Best Reference Apps in Education

WhoKnew is an amusing and engaging app designed to deliver interesting and unusual facts, these facts are accompanied by excellent graphics and illustrations related to the facts that help the user remember the individual suggest for facts. Each fact is presented randomly and there are over four hundred of them. Each fact can be snapshot so that you can share them with your friends and family. Overall a good app when you consider this is the first launch of a budding programmer.

Platforms: iPhone, iPad

WolframAlpha app provides information about genomics, molecular biology, human anatomy, neuroscience and individual animals and plants. Using the computational power behind WolframAlpha, you can solve problems involving physics, chemistry, engineering, computational sciences and many other domains. Wolfram Alpha has extensive knowledge related to science and technology. 

Platforms: Android, iPhone, iPad

Commonly known as the world’s most comprehensive dictionary. You can use the dictionary and encyclopaedia in 14 languages (English, Spanish, French, German, Mandarin, and Russian amongst others). This is an excellent “wiki” style resource which can act as a reference app in order to encourage fresh connections between ideas, experiences texts and words. The app can serve as dictionary, thesaurus, translation tool and encyclopaedia. There are also a few games within the app that pupils may like to play in order to expand their vocabulary and spelling. Encouraging pupils to use it as a resource to begin searching for things would be an interesting activity for the classroom or homework.

Platforms: Android

A fantastically-designed app to encourage healthy eating.

Platforms: Android, iPhone, iPad

Tree of life is an app that allows the user to investigate the family level phylogenetic tree of all organisms allowing users to investigate the evolution history of the bio-diversity off all species. This is a app of huge depth and breadth of learning and to say that the content is exhaustive is a major understatement as the app refers to over 2,000 organisms.

Platforms: iPhone, iPad

GCSE German Prep Flashcards is a helpful revision aid that can be used anywhere. Great for quick sessions on the bus, or just before going to bed, this app will help you form quick associations between a key term and its meaning. More progress tracking options would be a great plus, but this app has received an EAS Certification of 5 Stars.

Platforms: iPhone, iPad

A fantastic app for letting children appreciate the similarities and differences they share with others around the world.

Platforms: iPhone, iPad

TED stands for ‘Technology, Entertainment, Design’ and its free official Android app brings you more than 1,500 academic ‘talks’ consisting of short speeches and demonstrations closely related to their ‘ideas worth spreading’ concept. With talks, usually up to 20 minutes long, from ‘some of the world's most fascinating people: education radicals, tech geniuses, medical mavericks, business gurus, and music legends’ you will be kept entertained, informed, engaged and amused. A 5 star EAS Certification and the EAS Recommended status.

Platforms: Android

WordReference.com is one of the popular dictionary app for Android which has all the features that it has in their website. It has a simple layout and one can search the word by typing it into search bar to get the results. The app supports several languages, as they say, English to and from: Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, Polish, Romanian, Czech, Greek, Turkish, Japanese, Chinese, Korean and Arabic. You just got to choose the language you want and write the desired word. The results will appear as in the website and if you're not happy with them, you can always check out the forum posts and ask your doubts there. The only concern is that you need an internet connection to look for the definitions. Hyperlinks for Merriam-Webster and dictionary.com are shown at the bottom if you need more definitions about the word.

Platforms: Android

This is app has a staggering amount of information – If you’re studying maths at high school or University, and want reference guide for formulas, this is definitely the app for you.

Platforms: Android, iPhone, iPad

Timbuktu Magazine is a great variety “magazine-games” app that will keep Primary School children entertained for hours. Just like the Children’s Features section in a Sunday newspaper, the app has a range of games, stories, ideas for activities, science knowledge, literacy and numeracy practice. The app empowers children to embrace learning as a fun activity. The content and quality of the app is very high and we have given the app an EAS Certification of 5 and EAS recommended status.

Platforms: iPhone, iPad

Dictionary(dot)com app has two easily interchangeable modes: dictionary and thesaurus. The search box with voice recognition button (microphone) is present at the top of all pages. The main page lets users choose and read daily (and previous) updates, view recent searches, and access saved words.   Dictionary.com is a pretty darn convenient way to improve spelling, vocabulary, and knowledge with modern bells and whistles not possible in a traditional book format -- voice recognition, daily updates, favorites, and search history.

Platforms: Android, iPhone, iPad

A dictionary targeted at high school age students and up. It contains over 2,000 new words and is based on the Merrriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. It can be used for defining words, pronunciation, and part of speech.

Platforms: Android, iPhone, iPad

Over 300,000 alternative words cover everyday vocabulary as well as more unusual and specialist words, alongside a clear indicator of informal, dialect, literary, and technical items. Other useful features include thousands of example phrases helping you to select the correct word, with opposites and related terms clearly marked.

Platforms: iPhone, iPad

Word Vault stores all the words you want to remember and helps you to internalize them. Mundane, exotic, functional, highfalutin: amass a cache of words you love.

Platforms: iPhone, iPad

iTranslate Voice currently supports 42 languages for both translation and dictionary services. Just speak the phrase or word you want to translate and iTranslate Voice speaks the target language. If you are misunderstood, you can tap the pencil to correct iTranslate Voice. AirTranslate lets you pair with someone else wirelessly who also has iTranslate Voice installed. You can both speak your native languages and let iTranslate Voice take care of the rest.

Platforms: iPhone, iPad

This app shows you the path that the sun will take through the sky on any day of the year for your current location. It also has a handy data screen that tells you sunrise, sunset, golden hour and twilight times.

Platforms: Android

ColorDict Dictionary allows you to search for words in Wikipedia, Wordnet and StarDict. It is a quick search online & offline dictionaries available at once.

Platforms: Android

Famous Painting is the online resource to learn about the works of classic artists like Michelangelo, Rembrandt, and van Gogh. 

Platforms: Android

The Longman Collocations Dictionary and Thesaurus is a unique blend of two dictionaries, helping learners of English to choose the correct word and collocation every time. The 6th edition of the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English is the complete online vocabulary and grammar resource for students and teachers.

Platforms: Android, iPhone, iPad

Oxford Dictionary of English is widely accepted as one of the highest authorities in the study and reference of English language globally, with more than 150 years of research behind it.

Platforms: iPhone, iPad

Tapestry is a secure online Learning Journal to record photos, observations and comments, in line with the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum, to build up a record of your child’s experiences during their time with us. This system allows us to work with parents and carers to share information and record the children’s play and learning in and outside of the classroom.    

Platforms: Android, iPhone, iPad

SmartCards is more than a flashcard system. It’s able to learn what you know and remember what you forget. You’re able to create your own set of flashcards with text images and sound, or import pre-made decks from flashcard programs like Anki and Quizlet. Then review your cards to commit them to longterm memory. SmartCards learns from your mistakes and suggests daily reviews based on your performance. The app includes real-time cloud syncing, smart keyboard switching for language learners, and iPad split screen support.

Platforms: iPhone, iPad

The Urban Dictionary app is a crowdsourced slang dictionary that records new words and their meanings. Part of Urban Dictionary’s app is its informal approach, which allows both definitions and descriptions of slang and non slang words.    A voting system allows users to share on Facebook, Twitter, email and other services to show admiration or disdain, revealing words’ popularity. Urban Word of the Day allows the user to learn new words quickly.

Platforms: iPhone, iPad

Encyclopedia by Farlex gives you free, instant access to more than 330,000 articles, over 77,000 audio pronunciations, and 24,000 images, all from the most trusted sources, including McGraw-Hill, Harper-Collins, Columbia University Press, Cambridge University Press, and more—all in one app!

Platforms: iPhone, iPad