Tag Archives for ICT

The 40 Best iPad Apps for Young Learners

January 16, 2012

The best way to get your parents to buy you expensive gadgets has always been to really sell the educational value. “But Mom, if you buy me a Nintendo, think about how much my spelling will improve playing Wheel of Fortune.” Of course, these days it’s all about the iPad. For every Angry Birds there’s an educational game out there to improve your child’s mind. Here are 40 of the best apps for your young Einstein. Most of them are paid apps, but if you’ve got $500 to drop on an iPad, we’re thinking you won’t mind.

Math

  1. Math Evolve: Nominated for “Best Educational Game of 2011,” Math Evolve teaches the math basics through gameplay involving a dolphin shooting lasers at sea creatures.
  2. MathBoard: MathBoard works because of its highly-customizable features, like creating timed math quizzes or making quizzes out of questions answered incorrectly.
  3. Motion Math: “Putting the action in fraction,” Motion Math has players put fractions in order to help a fallen star move back into the sky.
  4. PopMath Basic Math: Match pairs of balloons that have the same value, using one of the four basic math skills to deduce the answer, and be treated to a very satisfying “pop.”
  5. Math Ninja HD: You know you’ve interested the boys with just the word “ninja.” You must protect your treehouse from an evil tomato by using math. OK then!
  6. Math Bingo Games — A Racing Game: Fun app for such a clunky title. Solve the math problems to keep your race car from crashing.
  7. Numbers League: Combining super heroes and comic book graphics with math was a stroke of genius. Kids and adults love this game.
  8. Bugs and Buttons: B&B helps pre-schoolers practice counting, but there’s also a bunch of fun, silly games paired with great graphics to keep them entertained.

Spelling and Reading

  1. Monkey Preschool Lunchbox: Teach your preschooler to spell with this colorful game where kids help primates prepare packaged provisions.
  2. Dr. Seuss’s ABC: Who better to teach your kids to spell than the legend himself? This award-winning app is a hit with parents and kids.
  3. Bookworm: This addicting word-search game is great for students who know how to spell and want to expand their vocabularies.
  4. Toy Story 3 Read-Along: Record your own voice for playback reading to your toddler, or let him or her fingerpaint or sing along with songs from the film.
  5. Shakespeare in Bits: Romeo & Juliet iPad Edition: It’s never too early to expose your kids to the Bard. Well, 8 might be too early, but 9 and up is fine.
  6. SUPER WHY! for iPad: From PBS Kids, this app lets you play as any of the four characters from the TV show as they write, rhyme, read, and spell.
  7. iWriteWords: iWW lets youngin’s practice handwriting and have completed words read back to them. The colors are bright and the graphics are fun.
  8. Textropolis: Best for more-advanced spellers, players build up their own Textropolis by beating word-search games. Whole families play this one together.

Science

  1. Star Walk: The amazing app comes to the iPad, enabling kids to tilt the screen to the night sky and learn what constellations they’re looking at.
  2. NASA App HD: For all the future astronauts out there, this app lets them keep track of space stations, launch progress, and agency news.
  3. Elements Quiz: If you’ve got a chemist in the making, download this cheap app with clean navigation of the periodic table.
  4. Discover Dinosaurs: What kid doesn’t love dinosaurs? Tikes collect gold stars by beating quizzes on their way to becoming a T-Rexpert.
  5. Discover Your Body HD: Fun sound effects and bright graphics help kids figure out all those fun organs and body parts. Don’t worry, the reproductive system is not featured.
  6. I Learn with Poko: Seasons and Weather! HD: Poko is here to teach kids 3 to 7 about weather, seasons, and the calendar.
  7. Ultimate Dinopedia: Because kids love dinosaurs so much, here’s another great app with info and terrific artwork on 700+ dinos.

Special Education

  1. soundAMP R: If your child is hard of hearing, download this app for him or her that will amplify every sound coming out of the iPad with crystal-clear quality.
  2. My First AAC: This app is designed to assist toddlers with speech disorders by letting them point to icons to produce words. Twenty-five bucks is a small price to pay to let your child express himself.
  3. Read2Go: People with difficulty reading traditional media are already familiar with Daisy e-reader books. This is the best app for reading them.
  4. Model Me Going Places 2: The “Model Me” series are designed for kids with autism or Asperger’s. This app teaches them appropriate behavior in various public settings.
  5. Speech with Milo: Verbs: A speech-language pathologist created this helpful app where Milo the mouse performs 100 actions, speaking the word upon completion of each.
  6. iReward: iReward is a tool to help parents motivate and reinforce the positive behavior of kids of all abilities, but especially developmentally challenged ones.

