Online teaching through mobile phone is your gateway to success. It can also be your gateway to boredom, frustration, and hopelessness if you are not using the right apps. But don’t worry — you’re in the right place. I will show you how to choose the right apps for your needs so you can have a great experience teaching online through mobile phone.
Teaching through mobile phone or the use of mobile apps for teaching purposes have become one of the most popular topics in education and faculty training. You can learn so much regarding the use of mobility in teaching & learning by reading the following blog post.
Nearpod
The first app that proves ideal for livening up lessons, and made especially for teachers, is the one called Nearpod. This application allows teachers to present multimedia lessons that students can upload to their mobile devices. The Nearpod app is completely free and offers different layouts, which make it suitable for various teaching activities.
Viper (Windows)
The second app worth mentioning and proving suitable for teachers is the one called Viper. It is in fact a valid Windows application that contains ready-made themes which allow teachers to present them directly to pupils. In this app, students are also able to compare their work to understand how to write better by avoiding grammatical errors, paying more attention to syntax and typos.
Attendance
The third app that proves effective for teachers, who have an Android device, is the one called Attendance. Teachers can use it to draw up a list of attendance in their various classes, and to help them keep track of the studies and classwork of each individual student. This app also allows a photo to be added to each name so that the teacher can better verify and follow the necessary information.
TooNoisy
The fourth app for teachers is a little bizarre, but in some ways useful; in fact, it is called TooNoisy. It was created to detect environmental noises and it can be used for both an Android device and with an iPhone in a classroom. This app specifically emits a beep when the aforementioned noise threshold is excessive. The main function of this app is dictated by the fact that students, themselves, can become more aware of how to behave, and regulate their behavior. It also helps students avoid the risk of punishment by a teacher or educational representative if they aren’t following the rules.
Instabridge (Free, Unlimited)
Instabridge is the world’s largest WiFi password sharing community, created by a Swedish company and utilized throughout the entire world. Consider this map-style app when you are in a new city searching for free WiFi, trying to avoid asking baristas for their internet passwords over and over again. This master key is a connection to any available hotspot you didn’t know you could have access to, whether you’re using an Android, IOS, laptop, or iPad. It is also quite useful when traveling to a known location, like a friend’s beach house or cabin. Friends can share private passwords on their Instabridge accounts, choosing who to share with and when to change access codes. With this kind of easy encryption, you might consider working further and further from home than ever before!
Google Hangout
Invented for online instructors, Google Hangout lets you create free videoconferences for up to 10 people and help record the session via YouTube and turn the recorded conversation into an archived presentation for later viewings of the students. This platform’s mobile application also allows users to engage in a chat.
Audioboom
Audioboom is another notable app for online mobile education. This app allows for easy communication with your students through three-minute podcasts that can be recorded using the app. You can easily share your podcasts on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter using your smartphone.
Squid
Free with in-app purchases, Squid is a handwritten note-taking application compatible with Android only. The app allows the teacher to import PDF worksheets into Squid and students to do the work directly on the sheets before exporting and sending them back to the teacher for review. In addition, teachers can import the student’s work, assess it, and send it back to the student to see what improvements they need.
AnswerGarden
Free of charge, AnswerGarden helps teachers ask their students a question that can be answered in a single word or a short sentence. The answers provided are received by either a web link, QR code, or AnswerGarden’s iOS app and start filling out on a view screen in a word cloud. AnswerGarden is an easy and excellent tool to use for brainstorm activities with a group in class.
PdaNet+ (Free Limited Mode / $7.95 Unlimited)
PdaNet+, once known as FoxFi, is a WiFi tethering application available primarily to Android 4.1 and up users. If there is no root access to the internet where you are going, you can make your own WiFi connection! This particular ad hoc networking app can work in three different modes:
- By also utilizing the separate FoxFi app, you can work with the Hotspot feature. This is considered the older operation of PdaNet+, with metered hotspot usage which the app cannot currently avoid (aka, it could be much slower than you initially anticipate).
