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Android 4 Schools

Apps and Devices for Schools

Monthly Archives: December 2011

Use Google Sky to Know What You’re Looking at Tonight

While you’re up tonight waiting for The Ball to drop take a look up at the sky and observe the stars and planets. If you’re like me, you can probably recognize the Bigger Dipper and not much more. For folks like me Google has an Android App to help us figure out what we’re looking at when we stare into the night sky.

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.

The video below offers a nice introduction to the Google Sky Android app.

The Google Sky Android app could be a great app for students to use at home with their parents for an informal astronomy lesson.

Use Historypin’s Android App to View Historical Imagery

Historypin is a great website that allows you to place old images of places on current Google Streetview imagery. This past July they introduced some nice new features including a free Android App.

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.

You can learn more about Historypin in the video below.

Three Good Android Apps for Vocabulary Practice

Last year my school’s administration put on a big school-wide push for helping students develop their vocabulary skills. I was asked to put together a list of websites that students could use for that purpose. I published that list here. To complement that list, here are three Android apps that students can use to learn new vocabulary words.

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. Watch an overview this Android app in the video below.

 

Words, Words, Words is a free vocabulary app from Socratica. I have previously mentioned this app along with some others from Socratica here. 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 the fastest of all the apps. The simple interface offers two ways to play; match definitions to words or match words to definitions. Of the three apps listed here, the words I encountered on this app were the most challenging.

Periodic Droid is an Excellent Android App for Learning the Periodic Table

The Periodic Table is one of the things that haunt me I still remember from high school Chemistry. When I was in high school we had to memorize all of the elements on the Periodic Table. My classmates and I made flashcards and quizzed each other on it until we knew it backward and forward. Today, many Chemistry students still have to memorize the Periodic Table. The difference between my experience and that of today’s students is that they can study on their mobile devices.

Periodic Droid is a free Android app for studying and learning the elements on the Periodic Table. Unlike similar apps in the Android Marketplace, Periodic Droid is more than just a set of flashcards to put on a phone. Periodic Droid allows students to click through each element to discover information like the boiling point, crystal structure, and ionization potential of that element. Students can also click through to Wikipedia entries about each element.

Periodic Droid offers a practice quiz mode for students. Students can select from six different quiz modes. Each quiz can be based on recognizing elements’ names, atomic numbers, symbols, atomic weight, crystal structure, and boiling point.

Watch an overview of Periodic Droid in the video below. (The video does not have sound).

 

Periodic Droid functioned equally well on my phone and on my tablet.

Use Famigo to Create a Kids-only Section on Your Android Device

If your school is using Android devices and you’re looking for a way to keep young students from leaving the set of apps you’ve selected for them, Famigo Sandbox is an app that you should check out.

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 Famigo website offers categorized reviews of thousands of Android and iOS apps and games for kids. You can search Famigo by age group, app type, game type, and whether or not the app is free or paid.

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