As a teacher who’s a bit of a tech junkie at heart, I really believe that the importance of educational apps can’t be overstated as they have revolutionized the learning process. Learning activities that used to be boring and difficult for the student have now become interactive and fun with mobile that engage kids and tailor lessons to their interests and needs.
I’m an MA in English Language Learning, and I’ve personally seen how apps can aid the language learning process. I really believe that digitizing education to complement the traditional education system is the perfect solution to enhance literacy and education in the world.Â
In the guide below, I want to explore the importance and potential of mobile apps in education, highlighting the benefits they offer for educators and students alike.
What Are Educational Apps?
Educational apps are designed to help people learn new skills or knowledge.
They can be used for a variety of purposes, including teaching phonics and math, providing practice with spelling and grammar, or even helping kids to learn about history and science.
While some educational apps are specifically designed for use in the classroom, others can be used at home to supplement your child’s learning.
Technology Trends That Are Transforming Education
The use of learning apps boomed during the pandemic, and they’ve become a fixture ever since. Educational apps play a huge role in the importance of education, but before I discuss the benefits, let’s first talk about what makes these apps so important.
Many innovative technologies are used to create mobile apps in education.
Some of these technologies are:
1. Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) is all around us, and that includes in many of the most popular educational apps.Â
In a recent survey, students said that AI technologies have helped them better understand material, with 73% saying it lets them study faster or and 67% saying it makes learning more efficient.
AI helps to add personalization to these educational apps. It ensures that the learning material and features provided by the app are tailored to the requirements of the student group that the app is targeting.
It ensures that the subject matter is neither too challenging nor too easy for the students, but instead, they are provided with something which benefits them the most according to their requirements.
AI also helps to create an interactive experience keeping students engaged throughout the learning process.
2. Virtual Reality
Virtual reality (VR) uses computers and technology to create an environment that resembles reality.
VR is a great resource for education through including VR for learning; students can understand what is being taught to them as the subject matter comes to life.
One such example of this technology is there are mobile learning apps that teach about human anatomy by using virtual 3D navigation to illustrate the anatomy of various human bodily structures.
3. Augmented Reality
Augmented reality is a technology that superimposes computer-generated images on the real world, and it has a range of potential applications in education.
For example, AR can be used to create virtual field trips that allow students to explore historical sites or natural habitats without leaving the classroom.
It can also be used to bring lessons to life, allowing students to interact with three-dimensional models of molecules or historical figures.
In addition, AR can be used as a tool for assessment, providing instant feedback on students’ work.
As AR technology continues to develop, it is likely that its use in education will become more widespread.
4. Chatbots
Chatbots include things like Siri and Alexa. Adding these chat bots to educational apps helps to make the learning process more interactive and thus far more engaging for the students.
They keep in mind the interests of the student while delivering them the knowledge.
They also help in converting lecture and information material to conversations and messages. Thus, they help to increase students’ understanding and help to provide them with a unique learning experience.
Why Should We Use Mobile Apps In Education?
Now that we’ve discussed some of the technology behind mobile apps in education, let’s move on to the benefits of the learning apps and their importance in education.
1. Mobile apps can enhance the classroom experience
Educational learning apps can be very useful in helping students master concepts they’re learning in the classroom.
Take HOMER, for example.
HOMER is a popular learning app used in many elementary classrooms that can help kids master reading, math, and other skills.
It has over 1,000 activities across a number of subjects, so teachers can use the app to supplement the material being taught in class, allowing kids to really learn the information through fun, engaging activities on this mobile app.
HOMER is just one example of how educational apps can be used to supplement and enhance the classroom experience.
The possibilities are endless!
2. Using free time valuably
Through learning apps, students can effectively utilize their free time in activities that help them to develop skills instead of wasting their time on mindless scrolling or useless activities.
These apps provide informational games, puzzles, quizzes, which can sharpen students’ capabilities, and they can also listen to stories or read books online to improve their knowledge.
3. 24/7 availability
Educational apps are available 24/7, unlike schools.
As a result, learning with these apps is not time-bound learning, but students can study whenever they want.
Time-bound learning is ineffective since kids are easily distracted and cannot focus for lengthy periods.
Thus, educational apps are the most effective in this respect since they are available throughout the day, and students can take help from them whenever they need to.
And the best part is many of these apps are so fun that kids look forward to playing them in their free time, and they’re often learning new things without even realizing it!
4. Online availability of study material
With the introduction of educational apps, students now do not have to use their time to visit libraries or invest their money to buy expensive books and study material.
With the help of mobile apps in education, students can reduce the hassle of buying and handling huge burdens of books or visiting libraries each day; instead, students can find all the material needed for their education online.
Apps like HOMER and others allow students to fund a large number of e-books, and that is only just a click away.
5. Portable learning
Each one of us carries our smartphone at all times.
Using apps is our daily routine, and with the help of smartphones, these apps can be available to us wherever we go, whether we want to watch an educational video while waiting in line for a bus or read a story on our way home that is possible for us with the help of these apps.
We can carry all the material with us and benefit from it anytime, anywhere.
Learning is no longer be contained in only the classroom, but students can learn at any point in the day.
6. Individualized learning
In a classroom, there is one teacher who has to focus and attend to many students at the same time. It is difficult to give 100% focus to any one student and notice every need or mistake of the student.
But with the help of these mobile learning apps, the students can interact with the app on an individual basis where the student can learn what he wants, at his own pace, while the app provides him with subjects of his interest and catches his errors and helps to correct them.
