Apps for Teachers

Technology has changed teaching trends significantly. Today, the focus has shifted to STEM education and more emphasis is being given to STEM classes. The educator has also become the student and requires more than just a workbook to teach and motivate students to learn and understand using technology.

Just like every sphere of life has an app, there are numerous apps available specifically for teachers to engage students, improve student behavior and make classroom sessions more interesting and fruitful.

Here are 5 must-have apps that all teachers should have to get desired results in the classroom.

1. The ClassDojo App

The ClassDojo app acts as a classroom tool that provides techniques to bring quick changes to classroom behavior. One good thing about this app is that it allows the teacher to capture and generate date related to student behavior and share with parents as well as administrators.

Teachers also can use the app to give feedback and encourage or motivate students. The app allows teachers to submit and view data and reports related to student behavior.

https://itunes.apple.com/in/app/classdojo/id552602056?mt=8

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.classdojo.android&hl=en

2. Edmodo

The Edmodo is a wonderful support aid for teachers. This amazing app helps teachers improve their level of interaction with students, even when both are not physically present in the school. The Edmodo app lets teachers and students enjoy secure classroom discussions and easy sharing of assignments. Besides these features, the app lets teachers upload important files related to projects and lessons that students can use and refer to.

https://itunes.apple.com/in/app/edmodo/id378352300?mt=8

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.fusionprojects.edmodo&hl=en

3. Remind 101

The Remind101 app helps teachers send announcements and notices to parents and students. Although a common functionality, this app has a unique feature – it prioritizes privacy.

The app lets the teacher hide their contact details and/or identity when sharing information with parents and students. In addition, the personal details of recipients too are kept hidden. The ‘privacy’ feature offered by the Remind 101 app makes it different and more effective compared to apps that offer the same features and functionalities.

https://itunes.apple.com/in/app/remind-safe-classroom-communication/id522826277?mt=8

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.remind101&hl=en

4. Math Formulas

It is quite difficult to remember all the math formulae related to different equations and mathematical concepts. Not remembering the formula in a classroom setting can send teachers into a tizzy. This is where the Math Formulas app comes to the rescue.

It is a compilation of innumerable math formulae. These formulae cover almost every topic in math, from trigonometry to geometry and algebra to matrices. However, this particular app is available only for Android devices, but you can get similar apps for iOS devices, as well.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nsc.mathformulas.lite&hl=en

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/maths-formulas-free/id645431389?mt=8

5. Geddit

The Geddit app is designed to help teachers identify students’ weaknesses and strengths. This amazing app lets teachers understand a student’s attitude to learning and their ability to understand different aspects of a lesson.

This interaction through the app allows the teacher to cater to the individual needs of students, conduct a one-on-one session for better comprehension and assist students get confident to progress to the next level.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/geddit-student/id827542924?mt=8

If you are an educator, these are the 5 apps you should have on your smart device to improve interaction with and make learning fun for your students.

Messaging and push notifications are two of the most oft-used mobile marketing tools that have been known to yield excellent results. With billions of people around the world now opting to use smart mobile devices, mobile applications have now become a viable channel of communication for marketers. If you have a branded app and want to drive engagement and customer participation, messaging and push notifications can be incredibly effective when used in the right way.

The appeal of messaging and push notifications lie in the fact that they encourage users to take immediate action on the information provided by opening the concerned application and carrying out a set task. App-based notifications that are compelling and arouse interest have been extremely successful when it comes to driving engagement, and are being used to facilitate easier sales, acquire more customers and keep old customers interested in a particular brand or business.

How going local helps?

When it comes to using messaging the push notifications for marketing purposes, it is important to remember the local context. Most people use their mobile devices to gather information to help with their purchasing decisions. More often than not, these decisions involve purchases in the immediate vicinity or surroundings. Therefore, it is important as a business to focus on geo-targeting when it comes to the efficient use of messaging and push notifications to provide real utility for customers and providing enough value to encourage better adoption.

The benefits of geo targeting

The whole idea of marketing campaigns using messages and push notifications verges on a single concept- providing useful, actionable information that encourages users to make purchases. Most customer needs are local in nature (think daily needs items, plumber, electrician services etc.), and it makes sense to use geo-targeting to provide information that is really valuable and in context with the locality of specific users. Geo-targeting helps you meet your needs when it comes to the geographical boundaries of your target market. Here are some compelling advantages –

• Geo-fencing – With geo-targeting come the advantages of geo-fencing, which allows marketers to establish a virtual fence around a particular, defined geographical area for targeted marketing efforts. You can device the radius and coverage of the area, and use messages and push notifications to send important information to users who are inside the area.This way, you can leverage the local preferences of users to establish your business as a viable local milestone. The trick is to stress on the advantages of proximity between the value offer in your message and the user. This process is significantly useful for making the most of seasonal sales, answering surges in demand and trends for various products and services, and providing highly targeted value offers.

