The Top 5 Educational App Networks

There are now over 640,000 live apps on the Apple App Store, with hundreds being added every day. Many parents find the App store to be cluttered and hard to navigate, and Apple’s own search function can often be less-than-helpful. This makes finding quality educational apps for your children quite a challenge. To help solve this problem, a number of new start-ups and apps have been created to review apps and help you find the best educational apps for your kids.

Some of these services let you create profiles for your children, providing you with reports and suggestions based on the apps they play. These app networks can also be used in a school setting, allowing teachers to receive reports and statistics about how their students are performing. These companies are helping to raise the standards of educational apps and providing a much needed service to parents and teachers. These 5 app networks will help you find the best apps for your kids or students:

• Smartots: Smartots allows you to receive customized reports about your children’s app usage, and suggests apps targeted to your child’s preferences. You must first create an account, and then set up profiles for each of your children (or students). When your kids play apps that have integrated Smartots, you will get reports about what they are learning and achievements they earn. You can even monitor all of this from their free mobile app. You can also browse their terrific list of educational apps for kids ages 2-8.

• Famigo: If you are looking for the best family-friendly games and apps for your kids, then Famigo is a great place to start. Famigo does not review only educational apps. They have assessed the many games and puzzle apps as well, and will tell you which apps are appropriate for your children and have the most educational value. You can browse app reviews for both iOS and Android. This all takes place at www.famigo.com.

• Kindertown: Accessed through their free mobile app. Kindertown is an exclusive collection of apps for kids ages 3-7 that are selected for exceptional design and educational value. Each app is reviewed by an educator and has been evaluated and grouped based on subject learned.

• Yogiplay: Launched recently but gaining steam quickly, Yogiplay is another educational app network that requires parents to create profiles for their children and receive information from apps that have “integrated” Yogiplay’s platform. From their website: “YogiPlay turns mobile phones and tablets into smart learning devices by providing parents with meaningful insight related to their child’s learning progress. Then YogiPlay automatically delivers to parents personalized app recommendations based on their child’s specific learning needs or interests.”

• App Star Picks: This free app is a catalogue of over 250 of the very best educational apps, reviewed by top independent review sites and organized by subject. Within the app you can read reviews, see screenshots, and even see when apps have been discounted. App Star Picks is collaboration between Teachers With Apps, Fun Educational Apps, Applicable2U, and Digital Storytime. They drew on their immense experience testing kids apps and selected the 250 best apps for your kids to enjoy.

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Math Evolve is hailed by teachers and students as a “revolutionary” educational app.

Math Evolve: A Math Game For The Next Generation

• “(My 7 year-old daughter) LOVES it and I can tell it feels more like a game to her and less like practicing math. I have noticed that Math Evolve challenges her to increase her decision-making speed more than some “regular” math apps.”
• “At last a game that the kids ask for! True play based learning!”
• “Awesome app. Easy to learn. Fun to play. I love the variety of difficulty levels to challenge players!”
• “Definitely the best math app so far”

Tags: Math apps, Math evolve, Math Games, Education, Education Games, Education Technology, Elearning, Apps, Apps for Kids, Educational apps, Mlearning, interAction Education, iPads in the classroom, iPads in school, ipads in education, iPad

Although there are many wonderful apps targeted at young children and early elementary school students. I found it hard to find quality apps for my 4th-6th graders. My journey to create my own math game for kids started when I was looking for fun games to help my students practice their multiplication facts. I have played MANY of the math apps available, so I wanted to highlight some other apps in this area by compiling a list of the best math games for upper elementary school students. My game, Math Evolve, will be coming out soon for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch. Please come see the new preview video and sign up for a discount launch price here or by clicking on the links above.

Tags: Math apps, Math Games, Math: Evolve, Math evolve, iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, Education Games, Education Technology, Education

Productivity Apps

Evernote: Free
Take notes, save links and images, and even record audio into searchable notes that get saved online. You can access your notes from any device, computer, or internet browser. You could conceivably use the audio recording function to record and index entire lessons and lectures.


Dropbox: Free
This excellent app allows you to store files in the cloud, and access them on any device or computer with an internet connection. This is an essential app for teachers managing a set of iPads in the classroom because it allows you to keep sync files between you and your students. You can collect and manage student work by sharing having them share folders with you.


Pages/Numbers/Keynote: $9.99 Each
These apps comprise Apple’s iWork suite, and they are the equivalent of Microsoft’s Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. They have corresponding apps that run on Apple computers, and all your documents can be synced with your iPad or iPhone once iOS5 is released.


Garageband: $4.99
An amazing amount of functionality for 5 bucks, this app allows kids to record and compose music in a fun and intuitive audio sequencer. They can build with music loops, play and record virtual instruments of all types, and instantly publish and share their songs to iTunes or email. Students could easily use Garageband to record a whole oral presentation or podcast on a subject, or make songs to teach the class about what you are learning.



Goodreader: $4.99
This app is a bit expensive, but it is a great for reading and annotating documents of all types, especially .pdf files. This app can be used by students to take notes while reading, or by teachers to review and correct student work. Accessing and annotating .pdfs is absolutely essential for using the iPad in a classroom setting, and this is one of the best all around file-reading apps there available.


iAnnotate: $9.99
This is the premier app for reading and annotating .pdf files. It also integrates with dropbox, allowing an easy and efficient workflow for correcting and returning work.


