Educational apps: Technological Advancers, towards future education

A Research
presented to the
Faculty of Senior High School
CONGRESSIONAL INTEGRATED HIGHSCHOOL
City of Dasmarinas, Cavite

In partial fulfilment
of the requirements in the subject in
Academic Strand,
Science and Technology, Engineering and Mathematics
Practical Research 1

Proponents:
Capistrano-Bonagua, Windelle Alhma-Martinez
Cruto, Ivan Louie Mojica
Dooc, Hans Jiguer
Franceliso, Kent Ronan Del Fierro
Lopez, Bryl Joshua
Ybanez, Tristian Destreza

Mrs. Lovely L. Fernandez-Matibang

Research Adviser

February 2019
 Acknowledgement

First and foremost, we would like to express our deepest gratitude to God for making this

research possible. We will not be able to complete this research and fulfill our duties without

God’s grace and love.

Also, this research is impossible to be done without the guide of our Practical Research 1 teacher

Mrs. Lovely L. Fernandez-Matubang. We owe our great experiences and knowledge in research

to her along with her never-ending capability to understand and advise us in our thesis and

subject.

We would also like to thank the experts and researchers who are involved in this study for

correcting and guiding us about our topic.

Finally, we would like to thank all the members of our thesis for giving their full support by

lending their full time and effort to accomplish this research.

 Rationale

This Study, Educational apps: Technological advancer towards future education is intended

to provide comprehensive reference and background information pertaining to the overall

benefits of Educational apps towards the recent education system as part of an overall document

set to address The Benefits of Educational apps on its users. The results could help benefit in the

following:

Students who are continuously looking for ways to study efficiently will benefit from the

study since it can show the possible positive effects and benefits of educational apps towards the

learning process

Teachers to consider using Educational apps to provide a more adequate source of

information while maintaining the interaction and eagerness of the learners and incorporating the

use of technology in the process of learning.

Educational Institutions to explore the potential of educational apps as a new source of

information that is efficient and accessible for their customers

 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgement……………………………………………………………………….i

Rationale…………………………………………………………………………………ii

Definition Of Terms……………………………………………………………………..1

Introduction……………………………………………………………………………...2

Methodology…………………………………………………………………………….10

Results…………………………………………………………………………………...13

Discussion……………………………………………………………………………….22

References……………………………………………………………………………….31

5
 Definition of Terms

Apps: A computer program or piece of software designed for a particular purpose that you can
download onto a mobile phone or other mobile device.
Program: A program is a set of instructions that a computer follows in order to perform a task
Software: Software is a set of instructions, data or programs used to operate computers and
execute specific tasks.
Technological Learning: The application of technology for the enhancement of teaching, learning
and assessment

6
 INTRODUCTION
Educational apps: Technological advancers, towards future education

Objectives:
1. To identify the Factors that makes Educational apps convenient and helpful
2. To know why Educational apps are advantageous to learners.
3. To know why educational apps are the new form of technological learning

Research Questions
1. What are the factors that make educational apps convenient and helpful?
2. How do students use educational apps on?
A. Personal level
B. Peer level
3. What strategies are used by the students to incorporate educational apps on their learning
process?

7
Introduction

Educational programmed apps have been on the rise nowadays, all with one goal;

to ease and to have an efficient way of learning and information transfer and having one thing in

question; are these apps really helpful or not? According to Kathy Hirsh-Pasek et al., apps

designed to promote active, engaged, meaningful, and socially interactive learning—four

“pillars” of learning—within the context of a supported learning goal are considered educational.

However, problems arise such as what is found out in the study by Kristy Goodwin and

colleagues showed. The researchers found out that apps currently available for young children in

the iTunes Store, has undergone limited systematic analysis

In educational Apps and those designed specifically for young children.

Due to this problems regarding the regarding matter. The researchers were inspired to

conduct a research, with an objective to expose the positive side of using educational

applications in various learning processes, such as studying and teaching. The study will also

contribute to answer the problem, whether educational apps are useful and can contribute

towards the field of education.

In addition, the study is also conducted to evaluate the strategies implemented by the users

to maximize the educational application’s efficacy.