- The USB mode of this app allows for direct connection to a Windows or Mac device via a cable. This method now includes a “WiFi Share” feature increasing your ability to utilize Windows to share the internet with other devices!
- Bluetooth mode is another method of connection, though the creators of the PdaNet+ app encourage users to utilize WiFi Direct instead. WiFi Direct is extremely useful for high-speed, multimedia file transfers.
The PdaNet+ app will be most useful to those with an Android device that prompts a call to the phone’s carrier for assistance when trying to turn on the hotspot feature, or those with a metered hotspot usage. While it may only take minutes to download and set up this mobile app to teach online, it is a good idea to take time before a trip and figure out which of the three modes above flow well with your combination of devices.
Dragon Anywhere: Dictate Now ($14.99/month)
Dictation apps can be found on any smartphone today but, much like the texting feature autocorrect, the accuracy rate is average at best. The mobile app Dragon by Nuance accurately scribes your dictation at a rate of 99%. Think that’s smart? Dragon can also be trained to how you speak through features such as a “Correction Menu”, voice editing and formatting. The Dragon Anywhere app is considered one of the best mobile apps for teaching online because it provides a platform for detailed assessment of student work, is a faster method of creating and compiling lesson plans, syllabi, and other lists, and allows for more effective management of communication.
Evernote (Free/$7.99 a month Premium/$14.99 a month Business)
On the move, with no time to sit and take notes? Here’s where Evernote can help. With the ability to sync up to two devices (more if you decide to go premium), this mobile application for teachers makes it easy to collect ideas, research, and notes anywhere! While the primary use of the app is to record and file audio, increasing productivity for dictating lectures, and lesson plans, it can also be used to scan documents, save web pages, and apply rich formatting to your notes. An extra interesting feature of this mobile app for teaching online is the ability to connect to other apps! Consider clipping notes from Slack into Evernote or sharing information to collaborate and organize on Microsoft Teams. Integrating your email with this app can improve workflow, and keep you efficient while on the go. No one can deny that instant email access is essential for the best mobile applications for teaching online.
Google Hangouts (Free)
Google Hangouts and Google Meet are perfectly accessible tools for directly connecting online with students. They not only let you create free video conferences for up to 10 people, they also record sessions via YouTube and turn conversations into archived presentations for other students and later viewings. While in the past the recording feature has been a part of the Enterprise GSuite package, it is currently free for schools due to the tidal conversion to virtual learning because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Google Hangouts is one of the best mobile apps for online teaching because you can sync chats across all of your devices, keep records of your conversations, and stay connected with your students whenever and wherever possible.
ZOOM Cloud Meetings (Free)
ZOOM is one of the best mobile apps for teaching online that almost every business, group of friends, or classroom utilizes. This on-the-scene high-speed app is available for free to those interested in video conferences of up to 100 people for 40-minute periods of time, and unlimited one-on-one video meetings. Local recording is available in the free version of the app so that you can record your video conference to upload onto a different platform (see, “I’m Not A Cat”). The mobile app is currently only available to both iPhone and Android users, making it an incredibly accessible tool to teachers providing meetings and lectures, and students working collaboratively on projects and assignments.
Flipgrid ($65/annual)
A highly accessible and interesting mobile app for teaching online is Flipgrid. This video discussion application allows for an abundance of creativity in classroom discussions, presentations, and more. The primary mission of the mobile teaching app is to engage your community with discussion topics which are answered with short video “stories” from your audience. It is simple to provide your students with feedback to their presentations, inspire a collaborative class flow, and make the most of working through discussion topics and problems remotely with this best app for online learning.
Conclusion:
There are many people who have the passion to teach but have no resources to have a classroom or the money to hire a tutor. This frustrates me to no end because if you are willing to learn, and if you possess the knowledge, there is nothing that can stop you in teaching others.