Back-to-school season is a busy time for teachers, students and parents. Between supplies, clothing and scheduling it’s easy to forget the most important part: the actual “schooling.”
It’s been said about everything, “there’s an app for that,” and it turns out that’s true for learning.
7 Action News scoured the internet for teacher-approved apps — downloadable content that will either help prepare your student for their day, or help them learn away from school.
StudyBlue
StudyBlue is a simple app with a great use: create flash cards in the blink of an eye. There is no more need to purchase card stock, colored pencils, or spend hours drawing/writing.
StudyBlue essentially allows you to take a picture, or use one already on your phone, and then write a description, a title and more. What’s more? You can even add audio to your flash card — take that paper old-school flash cards!
The nice part about StudyBlue is that you can share your flashcards with friends through the app, and there’s an easy to use shuffle tool that’s easier than real-life shuffling.
QUIZLET
Quizlet is StudyBlue on steroids — it’s a bit more complicated to use, but has a much larger amount of games to choose from.
In addition to basic flash cards you can turn your vocabulary test, or science homework, into full-fledged games. It takes a little time to get used to but it has a lot of options for a free app. Unlike StudyBlue, Quilt can also be used on a desktop.
ABCya.com
This app/website is an amazing game-based learning tool for ages 5 through 11. If you want to incentivize your young child to learn, this is a great option.
ABCya.com has more than 100 games and they’re free to play — all the games are interactive and require different skills to play ranging from math to language arts, even science. The web-based version uses Flash, which can require frequent updates, but the app is a breeze to use.
ABCya has been featured on everything from Apple to the New York Times and features numerous award-winning games.
Parents can navigate the games easily by picking your child’s grade, selecting a subject and then browsing the games offered for that specific skill set. There are also varying levels of difficulty so you can select the proper “challenge” for your student.
iStudiez Pro
This app is the only non-free item listed in our article, but that’s because it’s one of the best organizational tools we could find online.
iStudiez Pro does it all: manages your class schedule, contacts for teachers and fellow classmates, sets reminders for assignments/tests and much more — there are various apps on your phone that can help with this, but this app brings it all into one easy to find place. It’s almost like you bought a digital agenda book for your student when you download the iStudiez app.
The app is available on your phone, and on your desktop — but it’s much less expensive to download on your phone iPhone at $2.99 versus a $9.99 sticker price for your computer.
