Mobile Apps in Education

Abstract

Mobile applications, or "apps," have revolutionized almost every aspect of daily life. By using apps installed on a smartphone or other mobile device (such as a tablet computer), a person can engage in a host of business and leisure activities. Mobile apps have likewise changed the landscape of education for teachers, students, and school administrators. While many education apps offer valuable benefits for those in education, others represent serious challenges to the established way of doing things, and even the useful apps often have drawbacks that must be taken into consideration along with the advantages they offer.

Overview

Mobile apps offer special advantages that are not always available to users who do not have the app installed. Virtually all smartphones have data connections to the Internet—without this connection there is little point in having a smartphone at all—so it would be possible for a user to accomplish many online tasks even without an app designed to do so. For example, if one wanted to do some online banking but one's bank had not released its own app, one could still use a mobile device to go to the bank's website and log in directly. In many cases, however, this is not desirable because it can be challenging to navigate a website designed for a desktop computer from a tiny mobile screen. Many apps have been created precisely to address this limitation of mobile devices, by offering a simplified interface with large navigation buttons that can easily be seen. Some of these apps are little more than alternative versions of an organization's website, optimized for mobile use (Khaddage, Müller & Flintoff, 2016).

The more advanced, full-fledged apps are those that go beyond mobile optimization to offer additional features that are unique to the mobile experience, such as location services, which use a smartphone's GPS (global positioning system) data to pinpoint the user's location so that the app can make use of that location. An example of this would be an app that helps the user locate nearby coffee shops. Instead of having to enter in one's current location, the app would simply pull this information from the phone's GPS and use it to map out the closest coffee shops. This can be especially helpful when using roadside assistance apps to send one's location quickly and easily (Zydney & Warner, 2016).

The field of education has several categories of apps that predominate. The best known of these are educational games, productivity software, and educational media. Educational games are apps that are designed to both entertain and teach. Many educational games are designed to appeal to younger users, helping with reading, math, memory, and similar subjects. The appeal of these games is that, ideally, they help children practice useful skills. An example of an educational app would be a digital version of the memory game in which the screen shows several cards face down, and the student must find the matched cards that show the same picture, while only allowed to turn over one card at a time.

Productivity software is an altogether different type of app, and one that is intended for use by older students. This category can include, for example, calendar software for scheduling (e.g., homework assignments, test dates). Document creation apps are available for writing papers and creating presentation slides, and "attention management" apps help the user minimize distractions and concentrate on work (Tang & Hew, 2017).

Educational media, another category of education app, straddles the line between apps and sites optimized for mobile, because it includes resources such as online archives of instructional videos that students can access from their mobile devices. Quiz apps also belong to this category; these are apps that contain banks of questions about the subject a person is studying—the Revolutionary War, African history, trigonometry, and so on—and that the student can use to prepare for an exam by testing his or her knowledge. Virtual flash cards recreate in digital format the index cards that students use to memorize vocabulary words and definitions, formulas for math class, and many other bits of knowledge. Flash card apps sometimes come with a set of cards that have already been prepared, but most can also be used to create new sets of cards, by having the student enter the information that is to appear on both sides of each flash card (Crawford, Holder & O'Connor, 2017).

Ebooks and ebook readers are an additional type of media that mobile apps are used to deliver. While they appear to hold great promise for improving access to information, their impact to date has been less than might have been expected. The advantages to ebooks are portability (whole libraries may be carried around on one's phone), convenience (one can purchase an ebook and download it in seconds, instead of having to wait days or weeks for it to arrive in print form from a bookseller), and accessibility (the full text of ebooks can be searched to find a desired passage, and links can be used in an ebook to take the reader immediately to different parts of the book, jumping from the table of contents or index to a specified point in the text).

Despite their undisputed benefits, ebooks have not been widely adopted, partly because of the upfront price. Though ebooks do not have the printing costs a hard copy does, they are frequently no less costly to buyers than their print counterparts. Further, ebooks incur the additional expense of a compatible e-reader, which must be borne by either the institution or the student. Another obstacle to ebook adoption is that many people find reading an ebook less satisfying and less conducive to comprehension than holding a physical book in their hands. Still, the benefits of being able to use ebooks as course textbooks instead of carrying around dozens of pounds of paper books is a huge advantage, and the use of ebook apps and texts in education is expected to continue to grow (Basal et al., 2016).

Further Insights

Mobile apps have also made a huge impact on how educators do their jobs, in at least two different ways. First, app developers have put a great deal of time and energy into creating apps that teachers will find useful aids for instruction. Many of these can be categorized the same way that apps intended for student use are, as productivity, media, or game-based apps. Apps for instructors, however, are designed from a different perspective. Student users of apps usually are limited to consuming the media that the app delivers (e.g., playing a game, watching a video), whereas, teachers need apps that will allow them to produce instructional content.