• Proximity-based Offerings – For particular business locations, messages and push notifications can be used to inform customers about the special offers and new products and services that you currently have on offer whenever they walk by your physical selling location. This way, you do not only provide value, but also convenience which becomes a convincing selling point, enticing customers to make a purchase and provide you with more business.

Have you used geo-targeting to take your business marketing endeavors to the next level? Write in to us and let us know your thoughts.

In today’s highly competitive world, the marketing team of any retail company has to put a lot of effort to woo its targeted customers and retain its existing ones. Customers continue being more curious and less patient these days. This means that a slight window of doubt about your product can move them away from your business.

A result-oriented strategy to keep customers glued to your products/services or maintain their loyalty is to employ gamification into your marketing mix. Didn’t ring a bell? Well, gamification denotes engaging your new and existing customers by incorporating the raw concept of games in your marketing strategy. Here, the games should be more in line of rewards and incentives. These incentives would act as a motivating factor for the customers to continue staying engaged with your business. Let’s check out some vital factors that can drive the gamification endeavors of your company’s retail loyalty program.

Social Factor

Most of the viral games are kind of social in nature. It means that people of almost all ages and from all sorts of backgrounds can play those games. So, your aim should be to integrate your business incentive with such social online games.

A classic example is Samsung that blends social and user interaction by rewarding users for participating in Q&A session, watching videos, reviewing products and other such activities.

Time Factor

I believe that the concept of “limited-time offer” delivers results most of the times. It definitely plays with the mind of the customers, and pushes them to go for the bait. So, when you design a gamification program for your customers, then make sure the first incentive or reward come to them really easily. It should be close enough instead of making it very tough, so that the customers find hard to say no to it.

Challenge Factor

Customers get skeptical when something is easily achievable or accessible. For this reason, it is important to include a little bit of a challenge in the gamification of your loyalty program. Keep a big reward at the end, and the reward should be valuable enough, not just in terms of money. At the same time, remind the customer from time to time about how close he or she is to earning an incentive.

Game / Fun Element Factor

Obviously, fun is the biggest reason why people play incentive based games. It is the fun factor that makes an incentive based game popular and successful. For this reason, from time to time, try to come up with surprises for your customers in the form of freebies or limited offers. This will definitely keep them glued to your loyalty program.

Recognition Factor

The incentive you offer should always be in the mind of the users. If they are not able to recognize what they are running after, then sooner or later they will lose interest in your gamification program. So, always remind them about the forthcoming incentive or reward waiting for them to earn, even if it is a small one.

Do write in to us and let us know how you plan to utilize the immense potential of gamification to enhance your business visibility online.

According to the latest statistics by Business Insider, 58% of the mobile retail revenue has been driving the top 500 brands in 2014. In-app purchases account for the rest of the business. Another study by Google indicates that 82% of smart phone users choose to browse retail websites on their phones rather than on their computers. Today, there is a mobile app for simply everything. For businesses, this has implications far deeper than gaining leads and enhancing revenue streams. Here’s a list of top 5 retail apps that every modern business should utilize to their benefit –

Vend POS

Vend POS has been integrated with the iPad and enable businesses to connect with clients and global customers at any given time. Used by businesses all over the globe, Vend POS can be integrated with receipt printers, barcode scanners and cash drawers. Making financial transactions, reporting, and building analytics for your business is made simple on this app. Even without an active internet connection, Vend POS allows a seamless business process. The software has been further integrated with programs like Shopify, Alidrop, Timely, Xero, and Stitchlabs.

PayPal Here

Another innovative app for iPad users, PayPal Here lets you to accept payments and do transactions just by connecting to mobile device and dedicated PayPal dongles. It is a highly trusted transaction platform for many businesses across the globe and further allows the business to send e-receipts over email and text messages. Since it requires customers to check in with their mobile devices, PayPal Here is also a beneficial tool to personalize interactions and guarantees a repeat purchase.

