excellent features of the EasyBib Android app is the option to scan a book's or magazine's ISBN barcode to record the information necessary to create a proper citation. Users can add citations on the app and email those citations to themselves from the app. Just as if you were using the EasyBib website to create properly formatted citations, the app will generate MLA format citations for free. If you want to generate citations in APA or Chicago style you will have to pay for a subscription to the service.

Audioboo is a free tool for creating audio messages to share on the web. Using Audioboo you can record messages on your mobile device using Audioboo's free Android or iPhone apps.

You can also record messages directly on the Audioboo website. Messages that you create can be shared by embedding your recording into a blog or website. You can also share messages by posting them to Twitter, Facebook, Posterous, and Tumblr.

Pixlr offers web-based image editing tools and image editing tools to use on Android phones and on iPhones.

Pixlr-o-Matic is Pixlr's mobile app for Android and iOS. With the app installed you can take a picture and apply a variety of neat effects to the image. I tested it out by adding some raindrops and a "retro" border to a picture of my dog that I then sent to my friend Beth Still. You can also use Pixlr-o-Matic for simple cropping and resizing before sending your picture to a friend or to an online album.

123s ABCs is a free Android app for handwriting practice. The app allows students to practice drawing uppercase and lowercase letters by tracing the template on the screen. The 123 aspect of the app has templates for tracing letters. The app also has basic shape templates to trace. Students can practice on each template as many times as they like. If the first attempt isn't to a student's liking, she can simply shake the phone or tablet to erase and try again. 123s ABCs also has an audio option that students can activate to hear each letter, number, or shape read to them.

Skitch for Android is a great app for capturing, editing, and drawing on images.

The first thing you should know about Skitch is that it is owned by Evernote. Anything you create on Skitch for Android can be saved in your Evernote account. And when you log into the Skitch website you can do so with an Evernote account or a Skitch account credentials. Drawings you create Skitch can also be saved in your Google Docs account, Picassa album, sent to email, or Tweeted from your Android tablet or Android phone.

There are three ways that you can use Skitch for Android. You can create a drawing from scratch. Capture and image with your Android tablet or Android phone. Or you can use alter an image that you have saved in an Evernote or Picassa album. Whichever method you choose to start with the set of drawing tools is the same. You can drawing free-hand, type text, crop images, draw arrows, and highlight and move elements that you have drawn. The saving and sharing options are the same regardless of which method you employ to create your images.

Feedly is a great app for reading RSS feeds on your Android phone or tablet. Feedly takes your RSS feeds and turns them into an easy-to-read magazine-like format. You can sync your Google Reader account to Feedly and it will retain all of the categories that you may have created in Google Reader. You can also sync Feedly to Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Read It Later, and Instapaper.

Juice Defender is an Android App (free and premium versions are available) that manages and monitors power consumption on your phone. The app monitors data consumption and WiFi settings.

To save power the app will enable or disable settings to conserve power.

Apps 4 Kids is a free app that helps you and your children find new apps to use on your Android phone or Android tablet. You can browse Apps 4 Kids according to age of the child or the purpose of the app. For example, you can search for apps appropriate for children under four years old and for learning the alphabet. The apps in Apps 4 Kids are targeted to children under twelve years old.

The Edmodo Android app allows you to manage the essential aspects of your Edmodo account. The app gives you access to your gradebook, groups, profile, and file library.

You can use the app to post new messages to your group(s). My file library was accessible through the app and I was able to add new content to my file library. Students can use the Edmodo Android app to read notifications from their teachers.

iStoryBooks is a free Android app that offers two dozen free digital storybooks for kids ages two through eight. Most of the stories in the app are adaptations of classic children's tales like The Ugly Duckling.

The iStoryBooks app gives you the option to read each story or to read along with each story while listening to the narrator. Children can practice reading and recognizing words by going through the stories with the narration turned on. There are stories available in English and Spanish. In all there are more than 20 free books available through the iStoryBooks Android app.

Posterous is one of my favorite blogging platforms for classroom use because it is very easy for teachers to create a blog and it is very easy for students to contribute to that blog.

Creating new posts using the Posterous Android app is a cinch. After signing into your Posterous account just select from your dashboard the Posterous blog (or Space as they call them) to which you want to post. Then write your post and publish it. If you have images you want to add to your post you can choose from those stored on your tablet or those stored in your Google account. You can also choose to turn on your devices's camera and instantly take a picture or video to include in your blog post.

Famigo Sandbox is an Android app that allows you to create a "kids-only" section on your Android phone or tablet. With Famigo Sandbox installed and activated when you hand your phone to your child your child cannot accidentally access your contacts, dial the phone, or access apps that are not in the Famigo Sandbox. Famigo Sandbox also provides you with recommendations for new apps for your child to try. Learn more about Famigo Sandbox in the video below.

The Historypin Android App allows you to view historical imagery layered over the current map for where you are standing (provided imagery is available). You can also use the app to add imagery to the map. The app gives you access to stories about the imagery you're viewing on your phone or tablet. This could be great app for students to use when they're on a walking tour of city with a rich history.

Google Sky is a free Android app for your phone or tablet. Using the app you can point find out what star, constellation, or planet you're looking at any moment. In the automatic mode, the Google Sky app uses GPS data, compass data, date, and time to determine where you are and what you're looking at.

In the manual mode you can explore the night sky almost as is you were using Google Earth to find a place on Earth.

News 360 is a free news aggregation service that you can customize for your interests. You can read your personalized news feed on your phone, tablet, or desktop. The mobile app is available for iPhone, iPad, Blackberry Playbook, Android phones and tablets, and Windows phones. You can also read your News 360 feed on your computer. You can find the Android tablet app here and the Android phone app here.

World Newspapers is a free Android app designed to enable you to find and read newspapers from all over the world. You can use the app to browse for newspapers by continent, country, and state. The app also provides the option to browse according to content type such as videos, magazines, and websites.

Sync Space is a whiteboard app available for Android devices and iOS devices. You can use Sync Space to create drawings and documents on your tablet. You can create using free-hand drawing tools, using typing tools, or a combination of the two tool sets. Your drawings and documents can be sent to and synced with other users so that they can comment and edit your drawings and documents. If you have installed an app like Evernote or Dropbox you can upload your drawings to either of those accounts too.

If planning lessons around the Common Core standards is something that you have to do, the Mastery Connect Common Core app could be helpful to you. The app is designed to help educators quickly locate the common core standards for mathematics and language arts. To locate standards through the app just select the content you teach and the grade level you teach.

The app will pull up the standards based on your selections.

MeeGenius is a nice source of free and paid ebooks for kids. When children open the ebooks online, on an Android tablet, or on an iPad they can choose to have the story read to them or to read the story on their own. When the story is read to them each word in the story is highlighted on the page. This should help children follow along with the story.

PaceRecorder is a free Android app that aims to help people better pace their speeches.

PaceRecorder is a simple app that records your voice and gives you instant feedback about the pace with which you are speaking. The feedback comes in the form of three simple symbols; a turtle, a rabbit, and a thumbs-up. If the turtle appears while you're speaking it indicates that you're relaxed or perhaps a bit too slow. The rabbit indicates excitement and perhaps that you're speaking a bit too quickly. And, of course, the thumbs-up means you're right on track.

Please visit Android4Schools.com for daily reviews of Android apps for teachers and students.