Furthermore, the study is conducted to identify the possible advantages of educational apps

on its users during the learning process. Moreover, the coverage of the study will be focusing on

the strategies and ways on how the users are utilizing the use and advantages of educational

apps. Respondents from different levels of attained education will be used to conduct the

experiment. The researchers will conduct a survey regarding on the strategies, personal

8
preferences and situational experiences that the respondents encounter during the use of

educational apps. A standardized test will be used to evaluate the responses on the given

situations. The study will also evaluate the utilization of educational apps on personal and peer

level. However, the study did not include the possible disadvantages of the educational apps.

9
 Review of related literature

The following presents literature studies that has relevance to the present study

Educational apps: Technological advancers, towards future education.

Educational apps

With over 15 billion Apps downloaded since the inception of Apple’s App Store, there is

a preponderance of apps marketed as ‘educational’ and designed for young children. Both

teachers and parents seek educational Apps to use on touch devices like the iPhone, iPad and

iPod touch. Despite the plethora of apps currently available for young children in the iTunes

Store, there has been limited systematic analysis of educational Apps and those designed

specifically for young children. (K. Goodwin Et Al.)

The emergence of educational applications (apps) is impacting the work of teacher

educators. Beyond online lists of best apps for education and recommendations from colleagues,

teacher educators have few resources available to support their teaching of how to select

educational apps. In response, this article puts forward a framework for choosing educational

apps based on their purpose, content, and value. The framework first classifies educational apps

into four categories before delineating them into smaller subcategories. A sample of apps that are

representative to each category and subcategory are included. This framework provides teacher

educators with a much-needed resource to support their instruction of educational apps. (Todd

Cherner, Judy Dix, Corey Lee)

The use of educational apps aligns with known processes of children’s learning and

development and offer a framework that can be used by parents and designers alike. Apps

designed to promote active, engaged, meaningful, and socially interactive learning—four

10
“pillars” of learning—within the context of a supported learning goal are considered educational.

(Roberta Michnick Golinkoff 2014)

Children are in the midst of a vast, unplanned experiment, surrounded by digital technologies

that were not available but 5 years ago. At the apex of this boom is the introduction of

applications (“apps”) for tablets and smartphones. However, there is simply not the time, money,

or resources available to evaluate each app as it enters the market. Thus, “educational” apps—the

number of which, as of January 2015, stood at 80,000 in Apple’s App Store (Apple, 2015)—are

largely unregulated and untested. This article offers a way to define the potential educational

impact of current and future apps. We build upon decades of work on the Science of Learning,

which has examined how children learn best. From this work, we abstract a set of principles for

two ultimate goals. (Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, Jennifer M. Zosh, et al.)

Putting Education in “Educational” Apps 7The Four Pillars: Where the Science of

Learning Meets App Development and DesignA few well-agreed-upon pillars of learning at the

core of the learning sciences have remained steady through the decades. Humans learn best when

they are actively involved (“minds-on”), engaged with the learning materi-als and undistracted

by peripheral elements, have mean-ingful experiences that relate to their lives, and socially

interact with others in high-quality ways around new material, within a context that provides a

clear learning goal. The pedagogical structure of the environment determines what kind of

learning will result. For exam-ple, drill and practice may foster rote learning of facts, but it is not

likely to promote deeper conceptual under-standing (see Ravitch, 2010). Similarly, exploration

and discovery without any guidance or scaffolding may not provide enough support for learning

(Mayer, 2004). Effective learning is facilitated in a flexible context that supports scaffolded

exploration, questioning, and discov-ery as children work toward well-defined learning goals

11
(Darling-Hammond, 2008).When apps instantiate the pillars within the context of scaffolded

exploration, their use contrasts sharply with the instructionism that many schools still use to

educate children. The “modern” classroom of 2015 may not differ much from a classroom from

earlier generations: desks in rows, children listening in their seats or on a rug, and teachers

transmitting well-worn knowledge that students regurgitate to get their grade. These images were

rein-forced by the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, which was passed in 2001 and in effect

until 2012. While noble in its aim to provide a quality education to all children regardless of age,

race, socioeconomic status, or location, the implementation of NCLB has resulted in a test-

focused system that emphasizes teaching to the test and drilling students for factoids (Darling-

