
Top Educational Apps Are Mostly All Stuck in the Stone Age - e15ctr0n
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jordanshapiro/2015/12/12/the-top-50-educational-apps-are-mostly-all-stuck-in-the-stone-age/
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personjerry
This would be a lot more helpful if they showed specific apps and what makes
them bad, as examples.

If anyone is interested in a good language learning system, I've been using
Duolingo on the web to learn French and it's been far more interesting than
learning it in school in Canada. It's free with no ads so I recommend others
try it.

Furthermore I downloaded Duolingo's app the other day and they apparently have
classroom integration! I am not an educator but if an educator could try or
evaluate it, I would be interested in how it is, as I'm thinking of
recommending it to my old high school teacher.

Disclosure: I am not affiliated with Duolingo in anyway.

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educationcto
There is a lot of junk in the various app stores (just as there is on the
Internet generally) but the overall quality and quantity of incredible
educational apps is growing- quickly.

When used effectively, we have seen students using iPads double their learning
outcomes in a single school year. The issue is that the evaluation sustems are
in their infancy- the review sites cited in the article are pretty useless
because they rarely go more than skin deep.

My company, eSpark, evaluates and curates the best tablet apps for use in
schools, and we apply rigorous review to make sure they work. I've been really
impressed by how much the ecosystem has changed in the last few years and
can't wait for more classrooms to catch up.

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baldfat
I run a STEM Lab for 3-5 year olds. I have hunted and looked for good apps for
education and it is a desert! We use a program for literacy and it is
"Computer Adaptive" to the children AKA if you know your letters they move you
up.

PROBLEMS:

1) Glorified Work Sheets. Just give them printed sheets of your stupid boring
activities. To improve them give the kids crayons and scissors and have them
draw on the blank side of that sheet of paper!

2) Computer Adaptive to learn letters SHOULD be learn the letters in your name
NEVER START WITH A otherwise. A is a vowel and it extreemly different rules in
terms of name and sound.

3) The FONTS are STUPID for a. Instead of the easy to write circle and line a
it is the type writer a.

My dream is to get educational apps and programs created that are actually
Developmentally Appropriate and actually better because they are on the
computer not just digital analogies of real world things AKA don't show a
maraca and have the kids shake the tablet just give the kids the real thing.

My firends who could invest believe the market is saturated with ABC Mouse and
company. There must be a way.

My favorite app for kids: Alien Assignment from the Fred Rogers Foundation
[https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/alien-
assignment/id531359578...](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/alien-
assignment/id531359578?mt=8) it appears to be abandoned wear and shows its age
but the principle of the app is great. The children follow directions to and
take pictures to the directions of something round or blue or that holds water
and then give the tablet to an adult to check your work.

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tom_wilde
Out of interest, are there any other Apps/Websites you'd recommend? I have a 4
y/o sponge who'd eat it up... :D

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smelendez
Sounds like a lot of these apps are simple games to give kids practice
recognizing letters and how groups of letters work together. But I'm not sure
why that's a problem--as the article says, kids have been learning to read
this way since the Stone Age.

And if parents are downloading the apps, do they really need expert guidance
on what age or developmental stage they're suited for? Can't they just say,
"oh, we were singing the ABC song with Johnny today--let's download a couple
of alphabet games and see how he likes them?"

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knicholes
I wish this article suggested ways for these apps to improve. Sure, run
studies, list your curriculum, whatever, but if it's so stone-aged to just
regurgitate the "correct" answer, what do modern education leaders recommend?

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brudgers
Forbes' forte is not software design or analysis.

