This post was developed by a research team at the University of Michigan’s Lappin-Weiser Center for the Learning Sciences. Contributors include Wanting Qian, Yuyue Zhao, Heidi Bennett, Thomas Drake, and Leslie Rupert Herrenkohl. Learn more about their work at the Consumer Evaluation Tool for Educational Apps project.
With approximately 400,000 educational apps available in stores, and little reliable guidance on which are of the highest value, it can be challenging for educators to navigate this digital landscape. Our team at the University of Michigan is developing an evidence-based tool to help educators identify characteristics of high-quality apps that can lead to growth in learning. By focusing on these characteristics, educators can make informed choices that enhance their students' educational experiences. Below, we explore these essential features—qualities to seek out, and those to avoid—providing educators with the insights needed to choose the best tools for their classrooms.
1. Active Involvement
High-quality educational apps engage learners both cognitively and physically through interactive content that aligns with learning goals. Teachers should seek out apps that require students to interact actively, such as swiping, clicking, and typing in answers. The activities should be purposeful and directed toward achieving specific learning objectives, rather than merely clicking on random elements or interacting with characters with little to no purpose. Students should be cognitively engaged by employing higher-level thinking skills, such as comparing and contrasting or analyzing materials, as they engage in interactive tasks like swiping and clicking.
One example of educational software that promotes active physical and cognitive involvement in the learning process is Solveme Math Puzzles, where students interactively solve math puzzles, applying higher-level thinking skills by testing problem-solving strategies, using deductive reasoning, and building their own puzzles from templates.
2. Meaningful Connections
A well-designed app should include content that reflects children's everyday life experiences and facilitates knowledge transfer. Experts recommend that teachers integrate applications that incorporate real-world examples, relatable images, and authentic scenarios. For example, in the iNaturalist software, people are encouraged to submit their own photos of local species at the exact geographical map location to better identify the tree or flower that was photographed. The more relevant the information, the more likely it is to resonate with children, promoting long-term cognitive growth and understanding.
Design Squad Global (PBS) is an example of software that encourages meaningful connections in the learning process. On this project-based design and engineering platform, students can choose real-world challenges, like designing features of a playhouse that are solar-powered, and create their own solutions through games, activities, and resources.
The more relevant the information, the more likely it is to resonate with children, promoting long-term cognitive growth and understanding.
3. Social Interaction
When apps foster social engagement among children or provide a parasocial experience, they create more opportunities for children to reflect on their learning and co-construct knowledge with others. Learning is inherently social, and educational applications should promote safe and productive social interaction, like back-and-forth conversation with another person or character on the screen, rather than isolate or diminish it.
For example, the Hello History app allows students to engage in dialogue with famous historical figures within a FERPA-compliant safe space. Additionally, collaborative tools like Seesaw and Padlet encourage peer-to-peer interactions or discussions between peers and trusted adults, supporting a more interactive and social learning environment.
4. Accessibility
For an app to be accessible to all students, it should be designed with an emphasis on ability-based features. This includes built-in supports or the capability to modify the app so students with physical and cognitive disabilities can use it effectively. To help students with physical and intellectual disabilities fully engage with the tools, apps should include:
- Keyboard Navigation and Assistive Technologies: The learner can access all features, operate buttons, sliders, and controls, and navigate without limitation. This could include speech recognition, head pointers, mouth sticks, and eye-gaze tracking. Test how accessible apps are using the #NoMouse Challenge.
- Screen Reader and Braille Support: The app’s content can be read out loud using a screen reader.
- Text Customization: The text size, color, and spacing can be adjusted.
- Screen Magnification and Responsive Design: Content remains readable when zoomed or enlarged.
- Captions and Transcripts: Audio and video content have captions or transcripts.
- General Settings Customization: The app’s interface has many ways in which it can be customized by the learner to provide the best possible match to the learner’s abilities.
5. Strategic Instruction
Apps should have clearly defined learning objectives and activities that align with those objectives, while minimizing distractions that could disrupt students’ learning. They should provide brief but clear instructions, logically sequenced skills, and a breakdown of complex tasks.
Unfortunately, educational software often includes distractions. For instance, students might spend excessive time creating avatars before engaging with any content-related exercises or battling other avatars for leaderboard status. These activities can divert students' attention away from their learning goals, making it challenging for them to apply what they have learned in different contexts.
