MyGrades, the intuitive and flexible grade manager - Outreach Program #3

myGrades is an easy, flexible grade tracker for iPhone and iPod Touch which adapts to many types of grading scales. Using myGrades you can easily track the most complex of grading scales. Its ease of use and flexibility makes it a good solution for elementary school all the way up to the University level. myGrades can separate courses into weighted sections and also has support for any scale, not just percentage-based scales, using the same simple interface.

myGrades relates to education on the student level. Many students like to track their progress assignment-by-assignment and make projections about how their semester grades will change if they make certain grades on future assignments. myGrades easily allows this, and the flow of the application emphasizes the student's ongoing progress throughout the year as they get closer and closer to the maximum score for the course (at least we hope!)

Strange Sam - Outreach Program #2

Outreach ProgramAs mobile devices grow more ubiquitous, more children begin using them as educational and entertainment resources every year. The growth in the popularity of such devices sometimes occurs at the expense of more traditional children's media, like the paper-based picture book. However, we realize that these emerging technologies can be used to promote traditional media such as children's books and make them accessible to a wider audience than was possible previously.

While Strange Sam is centered around a highly original, compelling story and beautiful watercolor illustrations, it introduces several new features not found in traditional picture books. These features include an audio soundtrack comprised of background music and two narration options, illustrations that animate when the page is touched by the reader, and an automatic page turn feature for readers who may have difficulty turning the pages themselves.

In addition, Strange Sam is priced at a fraction of the cost of a traditional picture book. All of these features make Strange Sam more accessible to a greater number of children. We hope that interactive picture books like Strange Sam will promote literacy in children who prefer entertainment like cartoons and video games and make reading more accessible to children who found it challenging previously.

Volunteer-O-Matic - Outreach Program #1

Outreach ProgramWhile my app is not technically "an educational application," I have heard from numerous users that Volunteer-O-Matic is a "must have for every teacher."

Essentially, Volunteer-O-Matic greatly simplifies drawing names, tasks, numbers, or chores out of a hat by letting the user create lists of these items and then using a randomizer function to randomly select an entry from the list. For instance, a teacher could create a list for each grade (a one-time setup process that should take only a few minutes even for larger classes) and then use Volunteer-O-Matic to randomly select a student from that list whenever the need arises. To avoid picking the same person twice, the name of the lucky volunteer can be removed from the next spin by simply selecting the "Remove entry from next spin" button. Other lists can include chores (e.g. "clean hamster cage," etc.) or pure numbers whenever a randomly generated number between 1 and 99 is required. I have attached a few screenshots.

For an unbiased review, please see http://www.appcraver.com/volunteer-o-matic/

Free Outreach Program - IEAR.org

We are trying to increase the knowledge base on what is available for educators by using IPhones / Touch / IPod and other forms of mobile learning in the classroom. The main goal of I Education Apps Review ( http://www.iear.org ) is to help educators successfully utilize these devices in their classrooms. 

One of the recent ideas that we are exploring is the offer to allow app developers to advertise their apps on our site for free. We are calling this program the "Free Outreach Program".  There is no monetary gain for any members of I Educational Apps Review exchanged for this convenience! This is a free resource for educators and app developers to use to come together and discuss the viability of these devices in schools and classrooms. 

Here is what we plan on doing ... App developers can send us an explanation of their educational app, screen shot(s) and make a case or argument for why they think their app is "educational". We will post this basic information on our site for free with the Tag "Outreach Program". These posts will not get listed in the review categories or with any other tag so as to help keep the official reviews separate. Additionally, there will be an image posted with the entry identifying it as a submission from an app developer and not an educational reviewer. Simple as that ... Free advertising and yet trying to spread the word on what is possible with these devices.

Additionally, we are hoping that all app designers and educators interested in these devices for educational purposes consider joining the community http://ieducationappsreview.ning.com. Perhaps the app designers will give away free redeem codes for educators to try them out. Just post them in the NING without any strings attached!  Teachers love to give educational critiques!