Hammond & Adamson, 2014; Ravitch, 2010) and has been ineffective at closing the

achievement gap (Dillon, 2009). Critics worry that despite efforts to remedy the situation with

the Common Core, a test-conscious education system might inadvertently emphasize a teach-to-

the-test mentality and result in less effective learning overall (Roediger, 2014). Findings from the

Science of Learning suggest an alternative approach to supporting educational experiences,

including the four evidence-based pillars of learning that provide a starting foundation for the

next wave of educational apps. These are not novel ideas; our application of these ideas to app

creation is. For instance, Chi (2009) has provided a taxonomy for learning that includes three

levels: active, constructive, and interactive learning. As she interprets the psychological

literature, socially inter-active learning with another person is better than constructive learning,

in which the child goes beyond a presented problem to generate a new understanding. In Chi’s

taxonomy, socially interactive and constructive learning trump active learning, in which a child

does something such as manipulate objects or rehearse mate-rial; in turn, active learning is better

than learning through listening in the absence of activity. Although our focus on cognitive

activity and social interaction overlap with Chi’s approach, our goals are different from hers.

12
Whereas Chi’s taxonomy provides a testable hypothesis intended to advance learning theory, our

four pillars are meant to inform the design and evaluation of a particular class of learning

environments—namely, touch-screen apps. We recognize that learning need not always be active

or social (Dunn et. al., 1990), as research has suggested that direct instruction methods in which

the impetus is on the teacher to present material can be effective, even for young children or

those with intellectual disabilities (Przychodzin-Havis et al., 2005). Yet active involvement in a

task and social interaction both appear to be potent ingredients that stimulate learning (Meltzoff,

Kuhl, Movellan, & Sejnowski, 2009; Okumura, Kanakogi, Kanda, Ishiguro, & Itakura,

2013).These pillars, which will be described in greater detail below, are child-centric, meaning

that they apply to how children are involved (or not) in the learning experience. Is the child

active and minds-on (Duckworth, Easley, Hawkins, & Henriques, 1990)? Is the child engaged in

the learning experience and remaining on task? Is the child finding meaning that goes beyond the

app? Is the child engaged in high-quality social interaction with others while playing with the

screen? And does the app provide a learning goal? Much like the producers and developers of

television, games, and other digital media, some developers have clear learning goals in mind

when designing and marketing an app (e.g., to teach children about numeracy), and others have

no clear learning goals for their apps and design them only to be entertaining. One popular

children’s app developer, Toca Boca, has apps that are often at the top of the “education”

category in the App Store. However, Toca Boca’s CEO, Björn Jeffrey, recently stated (Banville,

2014), my argument would be: Education is great and it has its place, but there are other things

we can do for children other than just educate them. Just looking at learning from a broader

sense, there are things you can learn . . . that are not from a strict curriculum perspective—things

like collaborating or using your imagination or being creative. There’s a place for that in an

13
educational context, but they are also things that can be just learned from doing completely

different things. I see us as a company that makes apps for children or digital toys for children or,

more simply, products for children, but it is about the children first. If they can be used in an

educational context, great, but that’s not the intent.

Hirsh-Pasek et. al, educational company. I see us as a company that makes apps for

children or digital toys for children or, more simply, products for children, but it is about the

children first. If they can be used in an educational context, great, but that’s not the intent.This

quote highlights a distinction that is critical when thinking about “educational” apps. Throughout

this piece, we use “learning” and “education” interchangeably to refer to learning in a general

sense. This is important to clarify, because the term “educational” may be interpreted as

describing a formal learning context such as school-based instruction or tutoring. As decades of

research have shown, learning and education occur in both formal (i.e., school) and informal

(e.g., museums, the play-ground, home) settings. When the term “educational” is thought about

broadly as inspiring “learning,” we begin to more clearly define what we mean by educational

apps.As a starting point, our pillars are applied to another medium that has featured a torrent of

“educational” programming that preceded scientific research. Indeed, 40 years of studies on

educational television programming have helped to document the effectiveness of quality

viewing experiences on a range of academic subjects, including reading, math, science, and other

content areas (see Fisch, 2004; Fisch & Truglio, 2001, for reviews). These studies offer a

window into many of the develop-mental challenges, limitations, and opportunities for using

screen media as a learning tool with young children. .To make the case for a new

conceptualization of “educational” apps, we will (a) describe and operationalize each pillar in

14
depth, (b) ask how the pillar applies to television research, and (c) describe the ways in which the

pillar could apply to the evaluation, development, and design of apps for young children

15
 Methodology

Here shows the method arrived at results by applying valid and reliable methods.

