WARNING: No wifi Ahead

When choosing apps, especially for the mobile classroom, apps that do not require wifi access 100% of the time are very valuable. Learning often happens outside the classroom. It happens in an outdoor lab, a class fieldtrip or just students reflecting on course material as they go about their day. Students may also want to digest some of the course material during some free time, but when they don’t have wifi access. The concept of apps started with smartphones, which are devices that are connected to the internet almost 100% of the time. However, 65% of tablets in general and 75% of iPads are wifi only. Apps specifically made for tablets seem to be aware of this and often provide “offline” content and functionality. The apple app store does a good job of separating iPad apps from iPhone apps so you can easily choose only apps designed for the tablet platform. However, the Android market does not make this distinction. This often makes it difficult to find apps that don’t require full time wifi access. We encountered this issue several times last semester, especially when using Google docs. However, a new update to the Android Google docs app now allows for offline editing. I’m sure this trend will continue as developers realize that users want to use their devices even when they don’t have wifi. Please respond to this post with any useful apps that you have found that don’t require wifi access.