1. Increased access to education: Edtech has made education more accessible than ever before, especially to those living in remote areas with limited access to traditional schools and universities. Online courses and digital platforms have allowed students to access quality education without geographic barriers.

2. Personalized learning: Edtech tools provide personalized learning experiences, catering to the individual needs and learning styles of each student. This helps to ensure that every student receives the support they need to achieve their academic goals.

3. Gamification of learning: Gamification of learning has made learning more engaging and fun, transforming the classroom into an interactive and immersive experience. This approach helps to keep students motivated and interested in learning.

4. Cost-effective solutions: Edtech has made education more affordable and cost-effective. With the rise of online courses, students can access quality education at a fraction of the cost of traditional brick-and-mortar institutions.

5. Improved communication and collaboration: Online platforms and digital tools have facilitated better communication and collaboration among students and teachers, making it easier to share ideas, resources, and feedback.

Overall, edtech is bringing about a revolution in India’s education landscape, making quality education more accessible, affordable, and effective for students and educators alike.   

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The Statistics 

There was a study done last year, showing several helpful insights about teachers versus technology in rural high schools. For instance, About 78% of teachers agreed or strongly agreed that technology goes a long way toward enhancing student instruction and that teachers can easily learn to integrate it.

Only about 25% of the teachers asked their students to use technology for creativity and communication, and only about 50% had them use it for critical thinking and collaboration. This varied with teaching experience. Teachers with less experience were more likely to ask students to use technology for creativity and collaboration more frequently. Math teachers were also least likely among the other teachers to ask students to use technology for creativity, collaboration, and communication.

The Department’s Launch and DeVos’ Challenge

On June 30, 2020, the U.S. Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, announced a challenge to improve high-quality technology instruction in rural schools across America. She called it the “Rural Tech Project,” and it was given a total cash prize pool of $600,000. The Rural Tech Project invites high schools and local educational agencies to develop distance learning programs that are competency-based and enable students to master skills in a self-paced regimen to prepare them for jobs of tomorrow and today that are not only well-paying but also in-demand.

On December 17, 2020, the U.S. Department of Education announced the five finalist teams. These five reams will continue on with Phase 2 of the program. There, they will plan, run, refine, and report on how their programs are going.

The five finalists are: iLead Academy—Carrollton, Kentucky; Louisa County Public Schools—Mineral, Virginia; Premont Independent School District—Premont, Texas; Brooks County and Freer Independent School Districts; Ravenna High School—Ravenna, Michigan; Woodlake High School—Woodlake, California.

The Finalist Tech Projects

iLead Academy

This team is offering students from five different high schools the opportunity to take virtual, dual-credit courses in computer sciences.

Louisa County Public Schools

This team has a cybersecurity program that they are providing. It will prepare students to enter the workforce with industry credentials. They could also go on to attend a post-secondary program.

Premont Independent School District

This team offers its students the option to join one of five academies leading to dual credits, industry-based certifications, and associate degrees.

Ravenna High School

This team is creating an agricultural technology program. It will teach students transferable skills for healthcare, robotics, and computer informatics.

Woodlake High School

This team is introducing an online aviation program. This program will prepare students for post-secondary degrees and regional careers.

Conclusion

Secretary DeVos has used the Rural Tech Project to go a long way toward advancing technology education in rural high schools across America. Let’s do our part in helping it go further by using the technology that we have available to us and getting involved in educational technology initiatives ourselves!

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What the Facts Reveal About the Inefficiency of EdTech

The Impact on K-12 Students

According to research on K-12 students, it was revealed that –

• The 2020-21 batch of K-12 students around the world will miss at least 2-years’ worth of academic skills.
• Children whose parents work from home are the worst affected.
• Countless K-12 kids depend on school meals for nutrition.
• Parents are not receiving enough attention or support from schools in terms of curriculum-related guidance.
• Many schools are failing to connect to parents regularly because of internet issues.

A delayed start to the 2020-2021 school year will undeniably put all K-12 students way off-track, no matter how many remote learning courses the schools haphazardly try to fit into their schedules.

The Impact on College Students

The transition from face to face classes to online classes hasn’t been as smooth as expected for college-level students. Most students had to return to their homes. Many suffer from technology-related problems. Only 74% of Americans have access to computers, so the less fortunate students are suffering more. Entire batches are expected to graduate without acquiring the necessary skills needed to be deemed ‘hirable’ by employers.