I. Research Design

The research design used for this research was the phenomenological design.

Phenomenology is the study of structures of consciousness as experienced from the first-person

point of view. The study utilizes the participant’s experience in the usage of educational app and

mainly focuses its positive uses.

II. Population and Sampling

For this study, the participants are the Grade 11 students studying in Congressional

Integrated Senior High School, specifically ten chosen grade eleven students taking Science

Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) strand, 5 from section 2 and 5 from section

3. The study focuses on students who uses or has experience with educational application that

will help to strengthen the claims of this study, the researchers, decided to use random

sampling as a guide. Therefore, any gathered information is promised to be kept confidentially

and for research purposes only.

III. Gathering of the Data

Before:

On December 14, 2018 the researchers held a meeting at the CIHS Biology Laboratory.

There, the researchers composed 10 different questions and some follow-up questions in

accordance to their study about Educational apps, which will be used as a guide during the

interview process. After the researchers completed constructing the questions, they sought for

16
the confirmation and approval of Mrs. Lovely L. Fernandez-Matubang, Practical Research

teacher of Grade 11 students in Congressional Integrated High School-Senior High.

During

The interview took place in Congressional Integrated High School-Senior High and lasted for

a whole day. The researchers randomly selected participants for the interview. The researches

also filmed videos, if approved by the respondent, and voice recorded the interview process.

After

After interviewing 10 randomly chosen respondents, the researchers organized the collected

data in one of the researcher’s house. Then, the researchers wrote down the raw interview

with the help of the audio recording, followed by typing the participants answer into a

document. The researchers then revised the transcription, clustered the theme/s, and analyzed

the overall data.

17
 I. Interview Protocol

Instructions: In partial fulfillment of the requirements in the subject Practical Research

1, this study entitles “Educational apps: Technological Advancers towards future education”, you

will be having a one-on-one interview with the researchers consuming 5-10 minutes of your

time. The researchers are hoping that you answer the questions with full sincerity and honesty,

entrusting them your answers attached with much confidentiality protected at all cost. You are

allowed to use any language that makes you comfortable answering our questions. Thank you

and God bless.

1.What do you expect in an educational app?

2.Would you rather use an educational app by yourself or with peers and why?

3.How would you consider an app to be educational?

4.How can educational app improve your learning experience?

5.How can educational apps make learning/education entertaining?

6.Do you think that educational apps better than traditional teaching, why so?

7.What makes these educational apps useful?

8.What advantages does a student can have is he or she uses educational apps, why is it

so?

9.What could be the downfall or disadvantages of educational apps, why is it so?

10.How could you share the idea of educational apps to you friends/other people?

18
 Results
II. Theme Clustering

The answer per question is tallied then clustered into themes, the tally per question are the

following.

Tallied answers:

1: What do you expect in an educational app?

User friendly- I

Easy to use - II

same contents as books - II

Interactive - I

Reliable - II

Convenient - II

2: Would you rather use an educational app by yourself or with peers and why?

Alone: IIIII

*its objective is to learn while alone

*can focus more while alone - 3

*wants the info for himself

With peers: IIIII

*to help each other - 2

19
*better to learn - 2

*to have brainstorming/sharing of info

3: How would you consider an app to be educational?

Reliable sources - I

Stimulates the brain - II

Same thing to learn in school - III

Contains information - II

Helps learning - II

4: How can educational app improve your learning experience?

Makes learning fast - II

Makes it fun - II

Helps improve grades - I

Helps discover new lessons -I

Helps organize lessons - I

Helps students learn - II

Contains useful info - I

5: How can educational apps make learning/education entertaining?

lessens stress through games - Ill

20
Is more attention-seeking - II

New inventions are exciting - lII

Videos attached and tests - l

Making requirements are easier - l

6.Do you think that educational apps are better than traditional teaching, why so?