Two examples of educational apps that adhere to clear goals and strategic guidance are Read, Write, Think: Student Interactives and DoodleLearning. In both, there are few to no distracting rewards but many strategic scaffolds to keep students' minds on the learning objectives.
6. Timely Feedback
Feedback is crucial for supporting learning, as timely feedback and progress tracking are essential for meaningful improvement. The characteristics of high-quality feedback include the following:
- Timeliness: App provides immediate feedback, allowing students to reflect on their responses, rather than waiting until the end of a section or project.
- Frequency: App has continuous, integrated feedback.
- Distribution: Feedback is evenly distributed throughout the learning experience.
- Source: Feedback provider is a credible source or content expert.
- Individualization: Feedback can be tailored to the individual learner’s goals and learning level.
- Content: Feedback provides scaffolds to guide learners in correcting misunderstandings and take next steps, going beyond generic phrasing like “good job!” to provide specific, actionable guidance.
Grammarly is an example of an ELA software that provides high-quality feedback, including explanations of suggested modifications, options for personalized prompting, and the ability to get timely and frequent feedback throughout the writing process.
7. Free from Bias
Since humans develop apps, apps are inherently embedded with social biases. By examining educational technologies for bias, educators can make informed decisions about the tools and materials they use with young learners. There are four types of technological biases to look for, along with questions educators can ask themselves to assess the level of bias in a tool:
- Engineered Inequity: Are social biases engineered into technology? For example, females avatars wearing pink and males wearing blue.
- Default Discrimination: Do default settings (like the default language, for example) allow for discrimination, particularly against more vulnerable groups?
- Coded Exposure: Does the technology recognize or treat groups differently in ways that cause disproportionate harm to vulnerable populations? For example, motion-activated technology devices tend to be tested more often on people with lighter skin tones. As a result, these devices tend to work better with individuals who have lighter skin.
- Technological Benevolence: Does the technology reinforce social biases even though it purports to fix problems? For example, a college admissions tool that uses AI to filter out or in prospective applications. If the algorithm for the AI is based on the profile and demographics of accepted students from past history, the AI filter may filter in more historically dominant groups, such as males at a co-ed institution, and filter out more historically marginalized groups.
By examining educational technologies for bias, educators can make informed decisions about the tools and materials they use with young learners.
8. Avoid Manipulative Design
Some educational apps incorporate addictive elements designed to keep learners engaged for longer periods. It's essential for educators to recognize which features can be manipulative and which promote healthy usage. A high-quality app should prioritize the well-being of its users, encouraging them to take breaks and regularly check in with their mental health. Below is a list of features that can be manipulative. These elements often entice learners to remain in the app or can lead to addictive behaviors. Common manipulative features include:
- Parasocial Relationship Pressure: The app applies pressure on learners to play longer or make a purchase through shame, taunting, or manipulation.
- Fabricated Time Pressure: The app applies pressure on learners at decision points, such as using a countdown clock or communication that time is running out.
- Lures: The app tries to attract attention or encourage learners’ behaviors through tokens, rewards, virtual toys, or by sending notifications or visual cues.
- Roadblock Ads: Ads that stay up for over 20 seconds, prompting the learner to play before they can close.
- Strategically-timed Ads: Ads that pop up when learners try to return to the home screen or cancel out of a purchase.
- Ads with Reinforcement: Rewards are given in exchange for viewing an ad.
9. Safety and Security
A significant amount of research has been conducted on the privacy and safety of applications. In the United States, all apps intended for use with younger children must comply with both FERPA and COPPA regulations. This means the data collected must be properly secured and stored.
Fortunately, there are multiple resources available for educators to quickly determine whether their chosen applications meet the student data privacy and security standards. Two such resources are ISTE’s Edtech Index and Common Sense Media's Application Privacy tool, where educators can easily view ratings regarding the safety and security of student data for particular apps.
Make Every Decision Count
Researchers in educational technology, including our team at the University of Michigan, have emphasized the importance of identifying apps that incorporate key characteristics of high-quality learning environments. Grounding app selection in these kinds of research-backed features helps educators make informed decisions. Next time you’re evaluating an app for your classroom, consider asking yourself: Does this app engage students meaningfully? Does it support their thinking? Is it safe and secure? These small but important shifts in decision making can lead to more intentional use of technology in the classroom and better learning experiences for all students.