Various Subjects

  1. The Moron Test: This app wouldn’t be worth introducing that word to your kids if it wasn’t so great. It’s part IQ test, part reflex test, and all fun.
  2. WeetWoo!: For $4 you get access to an extensive library of kid-friendly fun and educational videos collected by parents. Parents rave about this app.
  3. Fish School: Little synchronized swimming fish hold your kids’ attention while teaching them colors, letters, numbers, and shapes.
  4. Tangram XL: Here’s a free app that reproduces the simple joy of tangram puzzles. It’ll strengthen your child’s ability to determine spatial relationships.
  5. Nota for iPad: Kids as young as 4 can use this app to learn about musical notes, scales, octaves, chords, and more musicology.
  6. My PlayHome: In the 90s, we had Home Ec; today, kids have My PlayHome. It’s a great way for kids to explore and learn about the world of the home.
  7. Geo Walk HD — 3D World Fact Book: Hold the world in the palm of your hand with this app that lets you touch 500 places on the globe to bring up amazing facts about our planet and its inhabitants.
  8. Toontastic: Bring out your child’s creative side with this app that lets kids create their own cartoons about pirates, princes and princesses, and more.
  9. gFlash+ Flashcards & Tests: Great for any age of student, gFlash+ lets you create your own cards, share them across the web, and even quiz yourself from either side of the cards.
  10. iStart Spanish: Kids’ brains are like sponges; childhood is the easiest time to learn a language. iStart is the best app to help them do it.
  11. Brain Trainer by Lumosity.com: For kids of all ages, this app offers brain teasers to improve your memory and problem-solving skills.

In iPad, autistic children find a rewarding, learning tool

Ten-year-old Deepak Ramesh loves a good puzzle. Having dragged a dozen jigsaw pieces — head, tail, neck, legs — into place, he squeals when a robotic voice spells out the name of the animal. “Giraffe,” he echoes, then starts to piece together an elephant on his latest gadget: the iPad.

For the last two months, Deepak and 14 other autistic children have been swiping, pinching and tapping their way to a better life. Five days a week, one-and-a-half hours each day, they come to Prayas, a computer and iPad training centre for such children on the campus of the Spastics Society of Karnataka in Bangalore. Parents and teachers associated with the project, launched in July 2011 by the Autism Society of India in collaboration with SAP Labs India, a software applications research company, say the iPad has already had a positive effect.

Kavita Sharma, herself the mother of an autistic child, manages Prayas and says such children have a penchant for technology. “There are dozens of visually striking and easy-to-follow iPad applications — ranging from voice-assisted writing for early learners to Wordsearch, which involves scanning a screen full of letters for words, to doodling apps — that help special children improve their cognitive skills while also enjoying the pleasure of a challenge,” says Sharma. “There is a free app called Talking Tom, for instance. It’s a cat that repeats whatever you say. A five-year-old here has learned to speak much better by exploring his voice through the app.”

The centre, with half a dozen computers and seven iPads loaded with handpicked applications, offers a five-month course.

“We have got requests for five or six more labs, but first, we want to see how this one goes,” says V R Ferose, MD, SAP Labs India. The idea began as a series of monthly iPad workshops for parents and teachers working with autistic children, conducted by SAP Labs volunteers from their Whitefield campus. “One out of every 250 children born in India is autistic. Technology can be an enabler in their learning and help make them independent. Since the points of action and reaction are the same in the iPad, unlike in a computer where you type on the keyboard and the output appears on the screen, it is a great platform for these children to learn,” says Ferose. SAP Labs plans to modify existing iPad apps and to build customised content for special educators and parents in India.

At Prayas, Preksha, 21, a cheerful woman who can sing all ABBA and Phil Collins numbers from memory, now has an iPad of her own. “We went to a SAP Labs workshop and I thought I should get her one. She loves reading epapers and abridged Shakespeare ebooks on her iPad and she has recently discovered photography,” says Vani Rajendran, her mother.