Traditional teaching IIIIIII

-Educational apps are usually made to improve traditional teaching, but does not necessarily

replaces it. IIIIII

Educational App IIII

-Not all teachers are good. - II

-We are in a digital ERA

- Most professionals use Digital mostly to teach

7.What makes these educational apps useful?

Handy IIIII

Mobile I

Useful/gets the job done IIII

8. Advantages of Educational apps

It is more convenient and fast - IIIIIII

More information can be taken - II

21
Is very handy - I

9: Disadvantages of Educational apps

We might become too dependent - II

Easier to cheat - III

Might not be used by internet-insufficient students - I

Unreliable sources and infos - II

No actual person to help you - I

Lacks physical application - I

10. How would you share educational apps with other people?

thru technology and/or social media; To friends – IIIIIIIIII

22
 III. Theme Clustering

The Following are the four themes clustered from the gathered data:

Theme 1: Convenience

 1. "I am looking for something easy to use".

 2. "A function in which certain kinds or pieces of information can be easily accessed by

those who use the app".

 3. It needs to be convenient and uses small storage space.

 4. Very convenient, and handy. Despite its small storage size, it offers wide variety of

educational perks

 5. I expect it to be user-friendly

 6. Educational apps are very handy whenever I need to study in advance or to review past

lessons, specifically in Pre-Calculus

 7. It is convenient and handy.

 8. He or she can conveniently learn

 9. Educational apps were made to help students learn or even people who already work so

I think if you can have educational apps, since they are more convenient to use and you

can use them anytime and anywhere, you would engage more in the thing that you want

to learn

 10.It’s more convenient since majority of today’s learners have their mobile devices so

it’s much easier to use

 11. If it is convenient and the student/learner enjoys studying in it

23
  12. It is easier to access and it is convenient. As a student we usually use our phones and

mobile devices so it is easier to manipulate

 13. It will not be very hassle for the students to have references for their studies since it

will be given through the application and it won't consume so much time since it is high

tech because we can use it online.

 14. Educational apps are useful when you need to learn about something in a short span

of time, or when you are trying to learn something new without the hassle of other

complicated methods of learning.

 15. First, the student gets more access to more information, as well as having it easier to

learn such information over students who only use conventional methods.

 16. The educational app is handy unlike the traditional way of teaching that can be a

hindrance to us.

 17. You can schedule your lesson, making it more convenient.

 18. It is available on mobile phones so it is easier to use

 19. Convenience, In terms of time, especially for us SHS students. We tend to have

handful of tasks and activities ahead of us. The utilization of educational apps will help

students save time without sacrificing the quality of their work.

 20. Educational apps are much more organized, you can do a task in a part of an app and

another task to a different part that’s why it is more convenient and you can use it

anywhere you want

Theme 2: Contains reliable information

 1.A: If it contains reliable sources, just like Starbooks, it contains sources that researchers

may use.

24
  2.Oh for educational apps I expect them to have the same contents as a normal book

would do like Ebooks, so that it would be useful for learners

 3.We can find such things like lessons that are either sent by our teachers, searched in

google for us to study or at least used as our reference for advanced studying.

 4.Of course I want it to contain facts and it should have no opinions. I also want it to have

less ads.

 5.What i want to find in an educational app is an abundant source of information and can

help me with my studies

 6.If it has something that you can learn the same in school

 7.I consider an application to be educational when there is something to be learned from

it

 8. Educational apps are useful as they help make information a lot more accessible to the

public, as well as breaking it down into simpler ways, that would help us absorb the

information easier compared to using conventional methods.

 9.There will be more understanding because the app will stimulate self studying and your

knowledge will widen due to the facts and information in the app.

 10.An advantage is, more information can be taken, it is wider than other information-

providers which are limited and also helps you explore

 11.It should have contents that are useful to the user

 12. As long as there is information that can help you

Theme 3: Interactive

 1.It makes learning more fun, convenient and is fast

25
 2. To make it more entertaining I think you can create an educational app as a game or

anything that suits the interest of the learner

 3. Since it’s called an educational app, information should be taken from it. It should also

be interactive because mostly of the educational app users are students

 4. Asides from being interactive, I think it would be better if it has games in it

 5. An app is educational if it offers activities that promotes engagement of students to a

certain topic or subject.

