Apps for Students

There are a myriad of apps for high school kids to use to help with school. Imagine if that phone that you bought could be more than just a tool for social media and connecting with friends? Here are a few of my favorite free apps for high school and middle school students.  I am sure there are more that are not free, but I stuck to only free apps for this article. I should say that I use the iOS platform but I am sure that some of these exist for the Android platform as well.

Evernote-This app has so many applications. Students could use it as an electronic notebook which is the easiest use for this app.  However, you can also save photos into your electronic notebooks…so the next time the teacher draws a crazy intricate drawing on the board, take a picture of it and include it and use the app to put it into your notebook. Also, after you take notes in class you can take a picture of those notes and put them in your notebook, creating a complete visual representation of your class experience. The best part about this app is that there are both a web based and downloadable version as well allowing you to clip articles for class or research and go back and read, highlight and organize later.

Flashcards-This is the app version of the popular website Quizlet.  Using this App you can look for flashcard decks that already exist on your chosen topic or create your own.  Many decks are already created for popular textbooks making it easy to find what you need to study. I love this app as you can study anywhere that you have your iPod, iPhone or  iPad…like the school bus or study hall.

Dragon Dictate-Sometimes typing is just a burden. It would be nice to be able to say what you are thinking and then go back and edit it to make it acceptable to a teacher.  Dragon dictate is the app version of the expensive software package.  The downside is that it requires wi-fi, so you can’t use it to dictate while say riding on the bus or riding (not driving) in the car.

Khan Academy- This is not an app per se but can be found in iTunesU through the app store.  Khan Academy is a collection of free classes including short videos to help with many different topics.  For example, if you don’t remember what the teacher said about how to do that algebra problem, you can just type in whatever topic you are working on and find a video to remind you how to do it.

I hope with school literally just around the corner (less than a week now) that you find these apps useful to begin your year with!