A question I was asked recently is how many iPads (or iPod Touch and iPhone) can you put an App on? The answer to that would be as many as you want. However, that doesn't mean that these devices can then be used by a clasroom of pupils at the same time if only 1 licence for that App has been purchased. Some points from the Apple App Store Terms and Conditions for the use of a single licence App are highlighted at the foot of this blog post. 

What it looks like you can do is:

• Sync the App to as many devices as you wish;
• Use the App as an individual on all of those devices;
• Use the App as a group of individuals (at a resource centre or library) on one of those devices;

What you are not allowed to do is give each of those devices to students and allow them to use the same App (single licence) at the same time. If you wish to do this then you need to purchase the App for each of those devices.

In the US there is an Apple Volume Software Licensing scheme available for education but this has not been made availble to the UK.

Apple App Store Terms and Conditions

• (i) If you are an individual acting in your personal capacity, you may download and sync an App Store Product for personal, noncommercial use on any iOS Device you own or control.
• (ii) If you are a commercial enterprise or educational institution, you may download and sync an App Store Product for use by either (a) a single individual on one or more iOS Devices used by that individual that you own or control or (b) multiple individuals, on a single shared iOS Device you own or control. For example, a single employee may use an App Store Product on both the employee's iPhone and iPad, or multiple students may serially use an App Store Product on a single iPad located at a resource centre or library. For the sake of clarity, each iOS Device used serially by multiple users requires a separate licence.
• (iii) You shall be able to store App Store Products from up to five different Accounts at a time on a compatible iOS Device.

Over the past few months there have been more and more 'apps' available to buy, which could be useful tools for communication for some children and adults. These apps are available for iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad and vary in their features, possible uses and cost.

Some of these apps have synthesised voice output (text to speech) as well as symbols and can be used as comprehensive AAC solutions (e.g. Touchchat AAC); some allow you to record speech along with symbols and photos to create a system similar to a 'communication book' or medium tech AAC device like a Go Talk (e.g. Tap Speak Choice); and some can be used very effectively for 'photo stories' or 'talking books' using photos, symbols and video to create personalised resources like social stories, communication passports, visual scene prompts and interactive photo albums of special events (e.g. Scene & Heard).

CALL has been keeping a keen eye on these developments and has started to compile a database of the apps we have found most useful or show most potential in the field of AAC.

We will be updating the database as new AAC apps come out and are tested out by CALL and will also be including apps for reading, writing and literacy in the coming weeks.

Check out the apps we have included so far on the CALL App Database

Interestingly, the little communication program Tap to Talk that was brought out originally for Nintendo DS and DS Lite, is now available also as an App for the iPhone, iPod Touch and/or iPad. This may get round some of the sound volume issues, and also as multiple Tap to Talk albums (ie vocabularies) can be stored and accessed online, it may prove to be useful for working with a number of different users at once (whereas other communication Apps are totally personal). The app is free via the App Store, but you need to be subscribed to the web-based Tap to Talk Designer.

Haven't tried it out yet - will keep you posted...!

We have featured a number of apps for the iPod Touch and the forthcoming iPad over the past few months, including apps for communication (see blogs on 18th January and 6th April) and for more general educational purposes (see blogs on 18th January and 24th February). These devices also have potential for use to support reading and writing. The iPod Touch is too small and fiddly for extended writing, but it can be used for taking notes either by typing, or by recording voice. The iPad has greater potential as a writing tool, with apps such as the Speedscribe word bank system already available.

Apps such as Stanza allow the iPod Touch to be used for reading electronic books, but the release of the iPad, with its greater screen could revolutionise this area, particularly as Apple iBooks and the forthcoming Blio Reader could provide speech output for people with reading difficulties. There are already text-to-speech options for the iPod Touch, such as the built-in VoiceOver facility, Speak It and Talk to Me, but their functionality is limited, though the voices are actually quite good.

I've written an article that delves into this area in much greater detail for the current (Spring / Summer) issue of the JISC Regional Support Centre North and East Scotland's e-Quality newsletter.

This blog has mentioned before the growing range of communication Apps for iPhone and iPod Touch.

You can download an updated CALL Information Sheet reviewing different communication Apps, (and even a Nintendo DS app). Times are changing - many of these Apps are (much) cheaper than a roll of Velcro - makes you think!

The week of the US launch of the new Apple iPad seemed a good time to update that list, and some Apps have already been re-versioned to fit the iPad's larger screen. (iPad due to launch in the UK towards the end of April.) The first reviews of the iPad as a possible communication aid are looking pretty positive - apparently the sound output is not bad and might be enough without amplified speakers, and P2Go runs beautifully.