Collect

Collect has been developed to engage businesses in making repeated business out of first time sales. Used by many businesses globally, Collect integrates customer loyalty and reward programs to attract customers to do repeated purchases. Personalized marketing exchanges also enable the businesses to increase foot traffic sales and establish push notifications. Companies can use it as a tool to track every customer’s shopping history and send customized notifications.

RetailNext

RetailNext has long been used as an in-store solution, helping collect massive amount of customer data and actionable insights to engage and convert. The application taps into several data sources including Wi-Fi, POS Systems, and promotional calendars, staffing systems, weather and much more. The app also organizes and converts all such data into reports and graphs that are easy to understand.

Xero

Xero enables your business to stay updated on your financial front even when you are not connected to the internet. The app allows you to approve, create and generate invoices using your mobile device. The application will help you upload receipts and track expenses. The automation features integrated with this app lets you import and categorize transactions on the go, allowing the business to focus on the core business activities rather than spending time on daily balance sheets.

Modern day retailing is all about simplifying the way we buy and sell. Do write in to us and let us know which apps from the above list are a part of your digital marketing strategies.

The world we live in today is so much surrounded by technology that almost every aspect of our lives depends on it. Be it healthcare or the education sector, technology has made it made its presence felt in every segment. Take the instance of education sector. It won’t be wrong to say that technology has turned over the conventional approaches of education on its head. This helps anyone to seek knowledge from anywhere and anytime. This has also led to a massive proliferation of apps on the app store. Hence in 2014, 18.3% of the total apps downloaded from Apple iTunes were educational apps. Out of the thousands of apps we present our list of apps that have really made use of technology to create out-of-the-box solutions for the education sector –

Nearpod

In case you have to make a multimedia presentation for your students then this free app can be of great help. With this free app, you can download or make multimedia presentation in just couple of hours and even share it with your students in real time. On the other hand, your students will be able to go through the presentation, interact with other students sharing the presentation, and submit their responses. While they do it, you can easily keep an eye on their interactive session and analyze their performance.

Android link https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.panareadigital.Nearpod&hl=en

iTunes link https://itunes.apple.com/in/app/nearpod/id523540409?mt=8

Mathcube

If your kid is just beginning his or her learning phase then this easy to use app can be an excellent option. In an entertaining and interesting way, Mathcube will let your kid to learn how to solve simple sums involving addition, subtraction, etc.

Android link https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.livezen.mathcube.google.free

iTunes Link https://itunes.apple.com/in/app/id864191079?mt=8

Exitticket Student Response System

To help student get instant feedback about their performance, this Android and iPhone/iPad app can be really helpful for the teachers. ExitTicket allows teachers to let their student know about their strong and weak points, which in turn will allow them to work accordingly, without wasting any time. This will definitely empower both teachers and the students by cutting down the time wasted in providing feedback and working on them.

Android link https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.exittix.exitticket&hl=en

iTunes link https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/exitticket/id618649934?mt=8

Explain Everything

This app will let you to narrate, animate, export, annotate, as well as export almost anything you like, and all these things can be done with the help of its whiteboard tool, which is highly interactive in nature. Teachers can use this app for educating their students in an interesting way. It allows you to add objects, existing photos, and even import PFD files from the local storage.

Android link https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.morriscooke.explaineverything&hl=en

iTunes link https://itunes.apple.com/in/app/explain-everything/id431493086?mt=8

Coursmos

With this free app, you can make micro-courses. All you have to do is upload a video that you already have or shoot a fresh video lesson by using your phone. Once the video is ready for uploading, simply provide a title and few lines to describe the micro-course. In this way, you can let all your students to have access to your micro-course by sharing with them. You can share through social networks or email.

Android link https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.coursmos.app&hl=en

iTunes link https://itunes.apple.com/in/app/coursmos/id692934231?mt=8

Nowadays, there is no dearth of apps related to education. No matter if you have an Android powered smartphone/tablet, an iPhone or iPad, there are plenty of wonderful educational apps waiting for you. And, this is evident from the fact that over 10% of the total apps available in the Google Play Store are learning apps. So, go for them.

2014 marked a substantial increase in usage, quality and quantity of mobile apps. While app stores for Android and iOS crossed more than a million apps hosted way back in January 2014, it also set a new high in terms of downloads. As of Oct ’14, there were 85 billion downloads in Apple app store¹

With games (20.38%), education (10.36%) and business (9.43%)² forming the top 3 segments of apps available on app stores in September 2014, smartphone user interest has certainly been versatile. The downloads came from a large swathe of industries and niches including publishing, games, entertainment, music, stores, utility, enterprise and others. Since the birth of smartphones, apps have not only been attracting extensive investment from marketers of all forms but also converting it into billions of dollars as revenues. This trend is only set to grow further, and the onslaught of several startups is only going to fuel the practice. Now that we are well into 2015, here’s looking back at the best trends set in the app market.

