In the past few weeks I have started a netcast on using iPads in k12 education (tech edge on iTunesU). My co-host Allison and I spend quite a few hours every week trying to find apps that are educationally sound. The challenge is quite real. What we've learned may not be surprising, but it spells opportunity or disaster. Most of the "educational" apps are based on implicit and false theories of learning and design. This is not a failure of understanding a specific domain (say social studies) but instead a failure of understanding how we learn.
So what do I mean by opportunity or disaster? The opportunity exists for innovation to take over the marketplace with excellently designed educational apps. The disaster will emerge if after schools invest heavily in mobile devices and fail to deliver on learning simply because the apps that carry the lad are subpar.
We will keep looking fir educationally sound apps (or try to get close).
Check out the website and connect to the netcast:
http://cehs15.unl.edu/cms/index.php?s=18&p=190
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Your reviews of educational apps will be valuable for teachers like me who are nearly overwhelmed by the quantity of so-called educational apps, many of which aren't everything they're purported to be. I tried watching the podcast that I thought might be about word game apps (education and games by allison high), but it wouldn't play. I've started posting a few of my own app reviews on my blog , but I'm looking for others' suggestions as well.
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