History Maps

Zeitag NYC is a simple, user-friendly app that has thousands of location-based, historical photos embedded in the default iPad map. Teaching about immigration or the history of New York City? Zeitag offers students the opportunity to view the city from a whole new (or old) perspective.  You may want to partner this app with Google Earth (select Panoramio Photos layer), have students choose a given area, and compare life today with life in the past. If you have iPads with 3G, enrich your field trips by using Zeitag to add a historical layer to any spot around the city!

For all you Canadians out there, check out Zeitag Toronto.

Please note: The apps below have a similar concept, but were designed for the iPhone.
Historypin
History Here

My Maps Editor

This summer, a kind stranger shared this document:  26 Interesting Ways to use Google Earth in the Classroom. I was getting ready to pilot a 1:1 iPad program, and here were 26 cool things that I could do...just not on iPads!

And then I discovered My Maps Editor, the only free app that syncs with Google  Maps, which then syncs to Google Earth. That means if I am teaching about continents, my students can circle, color code, or label the continents, save their work to their Google accounts, then open then open the map in Google Earth to see it all on a movable, interactive globe. When learning about New York, we can trace the outline of the state so it stands out in relation to the rest of the world. We can zoom in and out of our current location to talk about the different sized communities in which we live. We can create a virtual tour of New York State by creating bookmarks on each city and hyperlinking them to pictures or websites. When learning about explorers, we might draw color-coded lines to track each explorer's journey,  calculate the distances, then attach videos or text notes about each one.  The number of possibilities is extensive, but not endless.  It would be nice if one could undo drawings, access old versions more easily, and select a map more smoothly. It would be even nicer if all of the computer options (KML files, etc.) were available on the iPad.  For now, My Maps Editor is all I have.

I'm hoping that by the time my students are ready for more advanced  functions,  My Maps Editor will put out an upgrade, there will be a newer, better iPad app, or they will each have a laptop that is as fast and light as the iPad. My eyes are on the Microsoft Surface Pro...

Please note: Mapedit (1.99) and Map Editor (1.99) are also worth exploring.  MyMap could do more than all of them, but it has ads and more than 30 dollars of in-app purchases.

These Are a Few of My Favorite Things...

They are not apps. They come with the iPad. They are on the home screen. They're free! 

Camera:

• The obvious: Take pictures/videos and import them into emails, blogs, or student files.
• The not so obvious: Use it as a quick, compact scanner. (When I couldn't find a map that I liked online,  I took a picture of the one in the textbook, emailed it to my computer, and voila...It was on the Smartboard! During Writer's Workshop, when I wanted to showcase student work, I did the same thing.)

Notes:

• The obvious: Take notes. And shake to undo.  
• The not so obvious: Use it as a dictionary (highlight  a word and tap "define") or as a reader for students (highlight and tap "speak".)

Calendar:

• I like the look and feel of the iPad calendar, but prefer to use Google calendars, so I set up my calendar accounts on Google or my school's Outlook system and link them to my iPad. They show up beautifully color-coded, appointments pop-up on demand, and all changes are synced in the cloud.
• With a student set of iPads, the calendar becomes an essential part of any math lesson... and so does the world clock, for that matter. (Think elapsed time word problems.)

Maps: 

• The new Apple Maps is not very helpful when I need directions using public transportation, but if I want to plan a virtual tour, teach about directionality, neighborhoods, continents, landmarks, or just about anything geography related, I use Maps, and my students have the world at their fingertips. 

FaceTime:

• I have never tried this, but we can take our students on a virtual field trip to just about anywhere...as long as that somewhere has a someone (with an iPad or iPhone) who would be willing to host the tour. Think surgeons, professors, park rangers, museum curators, artists, authors, or just friends in interesting places...