Growth of messaging apps

From WeChat (438 million users in Nov ‘14) to Facebook Messenger (200 million) and several players like Viber (105 million), Line (170 million), and KakaoTalk (50 million), messaging apps have seen a massive increase led by WhatsApp (600 million)³. Smartphone users have been found to set a clear division between communicating through a social network (Facebook messenger) and exclusive messaging apps. However, messaging apps of today aren’t just limited to texts and picture messages. Today, to send a video instantly, one needn’t create and send an MMS. It can be easily done over platforms like Lettrs and Cyber Dust and more importantly in a bare minimum of data usage. Messaging apps are also integrating music, shopping and even games to make the interface much more entertaining and engaging.

Educational apps

There has been a substantial rise in the number of educational apps in 2014. Tablets and smartphones are proving to be a great means of information exchange and spreading awareness. In some schools in California, iPads have been included in the school kit to create better access to education and syllabuses. This certainly is a great moment for developers as their designs are directly helping create a better society and not just entertaining kids (games).

Enterprise apps

Some of the most innovative apps brought into the stores have been developed by companies, to be used by their staff. Enterprise apps have been able to break the barrier and create remote collaborations and easier team building. Taking a closer look, enterprise apps like HP Flow CM, Worx Home, IBM Worklight and Quip have been able to bring about a change in the way companies and entrepreneurs do business.

Free gaming

Gaming has always been a much wanted accessory with mobile device. However, since the launch of smartphones, gaming has gained much prominence among users. 2014 has seen a rise in constructive and free-to-use gaming apps with popular titles like Candy Crush Saga, Lumosity, The New York Times Crossword and Angry Birds.

Internet of things

The most talked about titles in the app world come from the wearable apps, including Google Glass and Smart Watches. While there is a lot of technological challenge involved in this category, they seem to be the hottest topics in the Android and iOS marketplaces.

Stepping into 2015, we can only say that the app industry will continue to spread its wings and we certainly can expect to be impressed.

1- http://www.statista.com/statistics/263794/number-of-downloads-from-the-apple-app-store/
2 – http://www.statista.com/statistics/270291/popular-categories-in-the-app-store/
3 – http://was-gb.wascdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Slide41.png

In today’s frantic technology driven world, mobile app have created a strong niche in a short span of time. When 25% of international media and marketing executives view mobile as the most disruptive force in their industry ¹, it is time to sit up and take notice Having a small business app developed for its service/product offerings could help give emerging and nascent businesses a solid platform to chart the growth map by capturing the formidable mobile audience.

The need for such apps is further corroborated by the fact that by end of 2014, mobile usage is predicted to overtake desktop usage ². Having said that it is essential to know what features can help in sustained interaction and engagement that will in turn help close sales and earn business through the mobile. Today let us have a glimpse at some of the must-have features which could tip the scales in your favor:

1. Seamless Social Media Integration:

Before everything else, this clearly is the need of the hour! We are living in a world of social media boom. You simply cannot undermine the importance of this aspect. Having mobile apps and social media business pages separately proves cumbersome for smooth management and increases abandonment rate. Hence, business apps need to be seamlessly combined with the respective social media profiles.

2. Location Based Services:

You can employ this strategy to give your company increased chances of business from mobile users in the vicinity. You can showcase your outreach with the help of location check-ins. Moreover, you can optimize customer satisfaction by giving them area specific offers, discounts, and special prices.

3. Customizability:

In a world of mobile revolution, people have gained heightened app sensitivity. That’s right! Users want their apps to represent their preferences, tastes, hobbies and likes. They need the power of customization. Changes like appearance modifications, notification settings, saving personal information and managing order history need to be incorporated within the app for best results.

4. Simplicity:

Apps with simple yet enticing interface and navigability will promote ease of understanding, improved readability, and seamless internal mobility. Too many advertisements and offers can act as deal breakers. ‘Minimalistic’ is the new buzzwords adopted by leading players such as Apple to great effect.

5. Payment Processing Methods:

Make sure that your customers have access to single button payment features [Credit cards, bank transfers, online banking, etc.] so you never get to miss ever a single business sale due to cart abandonment or long-winding checkout process.