 6. The user interface, themes and different platforms makes an educational app pleasing

and entertaining

 7. Most apps use twists to make apps entertaining

 8. It lessens learning stress induced by having the lesson in a form of games and more,

also it adds a new way for teachers to teach lessons.

 9. It makes learning fun, because of its digital feature

 10. Most educational apps nowadays are using different formats to provide information,

formats that are a lot more eye catching and attention grabbing than other sources of

knowledge, like books. These formats also make taking information easier, be it through

puzzles, games or others

 11. As long, as it stimulates our brains, our thinking skills, as well as when it provides

useful information that we can use, it is educational.

26
Theme 4: Helps in the learning process

 1. For me it improves the learning experience due to that it reduces the time needed to

understand a certain lesson

 2. It can improve my learning experience by discovering more things specifically like

lessons that are found online.

 3. These applications are useful whenever there are no classes for that day. For instance,

an unexpected suspension is conducted due to typhoons, holidays, and etc. Our teachers

can send the lessons through an educational app or she can send homework or quizzes

that we can take at home since there are no classes.

 4. I will consider it useful if it helps in the learning of a student and makes him more

engaged in the lessons

 5. Educational apps becomes entertaining for me when it makes my school life easier by

making my school requirements easy.

 6. If I could read something interesting about a certain topic

 7. I can easily answer requirements from school that can improve my grades.

 8. When it makes my life easier when doing school stuff

 9. When it can help with my studies at school

 10. If it contains things that helps students/kids learn

 11. Educational applications can be entertaining when there's a quiz or test after the

lesson, then you can test your mind if you have learned something. Also, when there's a

video attached to it so that it can be understood easily.

27
 DISCUSSION

Presentation of Emerging Themes

The use of educational apps is becoming more prevalent these days and one of the reason

is that learners usually use educational apps due to its convenience. In Participant 1’s answer, he

said that he is looking for something easy to use while Participant 2 said that he wants a function

where certain kinds of information can be easily accessed by those who use the app. Participant 3

and Participant 4 stated that an app needs to be convenient, handy and should use small storage

space while Participant 5 expects the app to be user-friendly. Meanwhile, the participants also

said that educational apps should be very handy whenever they are studying or reviewing so

anyone would conveniently learn from it. In a statement, “Educational apps were made to help

students learn or even people who already work and you can use them anytime and anywhere,”

the respondent said that the apps should be ready to use anywhere to help learners engage in the

topic they want to learn. The respondents also said that along with being convenient, the apps

should be enjoying to use by the learners and easier to access due to the prevalent use of mobile

devices of students. Educational app should not be hassle for students when looking for

references for their studies and at the same time, it should help someone learn in a short span of

time. The student using educational apps gets more access to more information than students

who use conventional methods. Furthermore, In using the app, the user should be able to

schedule his/her lessons, making it more convenient. The respondents also said that Senior High

School students have a handful of tasks and activities, making educational apps a big help for

them. Lastly, the respondents stated that educational apps are much more organized making them

attractive to learners in arranging or organizing a task given to them.

28
 Reliable information is a strong basis to consider an app to be educational. In participant

1’s answer, he said that if an app contains reliable sources, it contains sources that researchers

may use. Having reliable sources supports the credibility of an information which helps

researchers in completing their task. The respondents said that they expect an app to have the

same contents as a normal book would do especially like E-books. Finding lessons sent by their

teachers and finding references for advanced studying are also considered by the respondents.

“Besides containing facts, I want it to have less ads,” a respondent stated when asked what he

wants in an educational app. Moreover, educational apps are said to be useful as they help

breaking down data into simpler ways that would help them absorb the information easier. When

asked for advantages of an educational app, a respondent said that there will be more

understanding because the app will stimulate self-studying and will widen a learner’s knowledge

due to facts while another respondent said that educational apps are wider than other

information-providers that’s why more information could be taken from it. With contents useful

for the learner, an educational app will have information that can help him/her.