Shobha Ramesh, Deepak’s mother, says she is happy with his progress. “He draws better, his typing skills have improved. He doesn’t like it if I correct him. When he enters a wrong input on the iPad and it doesn’t accept it, he corrects himself,” she says. Deepak’s favourite apps are puzzles and Wordsearch, and he is good at both.

On a Monday morning, Sharma’s son, 15-year-old Ujjwal, is busy animating a butterfly on a desktop computer. The gadget-savvy teen prefers the PC for learning and uses his iPad to connect with friends on Facebook and to download music.

For some children, the iPad is like a walk in the garden — it destresses and entertains. Mayank Misra, a 10-year-old non-verbal child, counts strawberries and grapes on an iPad. “He is going through a low, he has been reticent of late,” says Sonal Joshi, staff member. Despite being good at typing, maths and pattern recognition, a moody Mayank refuses to go anywhere near a PC. “He likes to sit here on this bench and play games on the iPad,” Joshi says.  

Priya Shah, a special educator who homeschools her 10-year-old son Tarun, says autistic children tend to fixate on things. “They like gadgets, so they may fixate on the iPad too. The challenge is to channel this enthusiasm and help them get better at dealing with life.”

The Indian Express

In iPad, autistic children find a rewarding, learning tool

Ten-year-old Deepak Ramesh loves a good puzzle. Having dragged a dozen jigsaw pieces — head, tail, neck, legs — into place, he squeals when a robotic voice spells out the name of the animal. “Giraffe,” he echoes, then starts to piece together an elephant on his latest gadget: the iPad.

For the last two months, Deepak and 14 other autistic children have been swiping, pinching and tapping their way to a better life. Five days a week, one-and-a-half hours each day, they come to Prayas, a computer and iPad training centre for such children on the campus of the Spastics Society of Karnataka in Bangalore. Parents and teachers associated with the project, launched in July 2011 by the Autism Society of India in collaboration with SAP Labs India, a software applications research company, say the iPad has already had a positive effect.

Kavita Sharma, herself the mother of an autistic child, manages Prayas and says such children have a penchant for technology. “There are dozens of visually striking and easy-to-follow iPad applications — ranging from voice-assisted writing for early learners to Wordsearch, which involves scanning a screen full of letters for words, to doodling apps — that help special children improve their cognitive skills while also enjoying the pleasure of a challenge,” says Sharma. “There is a free app called Talking Tom, for instance. It’s a cat that repeats whatever you say. A five-year-old here has learned to speak much better by exploring his voice through the app.”

The centre, with half a dozen computers and seven iPads loaded with handpicked applications, offers a five-month course.

“We have got requests for five or six more labs, but first, we want to see how this one goes,” says V R Ferose, MD, SAP Labs India. The idea began as a series of monthly iPad workshops for parents and teachers working with autistic children, conducted by SAP Labs volunteers from their Whitefield campus. “One out of every 250 children born in India is autistic. Technology can be an enabler in their learning and help make them independent. Since the points of action and reaction are the same in the iPad, unlike in a computer where you type on the keyboard and the output appears on the screen, it is a great platform for these children to learn,” says Ferose. SAP Labs plans to modify existing iPad apps and to build customised content for special educators and parents in India.

At Prayas, Preksha, 21, a cheerful woman who can sing all ABBA and Phil Collins numbers from memory, now has an iPad of her own. “We went to a SAP Labs workshop and I thought I should get her one. She loves reading epapers and abridged Shakespeare ebooks on her iPad and she has recently discovered photography,” says Vani Rajendran, her mother.

Shobha Ramesh, Deepak’s mother, says she is happy with his progress. “He draws better, his typing skills have improved. He doesn’t like it if I correct him. When he enters a wrong input on the iPad and it doesn’t accept it, he corrects himself,” she says. Deepak’s favourite apps are puzzles and Wordsearch, and he is good at both.

On a Monday morning, Sharma’s son, 15-year-old Ujjwal, is busy animating a butterfly on a desktop computer. The gadget-savvy teen prefers the PC for learning and uses his iPad to connect with friends on Facebook and to download music.

For some children, the iPad is like a walk in the garden — it destresses and entertains. Mayank Misra, a 10-year-old non-verbal child, counts strawberries and grapes on an iPad. “He is going through a low, he has been reticent of late,” says Sonal Joshi, staff member. Despite being good at typing, maths and pattern recognition, a moody Mayank refuses to go anywhere near a PC. “He likes to sit here on this bench and play games on the iPad,” Joshi says.  