Why the Parents are Concerned

The parents of students of all ages are concerned not because of these glaring statistics but because they can see for themselves that existing remote learning processes don’t work. Over the last few months, some of the biggest revelations for parents include –

• Time Spent Isn’t Time Learned – Students have to spend a fixed number of hours per week for remote learning classes. These hours are divided into four to five sittings. It is hard to track student progress in each sitting. Many students are failing to keep up.
• Current Learning Platforms Don’t Work – The current video conference software being used on most websites hardly consists of any advanced features. They’re not meant for homes, they’re meant for office settings. The platforms being used currently are not fit for remote learning.
• It is Hard to Adapt – Most students are used to single classroom settings. Individual learning is good, but most learning platform, with a limited number of choices, often fail to fulfill the needs of every student, given their varied cultural backgrounds and learning styles.  
• Poor Adaptation on the Part of Schools – Believe it or not, many school systems around the world are yet to effectively integrate technology into the teaching process. EdTech is useless if the educators aren’t creative enough to use the tools successfully.

Parents Need to Do More

In the past, parents viewed reliance on EdTech as overexposure to technology. However, now they need to do more to make their children self-sufficient during these trying times.

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Traci Chun, a teacher-lirarian at Skyview High School in Vancouver, Washington, and junior Ulises Santillano Tlaseca troubleshoot a 3D printing job in the library’s maker space. Photo: Kelsey Aske

Traci Chun, a teacher-librarian at Skyview High School in Vancouver, Washington, is all done with shushing. “When my library is quiet, that’s a red flag,” said Chun. In fact, the busier it is, the better—whether it’s kids experimenting with the Makey Makey circuitry or uploading designs to a 3D printer, or a class learning media literacy or a student seeking advice on a video she’s editing at one of the computer workstations.

Chun’s district is at the forefront of a national movement to turn K-12 librarians into indispensable digital mavens who can help classroom teachers craft tech-savvy lesson plans, teach kids to think critically about online research, and remake libraries into lively, high-tech hubs of collaborative learning — while still helping kids get books.

The stereotypical library can seem like a vestige, making it an easy target when budgets are tight, according to Mark Ray, Vancouver’s director of innovation and library services, “but we want libraries to be the lynchpin of education transformation.” Ray heads up Future Ready Librarians, part of Future Ready Schools — a network for sharing education technology solutions, which is sponsored by the Alliance for Excellent Education, a Washington, D.C.-based education advocacy group.

In many parts of the country, school librarians are an endangered species, with their numbers dwindling near extinction in districts such as Philadelphia and Chicago. In fact, about a decade ago, Chun’s district was on the verge of letting a slew of librarian jobs stay vacant in the wake of staff retirements. A coalition of teachers, parents and community members intervened to save the jobs, including Ray, a school librarian at the time, who convinced district leaders to repurpose librarians to make them more relevant.

That effort began by having Vancouver’s librarians get trained in new software purchased by the district, so that they could train their school colleagues in turn. Teacher-librarians such as Chun have since expanded that tech-integration role. Teaming up with Skyview’s instructional technology facilitator and early-adopting teachers, Chun frequently demonstrates new tech tools at the school’s teacher-led professional development meetings.

Often, she backs up these introductions by co-teaching a class or two. “It makes teachers more willing to try new things, because the risk is gone,” said Chun. “By letting the librarian come in and run it with your students, you can see how it works. And if it bombs, it’s not on you.”

A key theme of Future Ready Librarians, which last year published a framework to revamp the bookish role, is that districts pouring money into hardware and software need people to shepherd these tools into classrooms and to curate these burgeoning digital resources.

The Beaverton school district, west of Portland, Oregon, is a case in point. In 2012, budget shortfalls led Beaverton to axe more than 40 school librarian positions. But two years ago, embarking on a bond-funded technology push that included a computer for every student, the district had a change of heart. They created a new position called Library Instructional Technology Teacher (LITT), and have since hired more than two dozen of them.

“It became clear quite quickly that an investment in stuff, in boxes that plug in, is not really going to pay off with a lot of learning or classroom innovation unless there’s somebody to guide that process,” said Wayne Grimm, a LITT at Beaverton’s Westview High School. Grimm regularly visits classrooms to brainstorm with teachers about enhancing upcoming lessons with technology, or to co-teach a class using a new online database, learning app or digital media production tool.