This distinction between producers and consumers of content or media has long been used in the technology field to differentiate between the basic purposes of different types of software: an app that plays videos, for instance, is designed for media consumers, while an app that allows the user to record and edit video has media production as its fundamental purpose, even though it might also include a rudimentary video player. Teachers use apps to create their lesson plans, to capture photos, videos, and audio recordings for incorporation into other materials, and to enhance their own productivity. Apps that assist with grading assignments, for example, are particularly popular (Enache, 2017).

Mobile apps have also impacted teachers in a less positive way, because they have created a whole new type of classroom management problem. Most parents who can afford to provide their children with a mobile device do so, either because of their educational uses, the ability to stay in touch throughout the day, or the safety feature of being able to track the child's location. The proliferation of mobile devices and apps among school aged children has created a new source of distraction in the classroom, as students are constantly tempted to use their phones to check social media, communicate with friends, or other activities unrelated to their coursework. Instead of the old days when teachers only had to keep an eye out for students passing notes to one another during class, now they must make sure that students are not texting one another, watching funny videos, and so forth.

Some teachers and schools opt to ban mobile devices completely, but in doing so they also cut off access to these devices' helpful features, such as built-in graphing calculators, online research portals, and cameras to document experiments, to name but a few. Nor are distractions the only dangers threatened by mobile apps and devices; they can also be used to cheat on exams, either by storing information for a student to refer to during the test, or by allowing the student to receive assistance from others during the test. Mobile apps can do so many different things that they have created an entirely new type of classroom misbehavior that teachers must be on the lookout for (Eppard, Nasser & Reddy, 2016).

Issues

Mobile apps in education have raised some new questions about what the purpose of education should be and what the content of the curriculum should consist of. The basic question here is, given that mobile apps and devices are so widely available and that they allow users to access the vast storehouse of information that is the Internet from almost any location and at any time, does it make sense to teach students the same material in the same way?

For example, in the past a history class might have required students to memorize the names of all of the Chinese emperors, by dynasty. Or, in a geography course students have often had to learn all of the state capitals of the United States. Many have begun to question why these requirements should still be followed, when students can look up such information at any time using the search apps installed on their mobile devices (Heath-Reynolds & VanWeelden, 2015).

The response often given to these challenges is that if students are allowed to rely on their mobile apps to access knowledge instead of learning or memorizing it, then their ability to process information will never develop, because it will never have reason to. Those who hold this view often use the analogy of muscles that need exercise in order to remain healthy; the brain, they argue, is not unlike a muscle because if it is not used regularly, then it will not be in decent shape when one needs it. There is also the concern that if people become too reliant on technology to give them the answers, then if something happens to that technology one day, they will be unprepared to cope with the situation (Parton, 2014).

Educators face a difficult choice when it comes to determining what role to give to mobile apps. On the one hand, mobile apps are incredibly useful tools when used in the right way and at the right time, and students should be taught how to take advantage of them to leverage their own knowledge. On the other hand, apps should not be used as a substitute for one's own intelligence—one should be able to do whatever an app can do on one's own, if circumstances require it. This is why many teachers approach the use of apps in a manner similar to the way calculators have long been used in math classes.

Indeed, many of the same questions people are now asking about mobile apps were also raised when pocket sized calculators first became available and affordable several decades ago. Then, students wondered why they had to learn how to add, subtract, multiply and divide when they could just pull out a calculator and find the answer much more quickly and with less work. Teachers and schools took some time to figure out what they wanted to do about calculators, and at first many classrooms banned them altogether, as has happened more recently with mobile devices. Eventually, a more moderate solution was arrived at.

Students were first taught how to do math problems through the traditional, paper and pencil method, in order to make sure that they understood the concepts of mathematical reasoning. Later, after their mastery of these operations had been demonstrated, students were gradually allowed to use calculators in order to save time (Tariq & Latif, 2016). This was particularly true in classes that focused on more advanced types of math, such as geometry, trigonometry, and calculus. In these classes, since students had to spend so much time trying to understand complex calculations, teachers realized that it made little sense to still require them to do far simpler operations by hand, when using a calculator for these would free up additional time that the students could use to learn the truly complicated material.

What appears to be happening regarding mobile apps and education is something similar, in which apps are not banned outright, but they are only incorporated into instruction after students have first learned how to do the work without the app. Assuming these efforts continue, the result should be a graduate who is literate both independently and in conjunction with apps and related technology. Ultimately, mobile apps are not wholly good or bad; they will not banish ignorance, nor will they replace intelligence.

