Educational iPhone and iPad applications can be quite beneficial to younger students if used in the correct context. Since technology is becoming a huge part of our everyday lives, it’s important that we use this technology not just for pleasure and entertainment, but also for education and learning as well. After reading many different sources and playing around with the applications, I’ve come to find that experts on education and technology agree with the fact that these apps can be used in a way that help children learn sight words and word formation in a differentiated way.
The articles that I use all have their own research done, but I also did a small experiment to test my own hypothesis. My experiment was done to answer the question, “Are educational iPhone/iPad applications beneficial to young literacy learners?” I also wanted to focus on sight words and word formation in my research, because this is important in teaching literacy. After conducting my own research, I have found that these applications are beneficial to younger students as long as they are used in an appropriate way, this includes scaffolding and modeling. In order for the application to be beneficial, teachers and/or parents have to understand how the games work in order for it to work and be educational for their children/students.
I found that I was interested in this topic when I started playing with some of these apps myself. Since I do plan on becoming an English teacher, I love playing with these apps on a regular basis, even if they aren’t helping me in anyway. It’s fun to play with words and form new words while playing these games that someone else envisioned. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that parents who have smartphones, such as an Android or and iPhone, have children who are interested in playing games on their devices. Parents might use these apps to help their children learn how to read and/or help their children develop an understanding of sight words and word formation.
I didn’t realize how many apps were out there until I started doing research on these device applications. There are literally hundreds of apps out there on iTunes or Google Play that children have access to. It doesn’t matter what app they chose to play; all of them are different, and different apps focus on different areas (e.g. sight words, word formation, phonological awareness, etc.). Once I started doing my research, I found that children like to play the games that seem like games, but they are really developed to help with the learning of the English language. It was incredible how much the children liked to play on the apps. They found it interesting and fun, while parents found it educational. Therefore, it was a win-win for everyone. It’s important that we use these applications to our advantage; they were created for a reason. This reason is to help young literacy learners learn how to make themselves a better reader.