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Tags: games for change, games for learning, Education, Education Games, Education Technology, Educational Games, videogames, games, Elearning, Education, ipads in education

When many people are asked why we should use games in education, they respond with answers like: “Kids love them!” “They are fun!” “Games engage students!” While these statements are true, they don’t tell us much about what makes them good for education. We all know that many kids love video games, but I want to examine the issue more closely to understand how games engage and motivate kids, and why they are good educational tools. Although they are certainly related, I will examine both engagement and motivation separately.

How Games Engage Students:

• Kids Feel Themselves Improving: Students become disheartened when they feel overwhelmed by large bodies of information and complex subjects. Most video games break down learning concepts into smaller goals and milestones. This makes the feeling of progress and improvement much more attainable and concrete, and students feel the immediate effects of their improvement as they become better at the game.

• Games Provide Instant Feedback: We all know that receiving feedback from teachers about one’s mistakes teacher is a crucial element for effective learning. However it often takes teachers time to grade and return work, and the feedback is not as effective. Games often provide instantaneous feedback to students, allowing them to simply try again and make the necessary corrections or adjustments to their approach. Corrective feedback is necessary for learning, and games provide an easy way to achieve this on an individual level.

• Games Create Interactive Experiences: Unlike receiving information passively from a lecture or a book, games allow students to actively interact with the subject matter. Educational games make a learning an active and physical process. Just like playing a musical instrument, combining physical movement and mental energy creates new neural connections and promotes a deeper level of learning. Engaging with the experience of westward expansion using Oregon Trail is ultimately more memorable for kids than reading about it in a textbook because the game is an active experience.

• Games Allow Kids to Experience Alternate Realities: Kids love to engage their imagination and play “make-believe,” experiencing fantasy worlds and taking on roles that are more exciting than their real-life existence. Games allow students to do this in a safe and structured way, creating immensely engaging experiences for children. This can be especially powerful in an educational setting. Simulation games let students experience historical periods or imaginary scenarios, helping them gain a better understanding of the time and motivations of the people involved. Players can experiment, make choices, and see the effects of their decisions, turning the abstract concepts that they are learning about into tangible experiences.

• Competition: Do not underestimate the power of a a little competition. Kids love to play games in which they get to compete against their friends, family, or other students. The desire to improve and win is a very strong motivator. Timed races, high scores, and leader boards are all great ways that games can include a little competition in the learning experience.

• Progression: Being able to progress and grow stronger is one of the most satisfying and motivational aspects of video games, and it is analogous to the ways in which we learn and grow smarter. Many games utilize some sort of progression dynamic in which the players start out at a low “level” with few points or abilities, and then are able to gain points, experience, or currency to progress and reach higher levels. This type of mechanic is a powerful motivator for all people, but works especially well to get kids hooked and engaged with educational content.

• Customization: It has been well documented that kids love to customize their characters and avatars within games. Customization makes kids feel much more connected with their character and with the game. My students play a multiplication game on Academic Skill Builders in which they play as little penguins jumping around to solve multiplication questions. It is amazing how just letting the kids choose the color and name of their penguins makes them so much more excited to play the game. Other platforms like the online learning system Mathletics let students customize every aspect of their experience down to the website’s background, colors, and their avatars hairstyle and accessories. By learning math, the students gain access to more customization options. Which leads me to...

• Rewards and Unlockable Content: Providing incentives for student performance and time spent on the game is an extremely effective way to keep kids playing an educational game for hours. Games often let players unlock new characters, levels, costumes, or even whole new games by completing tasks or doing well on the educational content. The best games provide students with clear and achievable goals, and then provide rewards as positive feedback for achieving these learning goals. These rewards are powerful motivators that make the games more enjoyable and keep them coming back for more.

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Tags: Education, Education Games, Education Technology, Elearning, Math apps, Math Games, videogames, games, games for change, games for learning, Educational Games

Fighting The Brain Drain

“Many students don't even realize how much they are learning because they are having so much fun”. -MrNussbaums.com

The 7 Best Sites for Free Educational Games

Mr. Nussbaums - This site claims to be “A Thousand Sites in One,” and it does truly have a staggering array of educational content for kids. All the games are separated by subject, difficulty, and grade-level so you can find something that is just right for everyone.

Sheppard Software: This is another premium educational and kid-friendly site that offers hundreds of games, activities, and quizzes for free. There are games for language arts, math, science, and pretty much every other subject you can think of.

Arcademic Skill Builders: This site has some of the best math games on the internet for practicing skills like multiplication, division, addition, subtraction, fractions, and money. Most of the games are multiplayer, allowing kids to compete against their friends or other students around the world. The competition keeps kids really engaged and focused on improving.

Funbrain: I have been using this site in my classroom for a long time, and it has always been a favorite of kids and teachers alike. They have a math arcade, games for reading, brain teasers, and casual games. All their games are aligned to standards and designed with teachers and students in mind.

Gamequarium- “The site that swims with learning fun,” Gamequarium has amassed a truly immense collection of games and resources for kids and teachers. They have everything separated by level, subject, and activity type, but you may have to navigate through a few menus to find the game that is best for your child.

Math Game Time: An awesome collection of fun games for learning all types of math, organized by grade level and content strand. Math Game Time allows students to choose games from a wide selection of quality titles. Word Game Time is just like Math Game Time, but contains only language based games. It is often hard to find good games for practicing spelling and grammar, but this site has a great assortment for working on many different English language concepts.

Tags: games, Education, Education Games, Educational Games, Tablets, learning games, Elearning