“My schedule is rarely the same two days in a row,” he said. “I go wherever teachers need me.”

That could be giving social-studies students a tutorial on research skills; showing a French class how to make stop-action animation, short videos, or websites for presentations on Francophone countries; or helping a math teacher free up class time by creating sharable videos of introductory explanations and sample problems for students.

Bottom of Form

According to Audrey Church, president of the American Association of School Librarians, such duties are a natural fit for a job that long ago expanded beyond book overseer to a combination of teacher, collaborator and “information specialist” — no matter whether the source of information was the writings of Copernicus or a virtual-reality tour of the solar system. The ongoing conversion to digital resources has given most school librarians a strong background in education technology, and librarians often serve as the de facto custodian for a school’s limited stock of digital cameras, computer projectors and similar gadgets. Other paths to tech know-how include a district’s office of information technology and workshops such as those hosted by Future Ready.

And it’s not just districts looking to “save” their librarians that are adopting the new model. Baltimore County Public Schools have a long history of strong school libraries, but five years ago, they redefined the role of their 175 “library media specialists” to include teaching students a variety of analog and digital research and production skills they can use in class.

For example, Tressa Norris, a library media specialist at Joppa View Elementary School, recently worked with second-graders on multimedia presentations about American symbols to bolster a unit about patriotism being taught by their classroom teacher. First, Norris led the students to websites that gave a brief overview of what symbols are, and then she prepared students to do their own research by leading “scavenger hunts” into the district’s online databases. After everybody chose a symbol, she introduced the students to options for their presentations, such as creating a mini-blog or using digital presentation tool called Wixie that allows students to weave together text, images and their own voice.

“When they went back to their classroom, they used those tools to make their presentations and talk about being patriotic, without everybody just picking the American flag or the Statue of Liberty,” said Norris.

Over the five years of her tenure in the library, Norris has also dramatically changed its look, removing bookshelves and adding comfortable and flexible furniture so kids can move around easily and find places to work and collaborate.

They’re losing some shelves in Beaverton’s libraries, too. But the librarians insist that their commitment to books and reading is as strong as ever. Several schools in the district have added small, pleasure-reading libraries to ELA classrooms, for instance. And libraries can make a lot of room just by thinning out their old, out-of-date reference sections, according to Steven Lent, the LITT at Beaverton’s Mountain View Middle School.

“Getting kids reading is still a huge part of what we do here. But the library has to be more than a place where they come in and get their books and leave,” said Lent, who spent the last year, his first as a LITT, opening up the library, adding more power outlets and a wireless projector, and repurposing an adjoining room that had been a cramped computer lab into a maker space with Lego robotics, iPads and circuitry kits.

“The idea is to create an inviting space where kids can come in to work and explore the cool stuff we have in here,” including the books, said Lent. So far, it seems to be working. “This year, our circulation numbers are through the roof.”

This story was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education.

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Thousands of educators from across the country converged on Denver’s convention center this week to explore how technology can help — and sometimes hinder — classroom learning.

Digital devices and technology are commonplace in classrooms, from math lessons on iPad apps to more out-there experiments like using virtual reality to teach geography.

But as such practices have spread, detractors have emerged, too. One former teacher suggested in a Washington Post column that all technology be removed from the classroom. His rationale: Devices keep students from focusing on their work.

Chalkbeat caught up with a handful of Colorado teachers at this week’s International Society for Technology in Education conference, which concluded Wednesday.

For the most part, educators had a lot of good things to say about technology, saying it has revolutionized communication between students and created new ways to record students’ progress. Yet they also cautioned that it can be expensive and could create divides between students from different socioeconomic backgrounds.

Here’s a sample of what the teachers had to say:

When using technology in his Skinner Middle School classroom in Denver, Kelsey Andersen makes sure not to coddle his students. In his eyes, the best way for a student to learn is through doing.

“I think that’s kind of the point. I don’t teach them how to use something, I let them go for it. I give them a little information on how to get started, and that’s it. For example, I’ll open up PowerPoint, and tell them I’d like a presentation on rockets.”

But there are limitations to getting some of the gadgets for his class.

