iPad Productivity Apps For Modern, Mobile Teachers

During a recent interview I was asked what role (if any) mobile devices had in the classroom. My answer was that mobile devices weren't used enough. While there is a tendency for these devices to provide distraction for both students and teachers alike, the potential for increased student engagement and increased instructional time greatly outweighs the negatives. I sited my own use of ClassDojo. ClassDojo is a classroom tool that helps teachers improve behavior in their classrooms quickly and easily. It also captures and generates data on behavior that teachers can share with parents and administrators. It does this by giving each student a cartoon monster-like avatar that can either earn points for desired behaviors and conversely lose points for undesired behaviors. In my kindergarten/first grade combination classroom during the 2013-2014 school year I used this program with great success. I had the class' avatars on display on either a classroom desktop computer or projected onto our rooms interactive whiteboard. I used my iPhone with the ClassDojo app installed to deduct or add points when needed. In this manner I was able to greatly reduce the amount of instructional time that would normally be lost in classroom management while at the same time greatly increasing the amount of positive reinforcement I doled out on a daily basis. This also enabled me to keep track of behavioral trends. With this in mind, here is a list of the top 60 iPad productivity apps taken from Michael Hyatt:

http://michaelhyatt.com/top-ipad-productivity-apps.html

Many of these items are intended for use in the private sector, however with a slight change in paradigm they would make wonderful tools to use in the classroom to save time and increase student engagement.