Terms & Concepts

Global Positioning System: A system of satellites that mobile devices communicate with in order to determine the user's geographic location, which can then be used for navigation or other purposes.

Productivity Software: Software used to create and edit documents, including text documents, spreadsheets of numbers and formulas, and presentation slides.

Search Engine: An application that indexes information and allows users to search for strings of text and symbols. Search engines can be designed to search the Internet as a whole, or a smaller collection of information like a website or the text of a particular ebook.

Social Media: Websites that allow users to create personal profiles and to communicate with one another. Much of young people's time online is spent using mobile apps to connect with friends through social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

Smartphone: A cellular phone that is equipped with enough computer processing power to perform functions beyond making and receiving calls. Smartphones have evolved into miniature computers equipped with touchscreens, speakers, GPS receivers, cameras, and more.

Tablet: A portable computing device that consists of a touchscreen for input and display, and a case housing the computer's internals.

Bibliography

Basal, A., Yilmaz, S., Tanriverdi, A., & Sari, L. (2016). Effectiveness of mobile applications in vocabulary teaching. Contemporary Educational Technology, 7(1), 47–59. Retrieved January 1, 2018 from EBSCO Online Database Education Source. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eue&AN=112975608&site=ehost-live

Crawford, M. R., Holder, M. D., & O'Connor, B. P. (2017). Using mobile technology to engage children with nature. Environment & Behavior, 49(9), 959–984. Retrieved January 1, 2018 from EBSCO Online Database Education Source. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eue&AN=125571083&site=ehost-live

Enache, M. C. (2017). Mobile app design for teaching and learning. Annals of the University Dunarea De Jos of Galati: Fascicle: XVII, Medicine, (2), 74–78.

Eppard, J., Nasser, O., & Reddy, P. (2016). The next generation of technology: Mobile apps in the English language classroom. International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Learning, 11(4), 21–27. Retrieved January 1, 2018 from EBSCO Online Database Education Source. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eue&AN=114317849&site=ehost-live

Heath-Reynolds, J., & VanWeelden, K. (2015). Integrating apps with the core arts standards in the 21st-century elementary music classroom. General Music Today, 29(1), 24–27. Retrieved January 1, 2018 from EBSCO Online Database Education Source. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eue&AN=109990803&site=ehost-live

Khaddage, F., Müller, W., & Flintoff, K. (2016). Advancing mobile learning in formal and informal settings via mobile app technology: Where to from here, and how? Journal Of Educational Technology & Society, 19(3), 16–26. Retrieved January 1, 2018 from EBSCO Online Database Education Source. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eue&AN=116991594&site=ehost-live

Parton, B. S. (2014). Using standard and custom mobile apps to enhance social presence for online learning. Journal of Applied Learning Technology, 4(1), 11–14. Retrieved January 1, 2018 from EBSCO Online Database Education Source. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eue&AN=97479991&site=ehost-live

Tang, Y., & Hew, K. F. (2017). Is mobile instant messaging (MIM) useful in education? Examining its technological, pedagogical, and social affordances. Educational Research Review, 21, 85–104. Retrieved January 1, 2018 from EBSCO Online Database Education Source. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eue&AN=123501055&site=ehost-live

Tariq, R., & Latif, S. (2016). A mobile application to improve learning performance of dyslexic children with writing difficulties. Journal of Educational Technology & Society, 19(4), 151–166. Retrieved January 1, 2018 from EBSCO Online Database Education Source. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eue&AN=120696894&site=ehost-live

Zydney, J. M., & Warner, Z. (2016). Mobile apps for science learning: Review of research. Computers & Education, 94, 1–17. Retrieved January 1, 2018 from EBSCO Online Database Education Source. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eue&AN=112551912&site=ehost-live

Suggested Reading

Leinonen, T., Keune, A., Veermans, M., & Toikkanen, T. (2016). Mobile apps for reflection in learning: A design research in K-12 education. British Journal of Educational Technology, 47(1), 184–202. Retrieved January 1, 2018 from EBSCO Online Database Education Source. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eue&AN=112192251&site=ehost-live

Pechenkina, E. (2017). Developing a typology of mobile apps in higher education: A national case-study. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 33(4), 134–146. Retrieved January 1, 2018 from EBSCO Online Database Education Source. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eue&AN=125086028&site=ehost-live

Thomas, R. L., & Fellowes, M. E. (2017). Effectiveness of mobile apps in teaching field-based identification skills. Journal of Biological Education, 51(2), 136–143. Retrieved January 1, 2018 from EBSCO Online Database Education Source. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eue&AN=122543184&site=ehost-live