I wanted to share a couple of apps that I think would be a worthy addition to a classroom.

Daisy the Dinosaur is a free app designed to teach simple computer programming skills to students. The app takes the user through guided steps that increase in difficulty. Students learn how to make Daisy move, jump, turn, etc though an easy drag and drop interface. This is an excellent way to help students with problem-solving skills.

Here is a video produced by Lambeth City Learning Center for an overview of Daisy the Dinosaur.

iPad Apps: Daisy the Dino from Lambeth CLC on Vimeo.

Trading Cards is a free app from ReadWriteThink (and everything I’ve used from their site has been excellent!). This app allows students to create trading cards in seven different categories: fictional person, real person, fictional place, real place, object, event, vocabulary. Students are guided through the process of what information to include. When finished, the cards can be printed, emailed, or saved to the iPad’s camera roll. Think of all the educational uses! Story character cards, biographical information, country/state studies, vocabulary study cards are just a few that come to mind.

I practiced a bit with a real place, adding a photo of Connecticut’s Capitol. Didn’t add more information but you can see the capabilities of this app.

Richard Byrne (Free Technology for Teachers) has written a great post about the Trading Cards app. Click here to read his review. Another excellent review with screenshots comes from the Grapevine-Colleyville Independent School District.