​Tech EDGE: Mobile Learning in the Classroom

The youtube page for Tech EDGE is very user friendly. The youtube videos can be sorted chronologically or by popularity. There are a multitude of videos, ranging from Geography Games to Presentation Apps. As an English teacher, I was interested in finding a podcast on Poetry. This was easy to find, as I just typed in the word on the channel's own search bar.  

The second app mentioned in the podcast was the one that  intrigued me the most. This app is called "Word Mover." It is essentially an app in which the students play with word magnets on a refrigerator, however, the fridge is actually the iPad screen.
The benefit to this app as compared to working with real magnets is the option to "Create a New Word Bank". This allows the student to have a multitude of options of words to use in their poem they are creating. The students also have the option to select a "Theme" for the poem to have the words follow the subject they plan on writing about. However, the student is able to add whatever words they want.
​The interface is very kid friendly and it allows many different ways to save the work without having to create an account on the app. 

The last program mentioned, "Rhymer", was very interesting to me as someone with a history in education. It allows students to type in a word into the search box and receive a list of words that rhyme with it. Although in the podcast this was listed as an app, I was only able to find it as a website.
Regardless, the website is very iPad friendly, and it felt just as though I was using an app. There are different options for the user to select what type of rhyme they would like, whether it be end rhyme, last syllable rhyme, double or triple rhyme, beginning rhyme, or first syllable rhyme.
​ I think this website it a vital addition to any English classroom considering the most common excuse students give for not being "able" to write poetry is that they "can't think of any words that rhyme."