Developing Trade Tools: Educational Apps Across E-Platforms

Kaitlin M. Gould, Lia D. Wagner, Kelly A. Teufel, Rebecca Gray, Brianna Murray, Callie Lehrer, & Michelle Thornhill

University at Albany

Stacy A. S. Williams, PhD

Marist College

Overview



Currently, teachers practice in a world of diverse student bodies,
rising educational demands, accountability, and limited financial
resources. Current federal, state, and local educational initiatives
require teachers to learn new skills and refine existing practices.
The success of these initiatives requires a strong core curriculum
implemented with integrity and paired with evidence-based
strategies. To assist teachers in their expanding roles, many
schools are grappling with providing support with time-efficient
resources and professional development opportunities to support
instruction at the group and individual level.



One way schools have answered this challenge is by introducing
iPads or mobile computing into the classroom. School
psychologists operating from a consultee-centered framework
could aid teachers in integrating technology into the classroom to
support tiered instruction. We want to make it clear that this
discussion isn't about technology skills that will make the school
psychologists job easier; it is about the knowledge of technology
supports that can aid a general educators implementation of
Tier(s) supports.



Thus, the use of this platform appears to be increasing and its
role in education is becoming ubiquitous. Current technologies
afford students easy to use interfaces, endless learning
opportunities, collaboration and productivity fostered by the
Internet. One of the fastest growing trends in mobile computing
is the enormous capacity for developing apps to support
learning. The selection of educational apps to support
instruction will be an arduous task for many school teams given
the number of choices available. Nevertheless, the portability
of mobile devices, coupled with increasingly fast web and
cellular connectivity, make mobiles extremely conducive to
productivity and learning. The internet itself is becoming a
mobile device (Johnson, 2013, p. 19).


Students enrolled in Instructional Consultation and Academic
Interventions at the University at Albany were asked to identify
educational apps that supported tiered instruction in literacy,
numeracy, and writing. Educational apps were selected if they
could easily be integrated in the classroom curriculum. This
poster highlights some of the educational apps identified by the
students.

Book

Leveler

Reading

Book Leveler allows educators and parents to scan the ISBN

number of books in order to find the appropriate A-Z reading level
of the book. Users are also able to search by the title and/or author
in order to find the books reading level.

Cost

Free

Pla&orm
Apple products
Appropriate for
Parents looking for appropriate reading material for their child.
BookLeveler can also be used by educators who need to know a
reading level of a book in order to create a CBA/CBM. Educators
may also use BookLeveler to select appropriate materials for a
lesson.

Website

www.BookLeveler.com

Booksy

This app is an electronic version of a Leveled Reader, and helps to
provide independence to students. Individual words in these books
can be tapped and heard. Most of the books have comprehension
quizzes at the end, and parents/teachers can follow progress through
provided email reports.

Cost

The app is free and includes one book. Additional books cost $0.99

Platform

Nook (Barnes and Noble)

Appropriate for
Children age 4+

Website

www.tipitap.com/booksy.html

Learn to Read-Kids!

Cost

Learn to Read-Kids! provides users with a fun, fast, and effective

way at teaching small kids to read! Skills it teachers are in
phonemic awareness, uppercase and lowercase recognition, sight
words, word building, and sentence building. The app presents 6
fun activities designed to get young children to use letters to form
sentences quickly.

$2.99

Platform

Kindle

Writing



Vocabulary Spelling City



This app provides a fun way for students to practice spelling words.


The games in the app incorporate spelling in a variety of ways.

spelling lists for students to practice
Teachers can enter custom
with or teaches can choose

grade-appropriate lists of words for
students to practice with. The free app includes ten of the most


popular word lists (such as Sound Alikes and SAT words) and eight


of the most popular games.



Cost

Free (limited membership)

Platform

Apple products, Android,
Kindle

Appropriate for
Students of all age levels,
grades K-12. This app is available in a
variety of different languages.




Website

www.spellingcity.com




Sentence Builder



Sentence builder helps elementary aged students by teaching them

correct sentences based off pictures.
how to build grammatically
This app uses connector
words that make up over 80% of the
English language. Students

can improve their grammar and
sentence building skills with the fun app. There is also a teen



edition of this app available.


Cost

$5.99



Platform

Apple products



Appropriate for
Elementary-age students



Website

www.itunes.apple.com


Mathematics

Mathemagica

Common Core

Other Educational Apps

This app provides students, parents, and teachers with a useful

reference to access the core state standards. The standards are
organized by subject, grade, and subject category (domain/cluster)
consisting of math K-12, language arts standards K-12, history/
social studies 6-12, and science 6-12.

Cost

Free

Platform

Apple products

Appropriate for
Students, parents, and teachers want to reference the core state
standards. The app provides language options consisting of English,
Danish, French, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, and Traditional
Chinese.

Website

www.masteryconnect.com

Tech Chef 4 U

Cost

This app allows teachers, students, and parents to search for apps by
platform, grade level, and category in a regularly updated
educational app store. It also shows the price of each app in the
search results. Featured apps have app-tivities and integration
examples in the form of blog entries, YouTube videos, iTunes
podcasts, iBooks, and iLesson PDF's.

Free

Platform

Apple products

Appropriate for
Parents, teachers, or students looking for appropriate apps to
download and use

Website

www.techchef4u.com

RTI

This app allows children to practice solving a variety of math

problems like addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

Mathemagica has two different settings. The marathon setting on
this app adapts itself to the individuals level of difficulty and
gradually increases the level accordingly. The app can detect weak
areas and provide more questions in those subject areas.

Cost

$1.99

Apple products

This app is useful in keeping track of students. The RTI app helps

educators by providing them with reminders of when to check on
student. Also, notes that are taken on the app can be easily sent to
parents, a problem-solving team, and other important school
personnel via email.

Appropriate for
Children of all ages, but specifically those that are beginning
readers

Cost

$0.99

Platform

Website

Platform

Kindle, Android devices

Appropriate for
School psychologists, teachers

www.InstaSpanish.com

Appropriate for
Students in grades 1-6

Bookster

Website

Cost

This is a read-along storytelling app that reads to students,

records and plays their voices, and teaches vocabulary. After the
student listens to the story read to them, the student can read the
story aloud and record their voices. They can play back the story
and listen to their pronunciation, annunciation, voice, and
rhythm, receiving immediate feedback.

Free

Platform

Apple products

Appropriate for
Educators and parents looking for additional materials to
supplement reading for their child or student. Bookster may be
particularly useful for students struggling with fluency issues.
This app may help build students confidence and increase
reading motivation.

Website

www.imaginelearning.com/programs/bookster/

www.itunes.apple.com ; www.google.play.com

Website

www.itunes.apple.com

School Psychology Tools

Sushi Monster

This app assists with the logistics of planning evaluations and

interventions. It provides features to help with organization, such
as a planner and calendar, and tools that assist with student
observation, assessment, and report writing. This app makes
graphing data easy. With the click of a button, numbers can be
transformed into visually appealing charts and tables. Users can
easily monitor a students progress, as well as e-mail notes taken.

The purpose of Sushi Monster is to provide a fun environment for

students to practice their addition and multiplication skills. With
this app, students feed their Sushi Monster by correctly choosing
two numbers that when added or multiplied result in the number
that the monster wants to eat. When one monster is full the
students move on to feeding a new monster.

Cost

Free

Cost

$34.99

Platform

Apple products

Platform

Apple products, Android, Kindle, Nook

Appropriate for
Students learning addition and subtraction skills

Website

www.famigo.com/app/sushi-monster

Appropriate for
School psychologists, educators

Website

www. schoolpsychologytools.com