As I mentioned earlier I’m an Apple Mac fan, but I waited until the second generation of I-phones were released before I bought one – partly from financial reasons, and partly because ICT experience has taught me that a first model of anything is always hassle.

So here I am with the new I-Phone 3Gs 16gb looking for the reasons why it will improve my teaching. So, if you have an I-phone, here are a few basic (and free) app ideas for teaching in general.

• The calendar: is an obvious start, its easy to use, for your timetable, your ‘to-dos’ and other events, and it can link to your PC/Mac and be updated online 24/7! So that’s more about generally being more organised at work.

• Apps – Weather App: this can be set to show the forecast for ANY location in ANY country around the world! Which would make for a good starter activity, hand the I-phone over to a student and ask them to find out the current temperature in the country they last visited on holiday!

• App – Units: Convert units of weight and measure at the click of the finger on the I-phone. Perhaps in a Math lesson. Think about it, once it was only a calculator on the phone that students wanted to use in your lessons, with this they could have so many reasons to ask to use their I-phone.

• App – Maps: GPS enabled so that students can see their current location and even orientate the map to face north! or view an aerial photo of any location! How useful would that be on a field trip?!

• App – WordPress: Online blogs like this can be updated from an I-phone using a small app linked to a wordpress blog page! Useful for journalism in English at KS 3 and 4. What a way to inspire students to set up their own onilne news page/blog – and again, it’s FREE!!

Any other Apps I come across that can be of use in the classroom I’ll post them. If you have any suggestions to share please post a reply, or email me.

Published by Paul

Teacher | Author | Lead Practitioner View all posts by Paul