“Cost is always a barrier. One-time purchases are easier to get. You can get a $1,500 grant to buy something, but then you need a couple hundred dollars in software to get it to run. It’s the the consumable costs that are a bit harder.”

Matthew Hunter is a third grade teacher at a very small, rural school district in Rangely, in northwest Colorado. He saw some ideas at ISTE he’d like to bring back to his school, but knows all too well the limits for a cash-strapped district.

“We’re trying to make sure we stay on a reasonable level. Chromebooks, maybe. The coding, the programming, we’re looking at that. We have to start at the most rudimentary level.”

Gwynn Moore is a teacher at Aurora Frontier, which serves students in preschool through eighth grade. She uses technology in her classroom to teach students different storytelling methods.

“The students make newscasts that are viewed by the school. I have students learning how to research information. They are learning how to be prepared to utilize many different types of technology.”

One pitfall teachers embracing technology should be mindful of, Moore said, is what happens after the last school bell.

“Let’s say a student doesn’t have access at home, then what happens?”

Students at Littleton’s Deer Creek Middle School make comics books using computer programs such as Photoshop. They find the storyboard process an arduous one, but Pamela Farris, an art and technology teacher, sees the value nonetheless.

“They hate it, but it really helps them figure out the sequence of events. They’re having to work together.”

Farris said the frenetic pace of technological change is also on her mind.

“Things become outdated. I gave one kid a DVD. He asked me, ‘What do I do with this?’ Really it’s the same projects. You just update them.”

Digital storytelling is one concept from the conference Linda Horne would like to emulate.

She teaches English language learners at Challenge to Excellence, a charter school in Parker that serves students from kindergarten to eighth grade. Horne already introduces her youngest kids to some digital work.

“With my little ones, we do blogs. I have video blogs of them speaking. I can share them with the parents. It’s a great way to document their progress.”

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.

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The first attempt by the “nation’s report card” to measure students’ ability to think creatively and use technology found wide racial achievement gaps — and evidence that schools aren’t effectively teaching important skills.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP, has long been the only way to compare student test scores in math and reading across states. In 2014, amid growing calls for testing to go beyond basic academic skills, the group added a new exam to measure students’ “technology and engineering literacy,” or their ability to solve real-world problems. The test asked them to follow a series of steps to complete tasks such as designing a bike lane that increases safety and improving the environment for a class pet.

The results of that exam came out Tuesday and revealed that 43 percent of students met NAEP’s proficiency bar, meaning that they can diagnose simple technological problems and work toward solutions.

Within that total there were wide gaps: Students whose families are so poor that they qualify for free or reduced-price lunch scored 28 points lower, on average, than students from more affluent families. The gap between black and white students was even more pronounced, with 56 percent of white students scoring at or above “proficient” and just 18 percent of black students meeting that bar.

Those gaps are similar to ones that students tend to post on NAEP’s math and reading exams. The technology test was given at a time when many states were rolling out new learning standards that emphasize critical thinking and problem solving, and the results underscore the possibility that the shift to more rigorous standards could reinforce existing inequities.

A survey of the 21,500 students who took the test suggested that it could be challenging for schools to close the gaps. Nearly two thirds of students said they learn the most about how things work from their families; only 13 percent of students said their teachers were the top source of technology learning.

The National Association Governing Board, the federal office that administers NAEP, is using the results to call for more technology learning opportunities in and out of school.

“The scores clearly show that when students have opportunities to engage with technology and engineering, they become fluent in the skills that prepare them for living and working in the modern world. But access to these opportunities from place to place is patchy,” said Tonya Matthews, president and CEO of Detroit’s Michigan Science Center, in a statement from the board. (The Michigan Science Center is home to a charter school that draws students from across Detroit.)

“That’s a call for communities to create opportunities where needed, from schools to science centers to after-school programming,” she added.

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.

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While access to technology and the internet are not silver bullets per se, the absence of these critical tools and resources present significant impediments to achieving “college and career readiness” for students.

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said: “Most schools have about as much internet bandwidth as your house,” during a conference in Washington, D.C.   “We are denying our teachers and students the tools they need to be successful. That is educationally unsound and morally unacceptable.”

In my travels throughout the country, I’ve visited many schools where teachers are constrained in the resources they can provide their students. For these students, it’s not only about the lack of resources; this has the additional unintended consequences of impacting students’ abilities to conduct research instantaneously, collaborate easily with their peers and take advantage of learning opportunities outside the classroom day.

