Yesterday here at NECC I learned about three fantastic applications for younger / primary age students from Jenny Ashby from Vic, Australia, who has 8 iPod Touches in her classroom currently. Here are the applications. These are ideal for students to use in center activities in a primary classroom.

iCanWrite (99 cents)

Give your kids a boost as they start to learn to write - a fun way for them to learn to produce letters. They can work from preset groups of letters or you can enter groups for them to use, perhaps re-enforcing their school scheme. They can also try any collection of letters they want - great for learning to write their name, for example. Letters are shown one at a time with a demonstration. Once the letter is traced correctly the next letter is shown. At the end of the sequence the results are shown as handwriting to give a great sense of achievement.
The handwriting piece can be grabbed using the standard screen shot feature (hold home and press power), allowing you or the child to include their masterpiece in notes, greetings cards or whatever you want.

Etch-a-Sketch ($1.99) - Also comes in a free "light" version

Re-live the classic drawing fun of Etch A Sketch on your iPhone or iPod Touch. Dazzle your friends with doodle masterpieces. With the multi-touch feature, use both knobs at once – just like the real Etch A Sketch. Want to start over? Shake the iPhone to undo your doodle! Create your own Etch A Sketch cartoons: import a photo from the Photo Album, draw on it, and add a caption.

Comic Touch ($2.99)

Make your photos come alive by giving them the Comic Touch. Add balloons to give your subjects thoughts and words. Add captions to describe the scene or give the photo a title. Use the PhotoBooth-style warping effects to add some fun. Turn people into caricatures of themselves or give them bizarre expressions. Endless fun! Share your creations via email or save them back to the Photo Library for even more sharing option

Remember with iTouch and iPhone applications, once you buy them you can sync them from the same computer / same iTunes account to as many devices as you want. So by purchasing these applications for just under $6 US, teachers are able to put these on all the iPod Touches they have available for students to use in their classroom which sync to the teacher's computer.

The teacher who shared this with me loads up each student's iTouch with photos from classroom activities as well as outdoor learning experiences, and the students use these as writing prompts in the classroom both using Comic Touch (so they can add "word bubbles" to images) as well as their pencil/paper.

The teacher or parent volunteers assisting with student centers are able to create screenshots of student work using these applications (hold down the home and power buttons on the iTouch simultaneously) and can then upload those examples of work to her classroom website using iWeb for parents to see.

Great examples of technology integration and creative ideas!

For more ideas, see Tony Vincent's great website, "So Much to do with an iPod Touch!"