Windows 8 Apps

Look, I'll be honest. Occasionally I get frustrated that I cannot get an app for Windows. For example my bank, like many, offers an app for both Android and Google but not for Windows Phone.

As a Windows Phone user for the last four years this is very frustrating. Many of my colleagues and friends are at a loss as to why I persist with the Windows Phone platform or, indeed, Windows at all. You see, normally an average 30 something with a suit and no tie the perfect accessory would be a expected to carry a MacBook and/or iPad. (If I could grow a beard it would be a Chromebook)

I however carry around my Dell e7240, an Asus VivoTab 8 and a Nokia Lumia 930.

The reality is, however, that there are a multitude of good apps for Windows and that app writers are now catching on to the fact that the Windows platform for apps is becoming more appealing. Skoolbag, used extensively by schools to communicate with parents, is hoping to roll out a Windows Phone app this year. Meanwhile Windows 10 and a single-platform for apps might just add further incentive to build apps for Windows.

But I digress.

What does this all mean for educators? Well there are actually a range of really useful Window's apps and tools out there. Over the coming week's I'd like to highlight a few.

This week, I'd like to take a look at The Teacher Collection which builds apps for educators. I've used these before on my Windows Tablet to great success. Here is a sample:

• 21st Century Learning Design - If you've attended our 21CLD workshops here at school, you might consider this handy self-assessment tool. It help's assess your tasks against the 21CLD framework. 
• Academic Wordsmith - not as user friendly as one might like, but a whole lot easier than other products on the market. This tool helps to analyse content with a view to identifying plagiarism.
• Markbook - this is a powerful digital mark-book and certainly worth looking at if you'd like to swap paper for a digital mark-book. This has integration with OneDrive which can make it a very powerful assessment support tool.
• Class Seater - seems simple enough, but if you've ever had 9D English you'll know how important seating arrangements are. I used a lot of group work and this app helped to have different setups for different activities. 
• Essay Marker - I haven't used this tool, having used something similar last year with HSC Studies of Religion. However, this looks like an excellent tool for those who mark essays on a regular basis.