Though I haven’t gotten an iPad yet, we did get one for my mother-in-law. So, with an eye towards helping her now, and me in the future, I put out a call to readers to their suggested resources as well as hunting for them on my own.

You might also be interested in The Best Sites For Beginning iPhone Users Like Me.

Here are my choices, and choices suggested by readers (their recommendations are better than mine!), as The Best Resources For Beginning iPad Users:

iPad Getting Started is from TC Geeks.

The 10 best iOS apps of 2011 comes from The Telegraph.

The best iOS apps for children, 2011 is also from The Telegraph.

The top 50 iPad apps is from The Guardian.

Choosing the Right Keyboard For Your iPad is from Read Write Web.

The Best iPad Apps: 10 Essential Apps For The New iPad You Got For The Holidays is from The Huffington Post.

Educreations lets you easily create video lessons.

Fill Your New Kindle, iPad, iPhone with Free eBooks, Movies, Audio Books, Courses & More is from Open Culture.

iPads In The Art Room

APPiticdescribes itself as:

…an directory of apps for education by Apple Distinguished Educators (ADEs) to help you transform teaching and learning.

It has over 1,300 categorized apps, including a ton organized by Bloom’s Taxonomy.

Here are great suggestions from readers:

Paul McKean has an excellent collection of fifteen useful links.

Chrissie Turkington recommends iPad Tips: Getting Started with the iPad.

Katie suggests these apps: Evernote and Dropbox; Facebook and Twitter; iMovie

Julia Ault has compiled an excellent collection of iPad resources.

Daniela Arghir Bunea suggests these apps: iBooks, Animoto Video Slideshows, flex:player and TeacherPal

Kathy Fagan writes:

I am such a newbie and the apps that have excited me so far are 1. iSpeech Translator, which will convert spoken words to text and then translate, sometimes with spoken words at the other end too. Not perfect, but may be useful in a multi-language classroom and 2. a PDF annotating tool such as GoodNotes or UPad, which obviously can be used to highlight and make margin notes but can also be used on blank “paper” to scribble quick ideas or diagrams. UPad has more features, but GoodNotes has a simple, clean interface and easy access to Dropbox.

Melissa A. Venable writes:

Don’t be afraid to put your new iPad through its paces. Consider all of the tasks you perform, media you consume, with other tech gadgets (phone, ereader, laptop/desktop, even tv, etc.) and try them on the iPad. And explore the wide variety of apps. I gathered a list of educator-recommended apps at a recent conference – the productivity apps are particularly helpful.

Darrell Rudmann suggests these apps: GoodReader, NoteTaker HD, SimpleNote, mSecure, iA Writer, iThoughts HD, Keynote, Dropbox, and ignition.

Jan Harding writes:

App Start is a great little app that walks newbies through the best apps in many different catagories. App Tracker is another good one that tracks the best FREE apps by category as well. Looking forward to seeing your post as I am also collecting info for beginning users.

Sorting Out an Avalanche of iPad Apps for the Best of 2011 is from The New York Times.

28 iPad 2 Tips and Tricks is from PC World.

Google’s Free 64-Language Translator App Comes to the iPad is from Read Write Web.

The School That Launched 1,000 iPads is a useful post from Richard Byrne’s blog.

“70 Interesting Ways To Use An iPad In Your Classroom” is the newest — at least, to me it’s the newest — in Tom Barrett’s great Interesting Ways series. You can find all of Tom’s “Interesting Ways” here, and that link is also on my The Best Places To Learn Web 2.0 Basics list. Thanks to Candace Townsley on Twitter for the tip.

IPads In The Classroom comes from Ed Tech Teacher.

The Very First App You Should Load on Your New iPad is from Jeffrey Thomas.

And if you’re considering using iPads in the classroom, Redefining Instruction With Technology: Five Essential Steps by Jennie Magiera is a must read.

20 Great Classroom iPad Apps to add to your Collection (1-5) is from Tom Barrett.

Thanks to everybody who contributed to this list!

Feedback is welcome.  And I hope people will continue to leave suggestions in the comments section of this post.

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