Here’s what I mean about powerful learning fueled by the use of technology and broadband access. At Columbus Signature Academy, a public district high school in Columbus, Indiana, a DNA project was launched in partnership with Professor John Cavaletto of the Purdue University Department of Botany and Plant Pathology.  Professor Cavaletto not only helped initiate the project and stayed connected with students using online video tools, he also provided students access to a robust research database.  Students actually discovered a new strain of yeast, thanks in part to this embedded use of internet-based resources.

According to a policy brief from the National Education Association (NEA), researchers are finding a clear link between technology utilization, student achievement and student motivation.  There’s a significant difference between studying theory and learning first-hand what is relevant.  Motivating students with coursework that is real and relevant fosters the type of education where students are truly engaged ─ and engaged students succeed.  Freshmen and sophomores at Meridian Early College High School in Sanford, Michigan, worked with Merrill Technologies to produce a cart for use in manufacturing. The project combined science, technology, math and engineering to solve a challenging and complex ‘real-world’ problem. Merrill Technologies went on to produce this cart that now helps to solve a very real workplace challenge.

Investing in technology and access for students should not be viewed as discretionary spending.  We need state and federal funding mechanisms that recognize access to technology and broadband is fundamental to providing equal learning opportunities for all students.  Otherwise we risk perpetuating a “have” and “have not” educational system. We should want a better America. Our national aspiration ought to be that every student, regardless of zipcode, not just graduate from high school, but graduate “college and career ready.”

Access to technology and the internet in everyday educational experiences can be as transformative as Gutenberg’s printing press was when his mass-produced Bible marked the beginning of a shared knowledge revolution. How can we expect our students to compete globally when technology and internet literacy are considered basic “college and career” entry skills?  These days even so called “blue-collar” jobs require some “white-collar” skills.

Technology as an embedded part of a comprehensive education strategy just makes sense.  An iPad is not a cure-all, nor is the lack of technology the reason we fail to meet student needs. Successfully reinventing education calls for system-level response, and that response needs to include providing students and teachers with the resources that are found in today’s workplace

___

Lydia Dobyns has combined careers as a technology entrepreneur and executive, with education policy and non-profit service. She served two terms as a school board member, led an education foundation and directed replication strategies in the non-profit education sector. As President and CEO of New Tech Network, she directs strategy, new initiatives, product development, and school development services. Among the chief initiatives for New Tech are expanding its network of 160 schools, working with districts and communities for systemic change, further development of the learning management system, NTN Echo and expansion into K-12.

Her entrepreneurial and executive career featured work in the high technology, online services, consumer products and health care industries. Previous roles for Lydia included CEO of goodcompany.com, VP and General Manager for AOL and VP of Corporate Marketing for Ashton-Tate. She graduated with a B.A. in English from the University of California, Berkeley.

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One organization trying to give a lift to this type of math learning is The Moody’s Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Moody’s Corporation that funds education-based causes. The Moody’s Mega Math (M³) Challenge, organized by the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, challenges teams of high school juniors and seniors to work together to solve an advanced applied math problem.

Registration for the 2017 Moody’s Mega Math Challenge event is open online now and closes on February 17. The event is completely free to enter.

The Challenge is designed for high school juniors and seniors. Teams of 3 to 5 students get together  during Challenge weekend – February 24 to 27 – to download the problem. They have 14 hours to upload their solution to be entered to win part of $150,000 in college scholarship money. The top team will be awarded $20,000 and another 5 will win between $5,000 and $15,000. Another 90 teams have a shot at between $1,000 and $1,500 in semi-finalist awards.

The solutions are judged by Ph.D.-level mathematicians.

The math event is designed to elevate high school students’ enthusiasm and excitement about using mathematics to solve challenging, real-life problems and increase students’ interest in studying and pursuing mathematical, economic, and financial careers.

The M³ Challenge began for New York residents in 2006 and now the competition is national, with teams able to compete from anywhere with Internet access. From there, the top 6 teams head to New York to be judged in real time by a panel at the Final Event (here are more details about judging specifics).

