One of the core principles of good iPad usage that my EdTechTeacher colleagues have developed is the idea that educators should focus on creation apps rather than content apps. Most apps that are designed to teach specific content are terrible, so educators shouldn’t think of iPads as repositories of apps but rather as portable media creation devices. Thus, educators don’t need to review and master the hundreds of education apps that come out every year; rather, they should consider how a small suite of apps related to annotation, curation, and image, audio, and video production could support diverse student performances of understanding.
In speaking with a group of educators recently, I stumbled upon a corollary of this principle: that all the apps a student or teacher really needs should be able to fit on one screen of your iPad. Here’s mine:
In the spirit of sharing teacher practice with iPads, I’m posting this image on Twitter with the hashtag #onescreen, and I hope others will do so as well, so we can all see what each other see as the most important tools for making the best possible use of iPads.
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