Do children actually learn using educational apps?
Hi, I'm wondering if any developers or others out there know of research on the effectiveness of educational apps. Do children who use these apps actually learn from them? I'm especially interested in the use of educational apps with young children (ages 3-7) and apps that teach content on he basic relational concepts (e.g., top/bottom, more/less, beginning/end, in/out, left/right, etc.). Any information would be greatly appreciated!
3 comments
Learning is one thing, but do not underestimate the effect of practice. I made an addition pyramids game for my seven and nine year old girls (Android) and promised them a reward when they completed it (200+ levels, some 20 hours in total, progressively harder). After this my girls are able to do three digit additions in their heads without any major problems. Which means their "addition practice" homework from school has become useless. Which is a good thing I guess.
I'm not sure about apps, since I'm too old ( grew up with DOS and Win95), but I know that I learned more about history and geography from playing strategy games on the computer than I ever did in school. Civilization, Lords of the Realm, Panzer General, Close Combat, Civil War Generals
I must admit, my children (girl 5yrs and boy 3yrs) learned a bit with apps. Two good examples are animal names and sounds (for ages <2, and games with rules or strategies for >2 (mplus point for games like memory, because the child can't cheat, and develops quite fast his/her own strategy for efficient problem-solving).