Math in Real Life

What I really love about this particular challenge is its accessibility. Teams from anywhere in the U.S. can complete the challenge without needing to raise funds for travel – even the top 6 teams who get an all-expense paid trip to NYC to present at the Final Event. The teams also need diverse members in order to succeed – math concepts are the focus, but there is plenty of writing and innovation in other areas that must come into play to reach sound solutions. I also like that there is such a focus on APPLIED math or taking what students are learning in the classroom and bringing it to life in a timely and relevant way.

Students who are interested can take advantage of the many free math resources that Moody’s offers to prepare for the Challenge. Teachers can also use these resources to teach applied math concepts in classrooms.

“The main theme of the Challenge this year is preparing for success. We have tons of freely available resources that we encourage students, and their teachers, to use in  preparing not only for Challenge weekend, but also to familiarize themselves generally with applied math and math modeling, which will better prep them for success in college and beyond,” said Michelle Montgomery, Director of Marketing and Outreach for the Society for Industrial and Applied mathematics and Project Director for the M3 Challenge.

“Our surveys consistently tell us that 25 percent of student participants pursue careers in applied math, finance, and economics as a result of participating in the M³ Challenge” she said.

Students prepping for the event can check out past problems to help them know what to expect. You can read the full rules and eligibility requirements on the event page.

Teachers or coaches can register teams by February 17 by heading to the M³ Challenge official page.

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Apps and online tutoring sessions seem even more accessible than person-to-person engagement. While students would need to schedule time with a tutor or with their teacher outside of class time, it is far easier to go onto YouTube or search your question online. The ETIN (Education Technology Industry Network of SIIA) represents and supports developers of educational software applications, digital content, online learning services and related technologies across the K-20 sector. More and more money is being pumped into an industry that wants to answer to the nature of technology in the household.

Now nearly every young student has access to a computer or smartphone in some capacity. According to an article by Education World, the U.S. EdTech was an estimated $8.38 Billion in 2014, with no end in slowing down in sight. This is an industry that is growing at an accelerated rate to parallel the rate at which technology is now advancing.

With the rate at which the tech market is growing, educators have to ask whether or not these ESo instead of the EdTech Marketplace providing students with useful tools for students, it can turn into a futile attempt for technology to help students engage with content in a meaningful and productive way. In effect, the EdTech Marketplace stands to lose by not giving their audience the tools they need.

For instance, students that watch Khan Academy’s YouTube videos to learn a topic may be too distracted to focus on the video. Without a teacher present, a student is much more likely to get distracted, play on their phone and miss the entire premise of the video. Hffect of EdTech tools precisely, but the American school system is still many rankings behind what is expected. The U.S. was ranked 25^th in the world in science and math education in 2015. Singapore and Hong Kong came first and second respectively. According to TechinAsia, Asia is seen as the next frontier in EdTech. The industry is projected to grow by 8 percent to US $252 billion by 2020 in the global market.

However, this may not be due to the use of Edtech. Instead, culturally, the commitment to education is strong in those regions and has been for many years. Accordance of education in these households, they are willing to adapt to different learning climates. Thereby, using EdTech to shift the learning process. While the US is cation and to create an expectation that education comes first.

Since it appears the EdTech Marketplace stands to alter the face of education for many years to come, it is important to ask other questions related to the effect it will as well. How does the EdTech world affect the person-to-person engagement of learning? What does it do to students if they are not able to use the content to learn in person, instead relying on online tools to help them through the problem set?

Generation Z students who have grown up with laptops, iPads, and smartphones. So their brains have evolved in such a way that allows them to process more information at faster speeds than previous generations ofr to the social aspect of learning. Otherwise, it will merely be a tool in which students engage with a robot. The best way to counter this is by giving a student an authentic audience.

While some critics criticize the Khan Academy approach, it is helpful that on the other side of the screen is a real person. Learning then becomes a social act rather than a process of computing.

As technological tools advance and the EdTech Marketplace continues to fund learning in this way, then the marketplace must be ready to give students an interactive experience that can allow for better learning and retention of knowledge, while also improving the education system that has been seemingly failing students for decades. Perhaps the EdTech Marketplace needs to grow in order to figure out the best ways to adapt to the learning experience. The growing interest in EdTech shows that there is an interest in reshaping the education system to be a better tool than ever before and making learning only a click away.

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As the summer holidays draw near in many parts of the world, parents shouldn’t be surprised if kids choose to fill their days with technology. After all, teens and tweens are now spending more hours on their devices – iPads, phones and computers – than they are asleep.

