Here’s my selection of apps for the AppGrab. I’m a little surprised. I have loads of apps on my phone and iPad but it turns out that, for learning (specifically learning and not teaching or other things) these are the things I use. As a postgraduate lifelong scholar my choices may have a particular skew:
- Evernote – I don’t use this as well or as much as I should but I use it for bookmarking and capturing web-based content and for writing up notes from seminars etc.
- Voice Record – I have looked at and downloaded every audio app going. This works well for me. I record all sorts of things both as I study and work, but also as I relax (music). I am really impressed with the recording capabilities of smart technologies. Wherever I am I can always convert a mental note into an audio note. As a teacher I have used audio for creating feedback, and involved learners in feedback discussions.
- Pages – not perfect, but the best word processor I have found for my iPad. I do a lot of writing and most of it comes through Pages on several iterations. And increasingly via DropBox.
- DropBox – I was late to DropBox but I am a total convert. Originally deterred by the limited free space, it is great for collaboration. I use GoogleDrive and iCloud (for Pages, Keynote etc by default) too, but DropBox syncs everything to all my devices/PCs. Perhaps I should be more confidently cloud-based?
- Dictionary – I am not a perfect speller, and I’m always sure there’s a better word and Dictionary with its added Thesaurus is great. I have bought the rhyming dictionary too, for fun.
- Capture – make videos and upload them to YouTube. I have a research project at the moment about supporting student reflection through technology and this is the app for the job
- Explain Everything – a great screencasting app for putting a voice over to a series of slides. Good for digital posters.
- iBooks – I download and read loads of journal articles. I was tempted to have Mendeley here too but I am not as tidy as I’d like to be and with Chrome, and Evernote to hand I usually can find what I need if I’m connected.
- Camera – fancy having a camera in your pencil case! Wow! That’s different…
I probably should have included Chrome, Twitter, email. But I didn’t!
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