The Best Educational Apps for iPad

The iPad in the classroom and at home brings education to life.

"There’s an education app for that" is true for just about anything you might desire in your classroom. No matter what kind of task you want to do, or what kind of problem you encounter, it is likely that there is an educational app designed to help address that specific need.

The fact is that there are just so many options for apps to use and educational approaches you could take. It is extremely difficult to navigate the digital world, and doubly so if you’re new to the unique features mobile devices offer. While there are many advantages, the simple fact that the options feel overwhelming may turn off many otherwise willing teachers.

From kindergarten through college, iPads offer educators more diverse methods for delivering instruction and engaging students for learning in the 21st century. Children have endless access to valuable information such as a dictionary, thesaurus and textbooks, which previously were only available in printed format. Interactive technology makes learning more engaging and memorable. Tools such as audio and video recorders can change the way that learning takes place and homework is completed.

We’ve looked at helpful apps for Android, so this list is more focused on educational apps for iPad.

Mathletics Student

( Android - Free , iPad - Free )

Mathletics is a program that supports the learning of numeracy concepts in an engaging manner. Over 4 million students in schools across the world are a part of their global learning community.

The main part of Mathletics is the maths practice section. Here, children can select an aspect of maths that they have been working to understand and then answer quick-fire questions on it. The incentive to do well is to beat other children working on the same questions at the same time. Parents may well find that a child previously reluctant to spend time on learning maths becomes much more interested when it is for competitive reasons.

DoodleMaths

Designed by maths teachers, Doodle Maths adapts to meet you child's current ability and knowledge - just like a teacher would. It facilitates frequent practise and provides help and support to learners who are subscribed to the service.

The app's mantra is "little and often". Children are prompted to complete a short selection of tasks each day. These cover various topics and, following a short assessment task, are chosen to keep your child's knowledge fresh and to address weaknesses.

IXL Math

An almost infinite amount of questions to develop and test students’ maths and english skills for all ages which will test skills learnt and possibly forgotten. Great for revision, the 'Smartscore' system promotes working through the questions, not guessing and the variety of question types is also admirable. Both parents and teachers can make good use of its contents to support their children’s mathematical development.

Parents and teachers alike can utilise it to ensure that their children master and remember the maths skills they are taught at school. Both teachers and students can track performance easily and in ways appropriate to their needs. Students can see their awards and accomplishments in the app.

Teach Your Monster to Read

( Android - £4.99 , iPad - £4.99 )

The Teach your Monster to Read application is an award winning app that teaches children to read in a fun and simplistic manner. The app covers the first two years of reading, from matching letters and sounds to enjoying books. The app has been designed in collaboration with academics at Roehampton university and Complements Phases 2-5 of UK Government-approved Letters and Sounds and other major systematic synthetic phonics programmes.

It is a great way for children to learn phonics in a fun way and offers a vast number of letters and games which makes it real value for money. This application comes highly recommended by the educational Appstore and we believe that this is one of the best phonics apps available.

Show My Homework

( Android - Free , iPad - Free )

Show My Homework has been built around a clear vision of how technology can help everybody in the process of setting and completing homework. It is fully featured for its specific purpose but not bloated with superfluous features. This keeps it simple to use for everybody. Schools that adopt it will need to put a little work in at the start to ensure that it is universally supported and used by staff, parents and students. The reward will be a much more effective use of homework.

Homework apps - Get push notifications straight to your pocket abour reminders for upcoming homework. Homework To Do List - View homework due on your To-do List and stay organised by marking off tasks you’ve completed. See homework online with all homework attachments, deadlines and instructions online, you have everything you need at your fingertips.