Anxious parents will point out how bad this technology obsession is for young people. Too much screen time has been linked to falling grades, impeded social interaction and a lack of exercise.

But there’s a flip side. Several studies support technology’s positive influence on young users. It offers exciting opportunities for learning and can strengthen interpersonal relationships.

In the same way that some food is healthy and some has no nutritional benefits, some apps are low in mental fibre. Based on my own research into how students learn with technology, here’s a guide to getting rid of “junk” apps and ensuring your tweens and teens develop healthy tech habits both in term time and during the school holidays.

From passive to active

The key lies in shifting kids from using apps that make them passive content consumers to those where they are active content producers. Encouraging the use of activating apps can help children to develop a wide range of 21st century skills like collaboration, creativity, critical thinking, and problem solving.

Before I look at apps that will actively engage kids during school holidays, here are the “apps” you should immediately delete from their lives.

• APPrehension: feelings of inadequacy caused by social media
• APProval: the dangerous pursuit of digital validation through “likes” and “followers”
• APathy: the increasing desire to passively consume content
• APartness: the isolating danger that technology can cause

Once these “apps” are deleted, here’s a selection of apps that will not only engage your kids, but help them develop important skills. I’ve selected a few iOS, Android, and Web-based apps (accessible through a browser on any device). The full list is available here. I’ve grouped these according to the skills they will develop.

Activating apps

Curation:
Curation apps help kids to develop key skills such as reading, categorising and organising.

• Pinterest (iOS, Android, Web): This popular visual pinboard is great for creating collections of images. How about a pinboard of Disney characters?
• Learning Lab (Web): This site, created by the Smithsonian museum, allows kids to curate museum artefacts.
• List.ly (Web): Create fun, shareable lists of websites, videos and more from the web. How about starting with a list of all of the places you want to visit?

Conversation:
There’s a shift from learning through content consumption to learning through conversation around content in online spaces. Conversation-based apps provide opportunities to debate, discuss and enrich relationships.

• Maily (iOS/Android): A parent-controlled app that allows kids to create fun messages with drawings and text.
• Playkids Talk (Android): This instant messaging app is for primary school kids. With parental permission kids can send instant messages including photos, voice recordings and graphics to one another.

Correction:
Research shows that one of the most effective ways to learn is through mistakes. Technology allows us to easily experiment, make mistakes and learn through correction.

• Scribblenauts (iOS/Android): Lets kids bring any object to life simply by typing its name. These objects are then used to solve fun problems.
• Kahoot! (Web/iOS/Android): A gamified take on quizzes that makes learning – and mistakes – lots of fun. You can create your own quiz or try one of the thousands already created. This is a great way to get a group of kids (and adults) learning and laughing together.

Creation:
Creating content develops key skills such as logic, creative thinking and problem solving.

• Book Creator (Android and iOS) allows kids to create their own books using their own photos, videos and so on. The final book can even be published to the Google Play store or iBooks.
• Monster Physics (iOS): Lets kids build working contraptions using a range of parts like wheels, rockets and magnets. Once the contraption is built kids can test it to see how it works.
• Scratch (Web, iOS, Android): One of the most powerful ways to teach kids creative thinking and logic is through programming. MIT’s Scratch environment is designed to let kids learn to programme in an easy, fun way.

Chaos:
Learning to make sense of too much information, missing information, and conflicting information is a skill children increasingly need to develop in our content-excessive world.

• Word clouds (Web) are a great way to distil large amounts of text into fascinating visual representations. Worditout allows kids to easily create a word cloud from any piece of text. How about creating a word cloud of the news, or a famous speech?
• Mindmaps are useful to help organise your thinking. Corkulous (iOS provides a fun corkboard spin on this concept for kids.
• Sometimes kids can be overwhelmed or bored by content but always enjoy cartoons. Rather than reading or watching them, let your kids create cartoons with toondoo.com or animations with Powtoon.com. How about asking them to create a cartoon that summarises their year?

Keeping track

No matter which apps your kids choose, it’s important to keep track of their use. Research suggests that screen time should be limited, whether young users are consuming “junk” apps or learning while they swipe. OurPact is a great tool to automate this process. It allows parents to set usage schedules or turn off a device at any time.

Craig Blewett, Senior Lecturer in Education & Technology, University of KwaZulu-Natal

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

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