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With the touch of a finger, students in Jody Underwood's classes at Olympia High School can work on assignments, watch foreign films and connect with people from around the globe whose native language is French.

iPad resources

"The buddy program is a huge part of our community because the kids get to work with others," she said. "Older kids work with younger kids… and they get to be teachers. They retain so much more if they get to teach what they've learned."

"[The iPad] it's the first device that actually is a reflection of me - or us. It's so revolutionary that it's no longer about me adapting myself to somebody else's set of programmings or the way in which a device is going to engage. It is the reverse. It is as though I'm looking in a mirror." I love this description because it encapsulates what should be the crux of any mobile learning strategy. That is, recognizing that mobile content delivery should be fully controlled by the learner. In other words, what content the learner wants; where and when they want it; and how they want it delivered - with no constraints.

There are a number of apps that are available that let you record your voice in order to convert it to text. I find this helpful when I need to transcribe longer pieces or even if I need to transcribe multiple entries. This technology is not yet perfect but it has improved considerably since these apps first came on the market. The first time I tried these app I got about 30% of the words correct, that figure is now more like 85% and with some effort on your part can be as high as 95%. Even with the minor inconsistencies it is still a quicker way for me to do larger pieces of text. I find these good when I want to just get the text down for a piece that I will spend some time formatting later. These are great for students as well, especially those kids who display great verbal intelligence but struggle with the written word.

"Using rubrics and providing student's feedback via the iPad has not been an area that has received a great deal of attention. This is, however, starting to change. I have recently spoken to a number of teachers who have developed apps that will allows teachers to use the iPad as a viable way of assessing student work. Some of these apps actually do more than just mark work. Check out the list and see if any would work for you and your students."

I will not say those are "must-have" apps. However, it would be great to see other people's work.