Recently I decided to peruse the (free) shelves on the iTunes bookstore and was astounded by the number of free books available in the education section. I came across textbooks, guides and many other wonderful things and promptly downloaded all that I could see. The first book I decided to read was 'The Teacher's IpadoPedia, An A-Z of using iPads in the classroom' by Philip Johnston.
Philip Johnston
This book blew my mind! Not only was it incredibly well written and set out, Johnston commented on a large range of topics including:
- attendance
- managing homework
- archiving
- coaching
- photocopying
- quizzing
- creative writing
- taking notes
The book is divided into categories, with app listed which can either perform a task or help aid the process of the mentioned categories. Not only is there a wide range of apps, free and paid, to cover the categories but the book is cross references when apps have multiple functions.
The actual layout of the book is clean with small chunks of information and plenty of pictures to accompany. The great thing about this being an eBook is that often the text is interactive! Beside the text, you will often find videos which demonstrate an app and how it works and text is often hyper-linked to show you exactly what app you should download and where to find them.
I have already downloaded some of the apps and can see their potential for use of them in the classroom. Other I have been able to integrate into my university life! Overall I enjoyed reading this book, it was not text heavy, it flowed well, you could jump chapters without feeling lost and the interactive nature made finding what Johnston what talking about incredibly easy.
Philip Johnston has also step up a great website for the book which includes sample pages, links to download the book as well as a contact page if you would like to speak with the author. The website can be found here.
As Johnston said in the foreword, reading this book does not mean you have to apply everything that you read about but rather take what you like and make it work for your classroom. There are some great apps listed and the great thing is the discovery, while Johnston may list the app for one use, you could find a totally new use, either for the classroom or for your personal life!
For those of you who are still unsure, you have nothing to lose as this book is 100% free to download from the iBookstore!
Stay tuned as I discover more education eBooks from the iTunes bookstore!
Miss Tracy xx
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