One of the best features of the 1:1 classroom is that you can use thousands of apps to create and share content. The only problem? With over 100,000 apps available, finding the best ones can be difficult.
As the all-in-one app for one-to-one classrooms, Showbie makes it easy to sign up (students don’t require an email address!), create assignments and provide feedback on student work without using any paper. Students can complete their work using Showbie’s built-in tools, or they can get creative by app smashing with thousands of other apps.
To narrow down which apps work best in the classroom (and with Showbie), we’ve asked our #ShowbieChamps to tell us which apps they can’t live without. Some of these apps help teachers streamline their classroom experience, while others help them assign more creative work to their students. No matter what they use, these apps makes it easier for teachers to assign, grade and share materials with their students the way they want.
Champion’s Choice
Top Pick
Book Creator
Free — Learn more
Book Creator makes it easy to add text, images, video, music and narration to create books on your iPad. From creative projects to study guides, students and teachers have the ability to create amazing projects.
Book Creator allows my students to quickly and easily create work that wouldn’t have been possible before. They can compile their own study guides and create interactive written pieces which can easily be shared. The ability to add video and record their own voice makes it exceptionally powerful. I use it all the time in so many different ways.
Best of all, you can share completed work from Book Creator right into Showbie and preview it the same way you would in iBooks. You can read more about how Showbie and Book Creator work together in our blog.
Runners Up
2nd (tie)
Explain Everything
$3.99 — Learn more
You can use Explain Everything to create incredible, interactive screencasts then save and share them. It is an amazing creation app. Students use this to text mark reading passages, tell stories, learn and practice vocabulary words, record their voices to explain their mathematical thinking, and much more.
2nd (tie)
Notability
$5.99 — Learn more
Notability lets students combine handwriting, photos and type to create detailed notes. This app provides students with even more ways to get creative in the classroom. The ability for students to highlight, color code, cut and paste, write small, write big and insert images adds an incredible amount to their creative potential!
Rounding out the Top Picks
Kahoot! 3rd
Free — Learn more
Create fun quizzes, surveys and discussions, then share them and interact with your class. Our students love the game-based learning!
iDoceo 4th
$9.99 — Learn more
iDoceo is an all-in-one class management app with seating plans, grades, a schedule, diary and more. [It] allows me to store all my class information in one place without lots of paper.
myHomework 5th
Free — Learn more
Plan your schedule, organize your classes and share with your students. One stop shopping for homework and announcements.
Popplet 6th
$4.99 — Learn more
Create mind maps to help students think and learn visually. Visually engaging mind-maps are good for revisions, timelines, and instructional manuals
ClassDojo 7th
Free — Learn more
Create and share a timeline of all the things your students do. Great for keeping parents in the loop! ClassDojo allows me to focus on the individual needs of my students.
Classkick 8th
Free — Learn more
See what your students are working on in real time, and give feedback along the way. The magic bit is [throwing] the best responses up onto the board for all to see.
Stick Around 9th
$2.99 — Learn more
Create your own interactive puzzles. It is a low-stress, self-correcting drag and drop program that allows me to create exercises that students can use to activate prior knowledge or review.
Aurasma 10th
Free — Learn more
Create augmented reality experiences right in your classroom! This is a cool way to share work students have made.
Honorable Mentions
Chatterpix Kids Creative
Free — Learn more
Students love this app to demonstrate their learning. Students use ChatterPix to take a picture of their product and record their voice to reflect or explain the process of creation.
forScore Music
$9.99 — Learn more
Everything you need to work with sheet music on your iPad. It is the best of its class, and the best on any device, period.
Front Row Math
Free — Learn more
Front Row provides over 15 thousand common core aligned questions that are graded automatically and given to students based on their level. This means no writing worksheets, no grading, and differentiated teaching made easy.
Green Screen Creative
$3.49 — Learn more
Kids will develop in-depth tech skills that will transfer to other applications, but this tool is super for school projects as well as fun moviemaking experiments.
Hopscotch Programming
Free — Learn more
Hopscotch HD is a good example of scaffolded learning. Kids get the support they need to create programs and build confidence before they encounter the intricacies of coding.
Inspiration Maps Brainstorming
$9.99 — Learn more
Inspiration Maps is easy to use and offers enough options in colors, fonts, and shapes to make it interesting for kids. Students are engaged in creating and directing their own learning.
Monkey Math Math
$2.49 — Learn more
A solid educational math app with fun activities and gentle guidance. Kids will feel encouraged to answer questions to earn fish and other items for their virtual aquariums.
Pic Collage Creative
Free — Learn more
We have always used Pic Collage as an easy, go-to app for photo integration with words. Anything you can save to your photo library (still or video) you can upload to Showbie.
Puppet Pals 2 Creative
Free — Learn more
Students can learn how each part of the creative process works to form a story as they make decisions about which backgrounds and characters to use in each scene, how to size them and move them around, and which audio to record.
Shakespeare Pro English
$9.99 — Learn more
[This app has] all the plays and poems with line numbers, an excellent Shakespeare Glossary (with authentic Renaissance definitions) and the ability for students and teachers to share their own notes with each other.
Spelling City English
Free — Learn more
The interface is colorful and appealing, and the games are engaging for kids from kindergarten through high school.
Writing Wizard Writing
$4.99 — Learn more
Writing Wizard teaches kids proper letter formation by using fun, interactive traceables! Students can also have individualized word lists!
Apps You Already Know
While most educators have heard of these apps already, our Champions were quick to mention the value they added when used alongside Showbie in their 1:1 classrooms.
Google for Education
Free — Learn more
Google Drive is my delivery system. I deliver all electronic papers and lessons and videos to the children through Drive.
iTunes U
Free — Learn more
iTunes U is a great tool for delivering content. Courses and resources can be planned and developed collaboratively with colleagues in advance, ensuring they are of high quality.
So there you have it! Our Champions suggest checking these apps out, especially if you want to complement your experience with Showbie. You can also check out our support article detailing even more apps that work with Showbie. In the meantime, we encourage you to please share this list with other educators and colleagues to help them out too!
