Mobile Applications can be
helpful for educators to engage students during instruction and class
activities and can also increase educators’ understanding of how students think
and process information. By integrating mobile applications into the classroom,
students can illustrate how they process information and communicate their
thoughts while they are working out problems (Soto & Hargis, 2014). Specifically,
in mathematics, students can illustrate to the teacher what they are thinking
during the process of solving a specific problem in applications such as
Educreations or ExplainEverything and also have the ability to self evaluate
their own process to see where they went wrong or where they need improvement. Through
these applications, students can learn from their mistakes and educators can
better understand students’ thinking so they can teach and communicate with
students more effectively. Mobile Applications can also aid as a tool in
different activities, such as a scavenger hunt for students, to help increase
the engagement and learning within the activity. Regardless of the subject
matter being taught, mobile applications can have a positive impact on
students’ learning experience, while also helping students stay focused. By
having students use mobile applications in group activities, educators increase
students’ collaboration, communication with their peers, and social
interaction, which helps build not only their academic skills, but their communication
and social skills as well. Overall, mobile applications can help educators in
many different faucets within education to help increase students’ engagement
and learning experience and help create an environment that fosters students’
development to help them in their educational careers.
Incorporating mobile applications into the classroom can
help both educators and students in many different areas of both teaching and
learning. Both educators and students can benefit from using mobile
applications to assist in areas such as behavior and classroom management, class
activities, assess and reinforce skills, knowledge, and abilities, and positive
reinforcement for appropriate behavior. There is an extensive range of areas in
which mobile applications can be used in the classroom that help educators
teach material more effectively and help students illustrate their knowledge,
learn, and become more active learners by helping to engage them in the
classroom. Incorporating these applications help educators create an environment
that fits students needs and helps students become part of the learning
process. By implementing various applications such as Teachers Pet to help with
behavior management, teachers can manage their classroom by giving students
points for good behavior or taking points away for disruptive or inappropriate
behavior. These points can be used to assess students’ eligibility to
participate in a particular activity used as a reward. Teachers can also use
this application in classroom activities or discussions to randomly pick
students or randomly form groups for group work. Educators can also use
applications such as Educreations or ExplainEverything to increase
communication between students and teachers by helping students illustrate what
they are thinking during the process of a specific activity, which can help
teachers evaluate how to differentiate their teaching for each student to fit
student’s individualized needs and learning style. Overall, integrating mobile
applications into the classroom can improve students’ education by increasing
student engagement and participation, increasing classroom management by
creating structure and reinforcement of appropriate behavior, and providing
students with multiple resources and related references to support their
learning during class activities and lessons.
References
Alston, D.M. &
Deaton, C.M. (2014). Teach environmental science iPads, QR codes, and StoryKit. Learning and Leading in Technology, 41(7), 29-30.
Soto, M. & Hargis, J.
(2014). Students explain everything using iPads. Learning and Leading in Technology,
41(7), 32-33.
