iPad+Development+of+Future+Initiatives

My university supervisor, cooperating instructor and myself met and discussed the possible uses of iPads in education. The discussion led us to many different 'swapping' of apps that can be downloaded and utilized on the iPad for education. The iPads that were purchased are planned to enter the elementary schools' libraries loaded with educational and assistive technology apps. Discussion continued into apps that could be use as assistive technology for students with special needs. English language learners (ELL) could use a number of apps to aid them in learning English. A popular educational app that we discussed was iSpeak Spanish. This app uses high quality text-to-speech to translate English to Spanish and vice versa. Another app that we discussed was iTranslate Plus. This app allows the translation of words and whole sentences in 52 languages and also contains a text-to-speech tool with 43 voices in 16 languages. There are many different communication apps designed for learners that have a language barrier.

After we discussed the apps pertaining to communication, we discussed apps that can help students with special needs and regular education in reading and math. Some reading apps we discussed were ABC Animals which is an interactive app with audio that provides the letter name, associated animal name and the phonetics of the animal. A math app that we discussed and felt was very powerful was Money - Learn to Count. This app allows the user to customize the values of money and then select the value that corresponds to bills and coins that are pictured.

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