App Spotlight: Pulse News

Pulse is an App the lets you add content from news sources to match your interests. You can also add feeds from your Google Reader into the app. To add content, you can use an RSS feed, browse sources in the app or search for feeds using keywords from within the app. You may have up to five "pages" of content and each page can have a maximum of 12 sources. The app is available for iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch. Here's a video review that demonstrates the app:

Ideas for the classroom

Individual students/small groups: Students could look up news stories for current events. Sites like Time for Kids and News Bites from National Geographic has content aimed at children. Popular news sites like BBC, CNN, and Aljazeera can also be added.

Whole class instruction: News can be used to generate writing prompts, topics for inquiry, articles for analysis, etc.

Tip: Pulse summarizes some of the articles so that readers may use this determine whether or not to read the entire article.

Caution: Because any content with an RSS feed can be added, it's important to use good filters, including the human (teacher) filter.

Quick Facts

Description: News from many sources all in one place.
Cost: Free
Link: iPad: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pulse-news-for-ipad/id371088673?mt=8; iPod Touch/iPhone: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pulse-news-for-iphone/id377594176?mt=8 
Grade Levels: Upper Elementary and up
Groupings: Individual, small group, whole class

App Spotlight: Puppet Pals

Puppet Pals lets users create stories and scenes using characters, sound and movement on an iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch. Puppet Pals HD is only available for the iPad. The video below is a demo of the Puppet Pals app.

Ideas for the classroom

Individual students: Students can create digital stories and scenes to show scenarios, explore solutions, demonstrate understanding of concepts. Puppet Pals allows students to be at the heart of creation.

Small groups: Students can do tasks in a collaborative way using Puppet Pals. Each student can play the role of a character in their creation.

Tip: Puppet Pals has a few backgrounds and characters available. Additional characters and backgrounds can be bought in the app or added using the camera.

Caution: Be careful with logged in accounts in the App Store as purchases can be made in app.

Quick Facts

Description: Create scenes with sound, movement and characters.
Cost: Free, with pay add-ons
Link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/puppet-pals-hd/id342076546?mt=8
Grade Levels: K-12
Groupings: individual, small group

Links

• http://www.ipadsforeducation.vic.edu.au/education-apps/apps/38-puppet-pals from the Government of Victoria
• http://www.tme.ie/tablet-apps-in-education/2011/6/2/puppet-pals.html
• http://www.mindleaptech.com/language-arts/puppet-pals/

App Spotlight: Noterize

Noterize is an app that's available for the iPad. It allows users to take notes, and annotate notes and documents. Watch the video for an overview of what you can do with Noterize.

Ideas for the classroom

Individual students: Students could use Noterize to take class notes, for annotating and highlighting documents and sharing it with the teacher through Google docs or Dropbox, and for quick notes in the form of stickies.

Small groups: Students could give feedback to each other for peer editing using Noterize. Students could also share documents from Noterize to each other via e-mail, Dropbox or Google docs.

Whole class instructions: A teacher could model proofreading, editing, or other skills related to writing.

Tip: Noterize has a number of features that make it a useful productivity app. Try it yourself to determine its usefulness in your classroom.

Caution: Make sure that students are using authorized accounts if connecting Noterize to the cloud.

Quick Facts

Description: Create notes, or annotate documents.
Cost: Free
Link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/noterize/id364906681?mt=8
Grade Levels: Upper Elementary +
Groupings: Individual, small group, whole class