Priya Shah, a special educator who homeschools her 10-year-old son Tarun, says autistic children tend to fixate on things. “They like gadgets, so they may fixate on the iPad too. The challenge is to channel this enthusiasm and help them get better at dealing with life.”

The Indian Express

4 Ways iPads Are Changing the Lives of People With Disabilities

Noah Rahman has moderate Cerebral Palsy affecting his communication, cognition and upper and lower body movement. When he turned two, his language, cognitive ability and fine motor skills were diagnosed by a developmental specialist as being at least 12 months behind. Then Noah got an iPad.

Four months later, his language and cognition were on par with his age level. His fine motor skills had made significant leaps.

Today, the three-year-old (pictured at right with his father) spends an hour or two on his iPad each day. He switches his apps between reading and writing in English, Arabic and Spanish. In the fall, he’ll enter a classroom of five-year-olds. “The iPad unlocked his motivation and his desire because it’s fun,” says his dad Sami Rahman, co-founder of SNApps4Kids, a community of parents, therapists and educators sharing their experiences using the iPad, iPod touch, iPhone and Android to help children with special needs.

SNApps4Kids taps into a burgeoning trend for people with disabilities. Touch devices — most notably the iPad — are revolutionizing the lives of children, adults and seniors with special needs. Rahman estimates some 40,000 apps have been developed for this demographic.

“Touch has made it exceptionally accessible — everyone has an iPad, everyone has an iPod,” says Michelle Diament, cofounder of Disability Scoop, a source for news relating to developmental disabilities. “If you’re someone with a disability, having something that other people are using makes you feel like part of the in-crowd.”

For people lacking motor skills, touch screens are more intuitive devices. There is no mouse, keyboard or pen intercepting their communication with the screen. Larger platforms, like iPads, are preferred over smaller iOSand Android devices for ease-of-use and, of course, the cool factor.

Here are four ways that touch devices are changing the lives of people with disabilities:

As a Communicator

Before the iPad and other similar devices, using touch-to-speak technology was incredibly expensive, costing around $8,000. Now, it only costs $499 for an iPad and $189.99 for a thorough touch-to-speak app likeProloquo2Go.  That relative affordability has made the technology more available for children and adults that can’t use their voice. With the simple touch of an iPad, a hungry non-verbal person can communicate exactly what he or she would like to eat. Those apps can then be customized with photos or features to suit an individual’s life and needs. Another option is Assistive Chat, which predicts several sentence completion options. For the most severely disabled people, Yes|No is a simple app that allows individuals to voice their preference in yes-or-no responses.

“It gives dignity back to people who are more disabled,” says Vicki Windham, a special education teacher in the Clarkstown Central School District who trains people of all ages to make the most of their iPads. Windhamreviews apps for people with a variety of special needs.

For hard-of-hearing iPad users, soundAmp R amplifies sound in a variety of situations. Users can also record lectures or presentations they want to listen to again later.

As a Therapeutic Device

SNApps4Kids co-founder Cristen Reat’s son Vincent was born with Down syndrome, which can also lead to low-muscle mass. While he can walk, Reat describes his son as a Buddha that prefers to sit still most of the time. Throughout his life, Vincent’s therapists and parents have tried to help him be more active. It was not until his physical therapist placed an iPad on a treadmill that Vincent was motivated to walk. He now stays on for nine and a half minutes, interacting with his iPad while he’s in motion.

In addition to increasing his gross motor ability to walk, Vincent’s iPad has helped his fine motor skills. For Vincent, computers and older technology required visual shifting — between a mouse or keyboard and the screen. On an iPad, Vincent can watch as one of his fingers writes directly on the screen to make selections.

Similarly, Noah Rahman has shown motor improvement. After playing the Elmo Loves ABCs app on his iPad, he can write the entire alphabet, requiring sophisticated finger isolation. As a three-year-old, this puts him well above his grade level. “First it was ‘do it for me,’ then it was ‘do it with me,’ now he does it by himself,” says Noah’s father.

As an Educational Tool

Years ago, one of Jeremy Brown’s autistic elementary school students picked up his iPhone off his desk and began navigating the iOS with ease. “It’s like a fish to water,” says Brown, a teacher for autistic elementary school students, of his students’ interactions with touch technology.