The ability of an app to help learners be interactive is also one of the main results of this

research. One reason why an educational app should be interactive is because the users are

mostly students. An educational app makes learning more fun, convenient and fast. A respondent

said that an educational app becomes entertaining when there are games included in it or

anything that suits the interests of the learner while another said that it will be entertaining if the

user interface, themes and platforms of the app is pleasing. As most apps use twists, they also

lessen learning stress induced by having the lesson in a form of games and more, making

learning fun because of its digital feature. Activities offered by an app that promotes engagement

of students in certain topics makes an educational app ‘educational’ along with stimulating their

29
thinking skills as well as providing useful information. As stated by a respondent, most

educational apps nowadays provide information by using different formats that are a lot more

eye-catching and attention grabbing making it easier to take information.

The researchers also gathered that an educational app helps in the learning process of its

user. A respondent stated that an app improves the learning experience because it reduces the

time needed to understand a certain lesson, while another said that it helps him discover more

things, specifically lessons found online. Educational apps are useful whenever there are no

classes for a certain day, letting the teacher send lessons, homeworks or quizzes through it. An

app is also considered useful if it makes the student more engaged in the lessons. Meanwhile, an

app becomes entertaining if it makes a student’s school life better by making requirements easier

and making him interested in a certain topic. Aside from helping with a student’s study in school,

an app should contain things that helps them learn. Moreover, a respondent stated that

educational apps can be entertaining when there’s a quiz or test, so after the lesson, learners can

test their minds.

30
 IV. Verification

Different applications that offer educational functions are already on and are ready

to be utilized and used. The review of related literature already showed proposed factors in

considering applications whether it is truly educational or not, but actual educational app users

could enlighten the scenario up.

The study, “Educational app: Technological Advancers towards Future Education,”

conducted among the randomly selected senior high school students of Congressional

Integrated High School, aims to discover if these so called educational apps, really improve the

process of learning.

An interview has been conducted in order to obtain and explain whether

educational apps really help to improve the process of education. The questions mainly revolve

on: What do you expect in an educational app? How can educational app improve your

learning experience?, What makes this educational apps useful?, and so on.

On the first five questions, the respondents’ view on educational apps, their

preference in using it, and their standards whether to consider an educational app helpful were

asked in order to obtain background information from them.

In the first question: What do you expect in an educational app? The respondents

stated that in order to consider such apps to educational, it should possess all the following

properties: convenient, reliable, concise, interactive and user-friendly. This strongly shows that

in order to consider an app educational, it must be designed to promote active, engaged,

meaningful, and socially interactive learning—four “pillars” of learning—within the context of

a supported learning goal. (Roberta Michnick Golinkoff 2014).

In the second question: Would you rather use an educational app by yourself or

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with your peers, and why? Most of the respondents say that they prefer using educational apps

alone.

The next question goes around the factors that make an educational app

educational and the answers are as follows: It has the same contents like what are being taught

in school, it stimulates the brain, has adequate information for learning, and are from reliable

resources.

The fourth and fifth questions are focused on the overall learning experiences of

the respondents towards educational apps. The fourth question, How can educational apps

improve learning experience?, was answered by the following: It makes learning fast and it

makes the lesson engaging and fun. The fifth question is How can educational apps make

learning entertaining? The two main answers are as follows: It lessens stress through the

incorporation of games, and because of new inventions that are hooking them up. Both of the

responses again proved Golingkoff’s (2014) point.

The second half of the questions mainly covers the ideas on why do the

respondents choose (or not) to utilize and incorporate educational apps in their study regimen.

It also includes questions about the respondents’ thought about the disadvantages and

advantages of the educational apps

The sixth question asked to the respondents was: Do you think that educational

apps are better than traditional teaching, and why? The main idea pointed out by the

respondents is that traditional teaching is still better. This is due to the fact that educational

apps are made to improve traditional education and it doesn’t necessarily mean that these apps

replace traditional teaching. This supports the statement: the emergence of educational

applications (apps) is impacting the work of teacher/educators. Beyond online lists of best apps

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for education and recommendations from colleagues, teacher/educators have few resources

available to support their teaching of how to select educational apps (Todd Cherner, Judy Dix,

Corey Lee), which is true due to the fact that educational apps align with known processes of

children’s learning and development, and offer a framework that can be used by parents and

designers alike. (Golingkoff 2014)

The seventh question, What makes an educational app useful?, Is answered with:

It comes in handy and it gets the job done. This is because children are in the midst of a vast,

unplanned experiment, surrounded by digital technologies that were not available but 5 years

ago (Hirsh-Pasek 2015), which practically means that students will tend to use tools that would

help them finish their work faster, consuming less time.