6. Timely yet Relevant Communication:

Push emails and push messages optimize customer communication by a significant margin. Users will appreciate getting to know about new offers, deals, discounts or early bird rewards that will sweeten their online purchase.

7. Monetary Management:

Take care to have a robust and secure gateway and backend to –

• Integrate Bank Accounts
• Monitor payments and sales
• Manage payroll and orders anytime, anywhere
• Track Invoices

8. Shipping and Delivery Management:

Allow your precious customers to get real time updates regarding the whereabouts of their package information once the payment has been done. Keeping them informed about the status of delivery till the time it reaches them instill a sense of confidence in customers’ minds – a factor that possesses a great recall value.

9. Comprehensive Feedback System:

Give your users the power to communicate with you directly or indirectly via comments, periodical surveys, FAQs, discussion forums and forms. Getting a chance to review and post feedback provides further impetus to customers to try out your business app again as they know that their comments are being acted upon.

1 – As appearing in http://blogs.sap.com/innovation/mobile-applications/8-statistics-every-business-should-know-about-mobile-0363048

2- http://www.convinceandconvert.com/mobile/7-mobile-marketing-stats-that-will-blow-your-mind/

Let’s begin with a simple definition of what Cross Platform Mobile Development is. It is a manner of writing single codebase for applications, which could be used on different operating systems. It is a known fact how difficult Multi-Platform Mobile App Formatting can be. Each platform functions differently and is unique in its own way. However, one could say that Cross-platform apps are the “in-thing” today. So as a developer, it is essential to develop best cross-formatted apps. Fortunately, there are some really good Cross Platform Mobile Development tools / platforms / frameworks in the market today (they have for sure evolved quite a bit). We bring to you the Top 5.

#1 – PhoneGap

PhoneGap is an award-winning Mobile Development Cross Platform that is capable of creating applications for Symbian, Android, Blackberry, Palm, iOS (iPhone and iPads) and Windows. These developers write their applications based on web shortcuts such as JavaScript, HTML, and CSS3. It is also open source and free, so there are no licensing costs. PhoneGap works systematically, and provides developers an easy access to hardware components. Like the accelerometer, camera, sound, GPS tracker and many more which are quite advanced in nature. In addition, PhoneGaps also conducts training to developers for free who are willing to make it big in this industry.

#2 – Appcelerator

Appcelerator creates Cross Platform Mobile Apps through Web Programming languages such as PHP, JavaScript, HTML, Python and Ruby. One of the best things about Appcelerator is that it provides its users with more than 300 API’s and location information to access easily. It is known to power over 1000 native apps in a month. For the 3rd Party Components, it provides value-adds such as Backend-as-a-Service (BaaS), app analytics and a marketplace.

#3 – Sencha Touch

Sencha Touch as a Cross Platform Mobile Development tool is a HTML5 mobile application framework for iPhone, Android, and BlackBerry. Sencha Touch can be used to develop UI’s for mobile web applications that have a look and feel like those of native applications on the supported mobile devices.

#4 – Whoop

This is a very interesting tool for Cross Platform Mobile Development. Whoop claims that they are “the one-stop mobile app publishing platform for non-developers.” They state that they are suitable for even non developers. This is considered one of the best ways to go for beginners in Mobile Development. Although, there is an ease in its use, it does not possess many important requirements for the latest features on hardware. It consists of a WYSIWYG interface which allows the developers to easily drop app elements to attain the desired result.

#5 – MoSync

MoSync is an advanced SDK for Cross Platform Mobile Development. This SDK provides the developers with many useful tools such as runtimes, libraries, integrated compilers and more. It includes Eclipse based IDE and supports C/C++, PHP, Python, Ruby, JavaScript, and Java. MoSync supports OS’ such as Android, Windows Mobile, Moblin, Symbian, Mobile Linux distro. The release of MoSync 2.4, will allow support for iPhone OS and BlackBerry.

#6 – RhoMobile

It offers Rhodes, an open source integrated framework based on Ruby. This is basically used to develop applications that can be used on several other mobile OS’. It allows native applications to be developed for Symbian, Android, Windows Mobile, iOS and RIM. RhoMobile provides a framework, which needs the developer to just code once. This same code can be used to develop apps for different OS’.

Cross Platform Mobile Development tools are in huge demand today. We hope these are able to help you in developing an awesome app!

For consultation and development of cross platform mobile apps, connect with GoodWorkLabs, the experts in cross platform mobile and HTML5 development.