8 Great Free Web Resources Focused on Using the iPad in Education

Some of the Internet's best resources dedicated exclusively to educational uses of the iPad.

The popularity of the iPad in our schools continues to grow, and with it, the proliferation of related web articles, tips, how-to's, and so on. This week we searched out some excellent free Internet based web sites and resources dedicated to the use of the iPad in the instructional setting.

1. Apple's Education Resources for the iPad
It should come as no surprise that the iPad's maker has done a good job of putting together pages dedicated to education related applications and uses for it's popular tablet.

• http://www.apple.com/education/apps/: Here Apple has put together links to apps grouped by Academic Subject. For each subject section, they provide a few specific app examples, plus one or more links to applicable subsets of apps in the iTunes store (e.g. “See the Apps for Learning Astronomy and Earth Science Collection” or “See the Apps for Learning to Write Collection”).
• http://www.apple.com/education/ipad/: A number of additional resources and more information about using the iPad in education.

2. The “Apps in Education” Blog (http://appsineducation.blogspot.com/)
Reg Swanson runs this popular blog (with 750 members/subscribers and over 1.5 million page views) where he has published hundreds of helpful and insightful articles about iPad apps for teaching and learning. Articles are organized by academic subject for easy access, with links to these groupings right up at the top of the home page. I highly recommend this blog.

3. iPadCurriculum.com (http://www.ipadcurriculum.com/)
This is a unique site, in that it has a great side bar for searching for content. This search tool provides drop-down selectors for “Bloom's Taxonomy”, “Device”, “Grade level”, “News”, “Price”,“Student reviewed apps”, and “Subject”, and these categories can be mixed to narrow right down to a targeted topic. For example, combine Price = ‘Free', Grade level = ‘Elementary', and Subject = ‘Grammar' to find articles covering free grammar apps for elementary grades. Well done!

4. iPadinSchools.com (http://www.ipadinschools.com/)
This site is a blog and resource listing, and a set of resources worth being aware of are their collections of apps organized by grade level. Specifically, there are pages that list a good number of “Apps for Elementary School”, “Apps for Middle School”, and “Apps for High School”. These links are found towards the top of the site's home page.

5. The “iPads in Education” Social Network (ipadeducators.ning.com)
This Ning-based social network, created by Sam Glicksman, is dedicated exclusively to this topic. There are a variety of resources here, organized into Blogs, Discussion Groups, Videos, and News & Views. One resource I found particularly interesting here is this Tips & Tricks discussion section.

6. The “iPads in Education” Scoop It Page (and a few similar pages) (http://www.scoop.it/t/ipads-in-education)
This is one of a few such a pages on Scoop It. These types of pages provide listings of articles about the subject. This particular page, curated by John Evans, has hundreds of articles and is added to on a daily basis. Check http://www.scoop.it/t/ipads-in-schools by Bob Zwick or http://www.scoop.it/t/ipads-and-tablets-in-education (from Sam Glicksman, referenced in No. 5 above) for more articles.

7. iPadagogy YouTube Channel (http://www.youtube.com/user/iPadagogy/)
This is the only YouTube video channel we found that is dedicated specifically to “videos of useful apps for education”. Of course, a quick YouTube search for “ipads in the classroom” or a similar phrase will return hundreds of videos, so it's pretty easy to find more video content focused on this topic.

8. “iPad for Education and Training” LinkedIn Group (www.linkedin.com/groups/IPAD-Education-Training-2713512)
When considering resources focused on a specific topic, a large group on a popular social network is a great way to locate one of the most valuable resource of all, a community of professionals interested in the topic. This group is just such a community when it comes to using the iPad in education, and at has over 700 members. Recent discussion topics include, “How do you use your iPad to teach music at the elementary age level classroom?” and, “iPads in the high school math class?”.

Bonus! EmergingEdTech's iPad Category (https://www.emergingedtech.com/category/ipads-and-other-tablet-devices/)
(We couldn't very well leave off our own page now could we?). While this category is labelled to include “other tablet devices”, the reality is that the vast majority of articles in it are specific to Apple's niche-defining tablet.

If you know of any other resources like this that you think are worth sharing, please comment and tell us about them. We also welcome any insights into the specific resources shared here, or any other related questions, thoughts, or feedback. Thanks!

Related Posts (if the above topic is of interest, you might want to check these out):
15 Favorite iPad Apps As Selected By Teachers
Apple TV In The Classroom – The New Smart Board
Using The iPad As A Digital Whiteboard (Plus 4 Cool Free Apps To Try It Out)