In brief
Apps can support education through electronic textbooks, instructional videos, targeted language practice and real-time communication between schools, students and parents. The article uses Khan Academy, Duolingo and Remind to illustrate these uses in 2014.
In the past, students had to carry thick reference books and textbooks to do their reading. Since smartphones emerged, many companies have gradually developed different types of apps for students. Smartphones and apps have changed everything. At the time of writing, there were already more than 7.5 hundred million educational apps worldwide. Around 70% of teenagers aged 13-17 owned smartphones.
Beyond standard electronic textbooks, developers had also created apps for instructional videos and school notices.
Khan Academy provides course videos uploaded free of charge for students to watch outside class through its app, offering a selection of relevant videos based on the courses each user is taking. At the time of writing, it had received 5 hundred million views.
Another example is Duolingo, a revolutionary language self-study app that provides targeted exercises and tests based on users’ learning progress.Duolingo offers 6 different languages to learn, with 9 million users completing 1500 ten thousand years of coursework every month.
Furthermore, apps can give students an additional way to learn and enable real-time, three-way communication between parents, students and schools. Among apps focused on this type of communication, Remind stands out. It allows schools and teachers to communicate with students and parents without revealing their personal phone numbers, in a format similar to Whatsapp. In addition, Remind offers a broadcast feature that helps schools promptly inform parents and students about developments at school. Besides Remind, schools can also develop a dedicated internal communication app.。
The apps already available show that apps are widely used in education and serve many different purposes. They need not harm students’ academic performance as parents fear. Moreover, apps can support teaching and increase students’ interest in learning.