7. Tracking progress
Educational apps help to monitor the student’s progress and speed of learning.
Apps like HOMER track how well the student is performing in any task or subject. This information is helpful to enlighten the students about where their weaknesses lie and what they need to work hard on.
It also helps parents to track their child’s progress.
Parents can know what difficulties their children are facing and where they are lacking so that they can help the students to improve these areas. As a result, parents can better guide their children with the help of these apps to ensure that their child overcomes their weaknesses.
8. Adding fun to the learning process
The traditional learning methods seem boring and unstimulating to the students. Students dread going to schools and learning from thick books and monotonous style of lectures where they do not get to engage in the process at all.
Instead, I’ve found that this new approach to learning provided by using mobile apps in education helps to make learning more fun and exciting for the students.
They increase the improvement of the students in their learning process and include exciting features, activities, and tasks, which increases the desire of students to study and stimulate the brain cells to process the input actively to develop new understanding and perspective.
9. Gamification
By presenting the material in a gaming format, educational apps keep students interested and make even the most complex topics simple for them, making learning entertaining.
Gamification is a fantastic method for piquing students’ interest in their studies and drawing them into the learning process.Â
Students would be driven to stay connected and study with the assistance of these programs if competitions and awards were created. I’ve found that gamifying the learning experience ignites pupils’ interest in subjects that they might otherwise find boring.
10. Better communication
Educational apps help to enhance parent-teacher and student-teacher communication. Teachers can convey events, attendance updates, and other information more effectively with mobile educational apps.
By providing real-time communication and quick updates, these mobile apps help students to remain in sync with all the information they need to perform well.
Students can contact their instructors through these apps directly if they have any questions, especially around examinations.
Parents can also contact instructors to enquire about their children’s academic progress and any other concerns they may have.
11. Providing practical implications of their knowledge
Traditional learning methods focus more on memorization of the written content and the theoretical aspects of knowledge, but with the help of these educational apps, students can focus on the practical implications of their knowledge.
They can analyze and evaluate whatever they have learned and apply this knowledge to solving quizzes, puzzles, or answering questions. They can apply their knowledge and learn new knowledge at the same time.
12. Cost-effective
Educational apps are much cheaper and more affordable than traditional learning methods. They have a variety of options for payment which enables students to pay per session or in installments, and some are even free.
HOMER, for example, offers a 30-day free trial, and after that its pricing is only $9.99 per month or $59.99 for a full year paid in advance.
At such affordable packages, these apps provide lectures, e-books, study material, tests, and much more, thereby enabling students to learn more without worrying about fees and savings for covering the cost of learning resources.
13. Learning specific skills
Those students who are interested in learning specific skills which are usually not at school can use the educational apps designed specifically for teaching such skills.
For example, an app called codeSpark teaches coding and programming skills to kids that are interested in computer science. The app has many activities and games to help kids aged 6-10 start earning basic knowledge about computers and STEM.
14. Unlimited content
Educational apps are not restricted to any one subject or field of knowledge, but rather they are present for every subject and every skill in the world. They provide information and knowledge related to any domain of life, and thus they can be used for many purposes
Take, for example, the Google Book Store’s collection, which has swiftly increased and favorably benefited learners through its mobile app in education.
It doesn’t matter if you’re an engineer, a scientist, an artist, or a business owner; you can access a wide range of learning content and enjoy it from your smartphone at any time.
15. The Easiest Way to Teach
An educational app adopts an easy-to-use teaching approach that yields the best outcomes.
Teachers no longer have to be concerned about their students’ attention spans since educational applications provide very appealing and engaging user interfaces for students to interact with their devices.
Teaching in schools can be very hectic as it has many distractions. It is difficult for teachers to make sure that every student is paying attention and understanding what is being taught.
With the help of educational apps, teachers can just upload all the relevant information and lectures online. Students can then access the whole module via mobile phones, guaranteeing that the syllabus is completed on time.
As a result, student performance will improve. Moreover, it will be easier to answer students’ questions and communicate the queries of students.
16. Eco-Friendly Education
Climate change is rapidly consuming the planet in the 21st century.
The causes of this rising climate change include a variety of issues such as growing industrialization, deforestation, and so on. The major cause of deforestation is also the widespread use of paper.
Using mobile apps in education, on the other hand, may conserve paper by minimizing the use of hardcopy teaching materials.
Every learning resource may be digitally kept offline or online, and it is also much easier to transport.
17. Making Children Tech Savvy
Mobile learning apps assist pupils in developing technical abilities that will be extremely valuable to them. Technology is changing at such a rapid speed that it has become vital for students to be skilled in it.
With the aid of educational app development, we can develop the knowledge of students regarding technology and its usage.
Education is more than just getting excellent grades; students should also have a practical understanding of every idea they learn.
By using mobile apps in education, students familiarize themselves with the concept of gadgets and technological advancements. These educational apps assist students in keeping pace with the modern world and understanding the changes happening around them.
Final Thoughts
With their flexibility and personalization features, apps are revolutionizing how we engage with information and learn new concepts.
Whether you’re a student studying for an exam or a teacher looking for innovative ways to share content with your students, there’s no denying that mobile apps are changing everything we know about education.
And in this brave new world, the possibilities seem endless.
Change is the only constant when it comes to technology and education, and thanks to the growing popularity of mobile apps, today’s world will look very different from yesterday’s.
What are your thoughts on the use of mobile apps in education? Share them by commenting below.