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.

If you found this post useful, you might want to look at the over 800 other “The Best…” lists and consider subscribing to this blog for free

Since I have published so many “The Best…” lists, I thought it might be helpful to readers if I posted a few year-end collections.

Here is A Collection Of “The Best…” Lists On Technology — 2011:

The Best Web 2.0 Applications For Education In 2011

The Best Posts About The Khan Academy

The Best Posts On The NY Times Ed Tech Article

The Best Research Available On The Use Of Technology In Schools

The Best Resources For Learning What Google+ Is All About

The Best Online Teleprompters

The Best Resources For Google Earth Beginners Like Me

The Best Online Virtual “Corkboards” (or “Bulletin Boards”)

The Best (& Easiest) Ways To Record Online Video Interviews

The Best Ways To Make A Map Showing Your Facebook Friends (& Twitter Followers)

The Best Resources For Learning About Schools Providing Home Computers & Internet Access To Students

The Best — And Easiest — Ways To Use YouTube If, Like Us, Only Teachers Have Access To It

The Best Ways For English Language Learners To Create Online Content Easily & Quickly

The Best Places To Find Research On Technology & Language Teaching/Learning

The Best Tools For Printing Out Webpages

The Best Tools For Creating Fake “Stuff” For Learning

The Best Resources For Maximizing The Use Of Dropbox

The Best Resources For Beginning To Learn What Quora Is All About…

I recently revised an older post and converted it into The Best Good, Inexpensive & Simple Classroom Technology Tools.

Please contribute additional suggestions…..

The Khan Academy has been receiving an incredible amount of publicity — and hype — over the past year. I think having well-done videos online available for free is a nice thing, but I don’t think it’s a “revolution” in education. Others have written eloquently on this topic, and I thought I’d share a few of the ones I think are the best. Let me know if I’ve missed some.

Here are my choices for The Best Posts About The Khan Academy:

The Wrath Against Khan: Why Some Educators Are Questioning Khan Academy is clearly the best piece I’ve seen written about the Khan Academy. In it, Audrey Watters also links to multiple posts by Sylvia Martinez and Frank Noschese on the issue, too. The comments on all those posts are must-reads, also.

Khan Academy does not constitute an education revolution, but I’ll tell you what it does comes from The Cooperative Catalyst.

The Wonders of Khan: It’s a video library, nothing more. is from the Core Knowledge blog.

You Khan’t Ignore How Students Learn is by Frank Noschese.

Khan Academy Is Not The Progressive Model You Are Looking For is from Tom Barrett.

Sal Khan Never Taught Special Ed (or ELLs) is from Mr. Foteah.

Pro vs. Khan is by Gary Rubinstein.

Feedback is welcome.

If you found this post useful, you might want to look at the 800 other “The Best…” lists and consider subscribing to this blog for free.

Since last month’s New York Times article headlined In Classroom of Future, Stagnant Scores (which I posted about at the time and also added to The Best Research Available On The Use Of Technology In Schools), I’ve been collecting articles that share thoughtful reactions.

I thought I’d share them here, and invite others to contribute ones I missed. Better late than never!

Here are my picks for The Best Posts On The NY Times Ed Tech Article :

The Unmet Promise of Education Technology is by Robert Slavin at Ed Week.

Good Teaching Trumps Hi-Tech is by Richard Lee Colvin.

Using Classroom Technology to Learn Media Literacy — and World War II History is by Dana Goldstein.

Is technology in the classroom a bust? is a good round-up of other reactions to The Times article. It’s from the HechingerEd blog.

Schools, technology, test scores, and the New York Times is by Scott McLeod.

Additional contributions are welcome!

If you found this post useful, you might want to consider subscribing to this blog for free.

You might also want to explore the nearly 760 other “The Best…” lists I’ve compiled.