App Roundup

New Learning Apps Include Free Games, Image Editors

A monthly showcase of the latest mobile apps for educators and students. This month we showcase apps for classroom management, learning games for kids, and a first from Adobe.

• By Stephen Noonoo
• 10/11/11

• Lightspeed Systems has released My Big Campus, a free app for iOS devices that provides mobile access to educational resources including You Tube videos, online assignments, activity feeds, group discussions, and more, using a web filter to monitor all activity. Students and teachers can also post messages to the class, view calendars, and manage assignments. All users must have My Big Campus accounts, which are assigned to students through the school district or are available free to educators. An Android app is currently in development. Free; iPhone/iPad compatible.

• Language and literacy software developer Imagine Learning has launched its second mobile learning application, Gamester, as a free download in the iTunes store. Designed for young students, the app features three interactive games that help them master the alphabet. In “Free the Aliens,” players race against the clock to identify letters and free aliens trapped in a crater. In “Build a Monster,” kids create their very own monster or robot by choosing the correct letter of the alphabet. In “Letter Shapes & Sounds,” young readers learn the shapes and sounds of new letters. Free; iPhone/iPad compatible.

• Beaver's Revenge, the latest title launched by Twisted Games, is a lively, physics-based arcade game featuring unique animals, three worlds and more than 60 levels. Users fling and toss animals like fish, skunks, and rabbits at various angles in order to hit certain targets, much like in the popular Angry Birds app. Free; iOS 3.2 or later or Android.

• Adobe's popular Creative Suite is being adapted, more or less, for tablet computers in a series of six new touch-based apps to be released later this year (starting with an Android release in November). The apps address multiple areas of the creative process from image editing and sketching to mood boards and mobile app prototyping. They are headlined by Adobe Photoshop Touch, which brings the popular image-editing software to tablet devices for the first time. Introductory pricing is $9.99 each; Android and iPad compatible. 

• A new app from eChalk lets parents contact teachers and access school-related information for their children in one place. The app provides both parents and students with mobile access to the company's online platform to receive timely notifications of school activities, and to view grades, homework assignments, learning resources, and class discussions. Free, but requires an eChalk account; iOS and Android compatible.