What do teachers really want in an "Educational App"?

When you look at the majority of app reviews done through the IEAR community, there are some very common trends that stand out.  The problem with the majority of educational apps is that they are created are created by non-educators to make money.  The vast majority of apps are really "drill and practice" apps.  The educational value of these apps is very debatable.  As a result, some of the very best apps that have made an impact in education are not even within the education category.  They might fall in the gaming, productivity, lifestyle, and navigation categories. 

Educators are clamoring for the following types of apps:

1. Teachers want apps that teachers can input their own "curriculum" into the app in some fashion.  The majority of apps are locked down with regard to content and they can not be manipulated enough to meet the teacher's specific needs.
2. Teachers want the ability to pull "data" from the apps in some fashion.  They want to see progress, chart trends, or see areas of need that the students might have. The trick is to make sure that data that gets pulled is easily manipulated by well known tools already in existant as they don't want a new format to have to convert in some fashion. 
3. Educational apps in general are too focused on "drill and practice" and there needs to be a greater emphasis upon "constructivist" types of activities.  Additionally, there needs to be a convenient way to port over content that is created on these devices to other devices.
4. The greatest area of need for a creative app would be in the form of "programming".  For whatever reason, Apple has disallowed apps that have functionality like MIT's application "Scratch".  Apps like a "Scratch" app would allow students to learn the foundations of programming by scaffolding the ideas and techniques in grade appropriate ways.
5. There is a growing trend for apps to allow multiple mobile learning devices to work in conjunction. This needs to continue.  For example, teachers want to use a central app on their mobile device such as an iPad that allows them to connect with students individually on their mobile learning devices.  The trick is that these applications need to connect seamlessly without a need to troubleshoot the connection regularly.
6. Teachers want to feel in control of their students "freedom" to provide a safe and secure learning environment.  Teachers would like to provide more access and allow their students to learn independently more but within a "safe and guarded" environment as well.  
7. Apps need to continue to be developed that allow students and teachers to access their cloud computing resources. Specifically, Google Education Apps are making a big impact in schools and yet mobile learning devices struggle with accessing that information effectively and efficiently.As new initiatives come online, they need to work well with multiple platforms.
8. Finally, teachers and district technology coordinators need better systems in place to control school owned mobile learning technology from a management standpoint.  LanSchool has an Edapp initative that has been rolled out but it is still early. Additionally, Apple themselves are trying to clean up the educational volume licensing but at first glance, there are more questions than answers at this point.   

These are the areas that I have heard most from the IEAR community.  While the IEAR community is growing, it is very difficult to keep up with the growth of the new app paradigm.  The app paradigm is an example of how technology is changing and reinventing itself faster than schools can keep up with.  We need more educators to share their thoughts about apps, what makes a good one and how to improve the existing ones.  Please join our community and think about becoming an app reviewer. 

The last question I have for you all is, "Are there other areas of need?"  Am I missing an area of need or trend?  What would make the "app paradigm" more educational for education? Your comments are greatly appreciated!

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Comments

[Michael Cordner]

Just a few comments from an App Developer's perspective:

3. Agree absolutely, but this is more an issue with the educational content industry than the device. 'Drill and Kill' type apps are the easiest to develop as they require little imagination to design.

4. Scratch is a casualty of Apple's overall ban on intepreted languages on their device. Their reasoning is that they don't want to provide an environment where it's possible to have applications distributed through a means other than the App store (which is why there's no Java, Flash, etc on the device) While scratch is an educational language, it's feature-rich enough to allow 'real' applications to be developed and shared.

This being said, I think it is possible to get 'programming' type apps through the App store, the problem is that it's difficult to determine the bounds of Apple will allow, and no developer is going to spend resources developing such an app if there's a chance it will be rejected.

I did come across one app here that seems to implement the Logo language (for drawing onscreen with a 'Turtle',) which is what I remember doing in school on an Apple II many years ago. http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/mirrorpaint/id371734085?mt=8 That might be something worth looking into, but I agree it would be nice to have more programming type educational Apps.

8. Agree again, and the current state of App distribution in schools hinders development. Schools are the largest market for a developer, and if they have difficulty procuring and distributing Apps on their devices it prevents content from being developed. Apple seem to know this and they appear to be working on it, but I don't think they're quite there yet. From my conversations with them, I can tell you they're very serious about Education on the iPad.

[Judith Epcke]

My one thought, as I agree with all you have said, is similar to #1: The ability to manipulate content, and that is need for a greater ability to differentiate. Some math apps, which really fall into the "game" or "drill and practice" variety, do allow for some differentiation like the types of problems or range of numbers. I think this is a need for software in general. All students do not need the same thing at the same time and, to me, one of the greatest untapped features of computers, software, and handheld devices is the ability to provide differentiation.

Great list! Now when can we start to expect these features? It's a shame, as Michael points out, that Apple is the largest hurdle for the improvement of apps for students and giving teachers the features they request.

[Andrew Cohen]

Great points, but I may have to respectively disagree with #3. Mobile apps are IDEAL for "drill & practice," much to the chagrin of today's constructivists. There will always be a substantial part of education that consists of memorizing the fundamental concepts that allow for successful application and collaboration. (e.g. Learning vocabulary words to have effective conversations in Spanish, or about Economics.) Mobile phones are perfect for this type of memorization as they permit the easy division of information into bite-sized chunks that can be reviewed in study sessions as short as 5 seconds and as long as a student wants.

We could argue all day about whether the appropriate "drill & practice" component is 10% or 50% of learning. But it will always be a key part of learning, and the mobile phone can help teachers take it OUT of the classroom, in order to save more time for the types of constructivist, collaborative activities that are best done IN the classroom (or on a computer).

Interactive, collaborative activities are simply not conducive to short study breaks while sitting on a subway or on a toilet.

[Lauren]

I'm glad I found someone who was thinking the same as I was- I would love to find an app that lets me do some of the creation... like creating a lesson for the IWB, only putting it on the iPad so students can work in small groups or individually, depending on the number of devices. If anyone finds anything out there like this, please let me know!