Brown is immersed in online discussions of technology and special education, moderating the Facebook groupiTeach Special Education, collaborating on the podcast EdCeptional and coauthoring the blog Teaching All Students. While use of the iPad in classrooms is not yet approved in his school district, he believes the iPad is a great supplemental method of instruction, estimating 80% to 90% of his students with autism see great results when using iOS devices. Brown hopes his school district and others across the country will approve iPads in the classroom.

While no one advocates replacing traditional instruction, a number of apps do address academic subjects from math to language to reading and writing. In October 2010, Apple even featured an “Apps for Special Education” section in the App Store.

Brown encourages parents to separate their children’s recreational uses of the iPad from those in the classroom. Some students may watch YouTube videos on the school bus but while they’re at school they know Mr. Brown’s iPads are only for education.

As a Behavior Monitor

Behavior Tracker Pro is a popular app for parents, therapists and teachers to quantify the behavioural progress of children with special needs. In addition to taking notes, good and bad behaviours can be video recorded and later reviewed. The app automatically turns that input into visual graphs and charts.

High school teacher Vicki Windman notes that the iPad can also be a great way to strengthen and reinforce memory for seniors with Alzheimer’s or memory loss. Still, she warns that touch technology is not a miracle drug: “You’re not curing Alzheimer’s. Parents challenge me all the time — they want a cure. It’s no cure.”

That doesn’t mean it can’t help. Apps like Medication Reminder tell users when it’s time to take medication.Memory Practice, a memory strengthening app, was created for the developer’s mother shortly after she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Windman’s father uses an app called Nudge, which gives him a persistent reminder every fifteen minutes to accomplish lapsed tasks on his to-do list.

Long-Roads Ahead

Despite these successes, SNApps4Kids cofounder Cristen Reat recommends a measured approach. “Just because you buy a device doesn’t mean it’s going to change anything,” she says.

Rahman agrees. He says that viewing the iPad as the solution is the backwards approach. “We are big advocates that the user needs to understand the objectives first before you pick the technology,” Rahman says. “We’re not just putting [our son] in front of an iPad and walking away. That’s the real key.”

Wipro to open development centre in Australia

BANGALORE – Global software major Wipro Ltd will boost its presence in Australia by opening a 150-seat software development centre at Melbourne this December, the IT bellwether said Wednesday.  Announcing the decision on the occasion of Victoria premier John Brumbys visit to the companys corporate headquarters in this tech hub, Wipro chairman Azim Premji said the Victorian operations would strengthen the companys Australia delivery capabilities and boost its presence in the country.  Victoria accounts for about 50 percent of our business in Australia, with some of our large clients based there. We have a close working relationship with the Victorian government, Premji told Brumby on the occasion.  Wipro has about 800 employees working for Australian clients. The IT giant recently launched the Australian scholarship programme, as part of the graduate recruitment programme in collaboration with the Australian Computer Society (ACS) Foundation.

Victoria also offers many world-class universities and large numbers of highly skilled ICT graduates. Such a combination of support and talent is what we look for in a strategic business location, Premji noted.  Welcoming Wipro to his province, Brumby said the IT bellwether was in talks with some Victorian universities for internships, skill development and joint projects.  Wipros Melbourne operations will play an integral role in its expansion in Australia. The decision to base one of its centres in Melbourne is testament to our governments focus on innovation and the information and communications technology (ICT) sector, Brumby said.  The company plans to hire about 100 local engineers for the centre in the next 12 months to provide integrated business, technology and process solutions to clients there.  Victoria accounts for a third of Australias ICT enrolments to create skills required by global firms like Wipro, Brumby added.

With the second largest population (five million) in Australia, Victoria is one of the worlds greatest migration success stories. About 70 percent of Victorians live in the states capital Melbourne. The province contributes about 25 percent to the countrys economy.  Wipros leading rival Infosys Technologies Ltd also operates a subsidiary in Australia.  Earlier, interacting with members of the Association of Biotechnology-led Enterprise (ABLE) and the National Association of Software and Services Company (Nasscom) here, Brumby said his province was an attractive destination for trade and investment.   Indian firms should invest in Victoria taking advantage of innovation, biotechnology and ICT, the premier added.