#SPELLBOARD APPLE SOFTWARE#

This Vancouver, British Columbia, outfit offers apps for pop-out stories for The Tale of Peter Rabbit and The Night Before Christmas that respond to a user’s manipulation of an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch the way a traditional pop-out book would respond to the tug and pull of pages. The San Francisco-based company is the maker of several preschool-age interactive apps for the iPhone and the iPad that use gaming, music, and storytelling to teach basic concepts related to numbers, shapes, and vocabulary. “They would like to see more apps where you can pull out the data and see how well kids are doing.” Developing Teacher Controlsīecause apps don’t allow teachers to use their own computers to access a student device while it is in use, a teacher who wants students to use apps on mobile devices in class must, in most cases, trust that either the app is engaging enough to keep students on task, or that the teacher will be able to halt any misuse of the devices by monitoring the classroom. Teachers “want to be able to control the content, if it is a drill-and-skill type of activity,” Meech adds. The site features reviews of educational apps on its blog, provides how-to tips on app usage, and offers a weekly podcast, all with the goal of educating teachers about the world of apps. “There aren’t nearly as many apps that fit in both arenas,” says Scott Meech, the founder of the online I Education Apps Review, or IEAR, and a school district technology facilitator at District No. And with the intuitive nature of the iPhone, the iPad, and other mobile devices, app developers are gearing more of their educational content toward the parent-child dynamic than the teacher-student construct. Apps are often developed narrowly, and by themselves may meet no more than one or two specific standards within a given course.

#SPELLBOARD APPLE SOFTWARE#

Most apps-which basically are software programs designed to run on smartphones, cellphones, and other hand-held devices- don’t allow teachers to monitor student progress or garner student data in the same way that’s typically possible with educational programs operated through a laptop or desktop computer.

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