Recommended Apps - Leaving Cert Papers

Leaving Cert Papers is an essential app for any pupil sitting their "big summer quiz". It contains a complete stock of exam papers and marking schemes for 32 subjects from 1996 to 2008 (not sure why 2009 or 2010 aren't included but it's still great) allowing you quickly and easily access exam archive material on your iPhone, iPod or iPad. The app permanently stores the exam papers and marking schemes on your mobile device without the need for costly and time consuming downloads. At just €3.99 it is a fraction of the cost of buying individual printed examination papers. A very useful app and highly recommended - click here to view on iTunes and to download!

Recommended Apps - QS University Ratings

Finding the right university and course can be challenging sometimes and we often need help to separate the good from the bad, particularly if you're an Irish pupil looking to go abroad. Now there is a new app from QS World University Rankings which allows you quickly and easily see how your chosen university fares against the rest. The app is free to download for your iPhone or iPod and easily allows you see the newly released world rankings categorised by world, region and subject. There is detailed information on each of the top 50 universities world wide (including TCD, UCD, UL, DCU, UCC, NUI Galway, DIT and NUI Maynooth). You can link directly to the universities website and you can create a short-list of your favourite universities to keep for later. I'd recommend this to anyone sitting their Leaving Certificate this year and to Guidance Counsellors, especially is you are not too familiar with the UK institutions.

To download the QS University Rankings App click here.

Recommended Apps- UCAS

For pupils applying to the UK for a university place it might seem that all their time is taken up with the exhausting process that is a UCAS application. Waiting for a decision can be nerve wracking but now there is an app for the iPhone and iPod Touch that makes tracking your application easy and mobile. You can only use the app once your application has been processed but it has many useful features. You can easily see which universities have offered you a place, see if further information is needed on your application and view any replies you’ve made. Find out the key dates in the UCAS calendar and get the answers to your questions in the FAQ section. Unfortunately it doesn't have a teachers tracking facility hyet but maybe that might be something they will look at releasing shortly. Best of all the UCAS app is completely free. To download the UCAS app click here.

Recommended Apps - Awesome Note

Teachers return to the classroom shortly and will soon be neck high in homework to read, copies to correct, tests to mark, phone calls to make, emails to send and some might even have blogs to write (go on - get blogging with your pupils this September). All this means that busy teachers will need to get organised and Awesome Note is a brilliant app for the iPhone that will help you do just that.

Awesome Note is an innovative note taking application and "to-do" manager that allow you to combine notes with to-do flexibility. Users are able to customise how they want their notes categorised by creating different folder icons, which can be further customised with colours, fonts and backgrounds. The app is very versatile allowing you create simple scheduled notes to notes with photo attachments, To-Do's to organise your day and post-it style quick "memos" to quickly jot down your thoughts. You can even send notes with photos as emails to friends and colleague and synchronise your notes to Google Docs or your Evernote account. Awesome Note allows you easily jot down your ideas, thoughts and memos, and create daily diary, travel diary, email box, checklist, shopping list, to-do list, scheduler and anything else you want and sort them into custom categories. You can even protect some folders using passwords (I have a very handy PIN's & Passwords folder).

To download Awesome Note click here. The full version costs just €2.99, but you can download a free "lite" version to trial. Click here to download the "lite" version. Awesome Note is an excellent, simple but powerful app that works for me and hopefully it will work for you too.

Recommended Apps - Dropbox

Over at the Frog Blog I have been posting on recommended iPhone apps for science teachers, pupils or enthusiasts. But there are loads of other great apps that are available to download now for your mobile device, which are not science related, but would be extremely useful to the busy teacher. First up, in what I hope will be a series of posts, is Dropbox.

Dropbox is an excellent app which is available for iPhone, iPad, Android and, very shortly, your Blackberry. It provides an easy way to sync, store or share documents, presentations, spreadsheets between computers and mobile devices. All you have to set up a free account at Dropbox.com, install Dropbox on your PC or laptop, then on your mobile device and away you go. To use, just drag a file into the Dropbox folder on your PC or laptop and hey presto - it's also on your iPhone or Android phone! Have all your frequently used files on your mobile when you need them! You can also access your files on any computer in the world! It is an absolute essential for the busy teacher! And best of all - it's completely free!

Click here to download Dropbox for your iPhone, here for iPad and here for the Android version!