Reviews of educational apps – for teachers, by teachers
Over recent years, we have seen an incredible increase in the number of educational apps that have come to the market. With so many apps available, it can be confusing and difficult to know where to start.
To help you get started with blended learning, we asked a number of our teachers to review the educational apps that we regularly use in our classrooms.
OneNote can be used as children’s digital exercise books, they can store their work here and refer back to their work. Teachers can also use OneNote to plan and deliver lessons in a creative and accessible manner.
There any many OneNote features for accessibility – different coloured backgrounds, different fonts, audio tool, immersive reader, picture dictionary. OneNote also allows you to embed links and images into the page for children to access, without having to leave their page of work. OneNote can distribute work to all children, individual children or groups of children to help with differentiation and scaffolding.
OneNote has been used successfully from Y2 to Y6 but there is potential to train children in Y1 to use it as well.
We use it for all subjects, in particular guided reading and maths are entirely on OneNote.
OneNote allows children to have more control over their learning, using built in apps and tools to help them progress or be more creative with their outcomes. OneNote also helps with children building schema around their learning, allowing them to flick back between past lessons and build up their skills and knowledge. The ability to take devices from home to school also allows children to complete work or improve it at home, as an extension to the work in class.
The thing I like most about using OneNote in the classroom is the ease of creating work that is more scaffolded or provides further challenge. I like being able to distribute this to children in groups without having to explicitly say that certain groups have different work. It is very inclusive and supportive for all children’s learning.
If children don’t have individual devices, it is a long process to log in and out every time.
If you are thinking about using OneNote with your class, I would say have a play around with the accessibility features to see how it can support a range of children. The content library is a great place to start to introduce supporting material (e.g. word mats, sentence stems) and help children get used to the structure of OneNote class notebook.
Kahoot! is a an app that can be used to create and host quizzes. The quizzes are then carried out in a fun way with timer, graphics and music to make it a ‘game’ experience
Kahoot! provides real-time feedback and a score chart which motivates the children to be quicker/more accurate. Once the quizzes have been completed there is in depth data analysis provided with summaries of overall scores and also a breakdown of scores so you can see who has exactly got things wrong.
Kahoot! can be used across all age groups (EYFS – KS2) as long as there is access to devices and it is tailored to each age group.
We use Kahoot! for formative assessments at the end of learning. It helps us plan for children’s next steps, identify any gaps and then plan in how and when we can address those gaps either through interventions or end of units. We have also been using Kahoot! to do pre-teach assessments to see what children already know.
Children really enjoy using Kahoo!t as it doesn’t feel like they are being ‘tested’ in the traditional sense. They do not realise they are ‘learning’ as it is discreet. The children find Kahoot! easy to navigate and are hooked throughout the whole usage.
I like the way Kahoot! is set out, easy to use and the data it provides.
No.
Kahoot! is really easy to use. Spend some time practicing building the quizzes (there is also a bank of pre-made questions you can tap into) so you are familiar with the layout. Definitely do quizzes just before lunch or near home time as the children can get very excited when using it- especially because of the competition element!
Reading Progress is where you can scan in a text which is saved into either a Word or PDF. You can then upload this into Assignments on Teams, clicking on the Reading Progress and uploading this. If you then click on the student view, you can see exactly what the child sees. The child will see the text and can read it. The analysis will give you how many words per minute were accurate, an overall accuracy rate, mispronunciations, insertions, self-corrections, omissions, and repetitions.
Key features features are the analysis for: overall accuracy rate, mispronunciations, insertions, self-corrections, omissions, and repetitions. If you also click on Insights, you can see their progress over time also. It is easy to upload and it is fun for the children.
Microsoft Reading Progress is suitable for EYFS – KS2.
We are using this through Teams Assignments.
We have only recently started this, but so far, it has been well received.
The thing I like most about using Reading Progress in the classroom is it is easy to upload text, even if the text has pictures on it, it just captures the text and it is all ready to go.
It has shown that there are some omissions in the analysis, but when we looked at the film of the child, there were no omissions.
Start slow. Choose who you want to use this for, what you want to use this for and start with one group at a time.
Minecraft Education Edition is an app designed to showcase the 21st century design and allow the children to be creative, inventive and independent in their work. The app provides existing materials for learning to take place from or the canvas for you to create your own learning.
Creative mode – this reduces issues that the game may cause such players damaging each others work or each other.
Creating a biome – this allows the children to create their own project and as facilitators, we can monitor this work.
Existing lessons -these lessons allow those who are new to the concept the opportunity to grasp the key concepts of the game.
Minecraft Education Edition is suitable for Year 2 and above. The children really are the experts in this field.
We carefully plan in opportunities to use the app (where applicable). This is evident in our long and medium term plans. We would like to utilise this further.
The impact is immeasurable. I always invite guests into my lessons to showcase my children’s ability when using this platform. The engagement is fantastic, this app allows children to further their learning in a context that they are familiar with.
The thing I like most about using Minecraft Education Edition is the fact that the app provides the children with a blank canvas to progress/ showcase their learning.
There is always more to learn!
Use colleagues and information around you to support your journey. Microsoft Learn is a brilliant support. If you’re looking to utilise the platform, start small by creating a club or by using it in your class. The children are the expert, trust them and allow them to express themselves.
Come and see, first-hand, how we are using educational apps in the classroom at one of our blended learning open days.
Find out more about our Blended Learning journey, access resources to help you embed blended learning and EdTech in the classroom, and view our series of blended learning webinars.