The eighth and ninth questions tackled the advantages and disadvantages of an

educational app user.

The eighth question is what advantages can a student have if he/she use

educational apps, and why? The main advantage that a student can get based from the

respondents is that it is more easy and fast. Truly, convenience has been the major reason why

the respondents keep on using educational apps. Again, this supports Hirsh-Paseks’ 2015

statement that there is simply no time, money, or resources available to evaluate each app as it

enters the market. Thus, “educational” apps—the number of which, as of January 2015, stood

at 80,000 in Apple’s App Store (Apple, 2015)—are largely unregulated and untested.

Finally, the last question on how the respondents would share the idea of using

educational apps came up with one answer, and this is all through the use of social media.

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V. Overall Essence

Today in the information age, sudden “booms” of different technological ways of

learning arose leading the birth of educational apps, being a large innovation of technological

learning since the invention of the overhead projector. In fact, the use of these apps can be

easily observed especially because students are the main users of these innovations. To learn

more about the characteristics of these apps, the researchers conducted a study with 10

STEM students. After gathering the data, characteristics of educational apps have been

identified and these were convenient, contains reliable information, interactive, and helps in

the learning process.

This portion answers the research question, what makes an app educational? This part

shows the characteristics of apps that are considered educational by learners. Many STEM

students stated that convenience is an essential characteristic of an educational app since

learners, especially students, need handy tools. Many stated that an educational app is

convenient because most students these days use smartphones and gadgets, making the

educational apps easily accessible. Some want an app to occupy small storage space while

containing a variety of educational perks, while another expects it to be user-friendly. The

convenience of an app helps in knowing the reference of a study and learning in a short span

of time, reducing the hassle of other complicated methods of learning. Lastly, an educational

app is well organized easing the stress of learning and organizing activities, quizzes etc.

Most students also expect an educational app to have reliable information to be a credible

information provider. Many stated that educational apps must possess reliable information

and contain sufficient knowledge about a certain topic, believing that the basis of getting a

reliable information from an educational app is if it contains the following: sources that most

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users may use, same contents as a normal book, should contain facts and is accessible to the

public. One stated that because of having reliable information, educational apps can stimulate

self-studying and widen the knowledge due to the facts that the apps contain. Moreover, with

the use of educational apps, learning becomes more interesting, because educational apps

provide broader knowledge about a topic.

Being interactive is another gathered result of this research. Most students expect an

educational app to offer activities that would promote engagement and participation of

students and learners to a certain topic. Some want these apps to be pleasing and entertaining

by having different platforms, twists and games, adding a new way for teachers to teach

lessons. By having these different activities, it will lessen the stress induced by a learner,

therefore making “interactive” an important attribute of an educational app. From the

gathered answers.

STEM students believed that educational apps improved the learning process of a user.

One stated that these apps reduce the time needed to understand a certain lesson while

another said that they improve learning with the use of additional information within the

application's extensions such as the internet. It can also improve the learning process by

bridging the gap between the students and the teachers, especially in the times that classes are

needed to be canceled. Also, the engagement of the user to the app also affects the learning

process. Some also responded that with the use of educational apps, they're most likely to

feel easier in accomplishing school tasks. Educational apps are also said to help in the

learning process by including interesting ideas and thoughts published in it. School-based

and factual ideas are also considered by the participants to change the learning process.

Lastly, educational apps change the way of learning by the utilization and incorporation of

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different strategies and media, such as; Including video lectures and examples, and having an

assessment or evaluation right after the lesson.

There are more characteristics that could consider an application as educational and

advantages of using these apps. These characteristics answered by the respondents are

evidences that an app can be considered educational, mainly, if it is convenient, contains

reliable information, interactive and helps in the learning process.

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 VI. References

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Roseberry, S., Hirsh-Pasek, K., Parish-Morris, J., & Golinkoff,

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