We replaced all of the middle school laptops with White Macbooks running Leopard. We install most of the usual suspects which I won’t go into too much detail about.  We use Office, but have included iWork 09 and NeoOffice this year which are going to help us study which way we are going to go with these types of apps. Trying to shake the reliance on Office so looking at these and Google Apps.

Since we use Macs we include iLife 09 but still include iMovie 06.  We find that some of our younger students struggle with the new iMovie interface so for what we do either one works just fine. Also the standard video players come with our laptops – Quicktime Player and Flip for Mac to play WMV files easily.(3-2 Reds – Cardinals get Holliday, Lilly has shoulder problems, feels right)

But many of our apps are freeware or open source apps that we have found over the years. The goal is to provide something for all subject areas which we think we are getting close to doing. And although kids don’t have a lot of idle time at school, limit the draw of online shoot ‘em up games and the like. All of these are free unless otherwise noted.

Acorn – of course the first one alphabetically is not free, check with Flying Meat for pricing info. But we had been using Photoshop Elements v 2.0 for years on our iBooks. Upgrading was quite costly so we are moving to the nifty Acorn. As mentioned it’s an image editor for the rest of us which I think our younger ones will be able to pick up quite quickly. We also have Adobe Fireworks 8 as an option for image manipulation.

Aquallegro – ear training for music classes. We do have a Midi Lab but this is a small app that has many features including  Note Names, Intervals, Solfege, etc. There is a wide range of configurable options that make this app usable by all ages – including those whose ears are very rusty like myself.

aTypeTrainer4Mac – simple typing trainer that spits out a report when done and can import text files that you can practice typing.  Works in various languages as well. Parents often ask for a typing app so their child can practice.

Audacity -  iLife has GarageBand but we do also include Audacity for quick recording needs.

Caveman’s Calculator – in an increasing digital world I thought we would include an analog tool. A humble slide ruler that can be used for many mathematical applications.(Cubs 3 Reds 3)

Celestia – students can fly through space visiting virtually any planet – really quite amazing resource for any science class studying outer space. Check out the Demo(Celestia->Demo) to see what this app does.

CRONoMeter –  dietary tracker that is for good health practices. This will be the first year for this app but it will be used in science class and I could see possibilities for this in PE or Health class.(Still 3-3 but Ron Santo is talking about seeing the movie The Hangover, priceless)

Evernote - this is becoming quite popular it seems and for our middle school kids it will hopefully become their resource for keeping track of all of the types of research they do. Easy to use interface, integrates with web browsers, can tag notes, and sync to the Evernote server. First year for this one too, but I see great potential.

Frame by Frame – easy to use stop motion animation which works with any video camera. Interface is iMovieish but has two windows that help keep track of each movement when doing claymation.

Google Earth/Sketchup – Google Earth- no brainer. Sketchup is new for us – we’ll see what happens with this.

LEGO Digital Designer – grew up with Legos and nice to find this app from the Lego company. Not exactly sure which class this could be a part of – maybe none – but I think many kids will be into building their own creations.

Master Spell - free spelling practice for students and one that teachers can create their own spelling lists with their own recorded voice. Maybe using this will create a spelling bee champ.

Mathematica Player –  over 5000 math, science, art and more simulations can be downloaded and played with this player.

Mental Case – this is shareware but great discounts for schools. Beautifully designed flash card creation or you can grab flashcards from Flash Card Exchange – not sure memorization is my kind of learning much anymore but can come in handy it certain circumstances – foreign language?

No1 – simple mathematics game where the student has to manipulate the operators of a 4 number expression – seems easy but proves to be tricky and a great addition for math class. (Cubs 4 Reds 3- Hey Hey!)

Paintbrush - paint program that is basically the old MacPaint that edits images at a basic level. Exports to standard image formats that can be put into other documents or on the web.

Pencil – 2D pencil like animation for creation of cartoons. Somewhat similar to Flash but learning curve seems easier.

Phun – a 2D physics sandbox that is in essence a game but an amazing physics simulation. A little hard to describe but watch the video to get the idea. I like apps where kids have to create and manipulate real world objects.

ProVoc – easy to use vocabulary trainer where teachers can create a vocabulary list from a class reading and submit it to students for their practice. Has been retired but still functional in Leopard. Somewhat similar to Mental Case and both apps have an iphone version.

Scratch – children’s computer programming from MIT which engages students in mathematics and computational skills. Web site has many resources for getting started.

Stellarium – your own personal real time planetarium includes 210 million stars – incredible. A need for any astronomy lesson.

Thanks to all of the developers of these apps. Feel free to comment with additions to this list or…well…any comments. And let’s go Cubs!

http://www.nsf.gov/news/overviews/biology/index.jsp

http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/

http://www.google.com/literacy/
Google has an education site devoted to teachers – you can become a Google certified teacher, although I doubt NCLB counts this as a “highly qualified” area.
http://www.google.com/educators/index.html

http://www.chinesepod.com/

http://www.nationmaster.com/index.php

This is a set of education oriented blogs that are based in Australia.

http://www.exploratorium.edu/