Using “Native” Mobile Apps to Integrate Ed-Tech in K-12

Most ed-tech app and tool creators are wasting their time and squandering valuable resources! For the most part, digital age students don’t want to use the vast majority of educational apps. Students prefer their “native” social apps. So, how do we transform the learning experience with ed-tech if the tools that we are using are not actually empowering students?

First, let’s take a closer look at what “native” mobile app means in K-12. Native app typically refers to an application that has been developed for use on a particular platform or device. This is a fine use of the term if we are talking about adult learners using apps because they are not digital natives. However, when we discuss today’s K-12 students we are identifying a group of learners that are digital natives. As a result, the term native has a different connotation when we refer to K-12 students and their use of apps. In particular, there are certain mobile apps that are native to this group of learners. This nativity cannot be ignored because these apps unlock a level of perpetual connectivity that indulges their curiosity, and allows them to efficiently communicate, gather data, and store data.

If you want to successfully use ed-tech with your students, then you have to figure out how you can safely integrate certain native mobile apps. Some examples of “native” social mobile include; YouTube, Snapchat, Instagram, and Twitter. These are the applications that the majority of students already have downloaded on their personal mobile devices. They grew up with these tools, and their use is second nature. They choose to use these apps because they appreciate the perpetual connectivity, ease of use, and data gathering potential in them.

The current state of ed-tech in K-12

Recently, Microsoft launched the Surface Laptop which is designed to compete with the Chromebook in K-12 education. A recent interview of Google G Suite Apps VP, Prabhakar Raghavan, revealed that Microsoft may have been a bit late to the dance. Perhaps Google is already making a move to go more mobile. Here is what was shared by Raghavan in an interview with Business Insider:

We would put a Chromebook in front of a kid, they would whip out their phone and write their essay. We said ‘no no no, there’s a keyboard there, you can use it,’ and they still write the essay there. They said ‘we’ll use the keyboard to touch up the formatting, but it’ll be much faster here,’ right.

Let’s analyze what this reveals. We already know that Chromebook has a 58% share of the U.S. primary and secondary education 1:1 market, according to Futuresource. However, this space is changing. What we are learning from these early 1:1 experiments is that students today do not require the same tools that students a decade or so ago required. That was the decade of the laptop, and this is the decade of mobile. Apple ushered in this new age in 2010 when they released the iPad, but a lack of creativity on the part of educational technologists failed to take advantage of the concept of mobile learning. Seven years later what we have come to know is that digitally native students want sleek, portable, and most importantly usable devices.

Usability is the degree to which something is able or fit to be used.

Usability is the number one concern for students when it comes to ed-tech. Students don’t want multiple sign-ins and they don’t want to use an app that makes a particular task or assignment take longer than necessary. Usability is all about delivering content in a quick, convenient and fully accessible manner. Having students download a new app that they don’t want clogging up data space in the first place is not a solution for engaging students. Neither is an effective means of integrating technology. Educational technologists have to think bigger when it comes to the use of technology. We have to consider the most efficient means for transformation through perpetual connectivity.

What can we learn from this?

Ed-Tech needs to look at how education can partner with existing “native” mobile apps to make them safer and more usable. Creating complementary apps for pairing ed-tech with social in the Web 2.0 world is where the sure money will be invested in the near future. For instance, will we see a safer school version of Instagram emerge considering that in many districts web security has blocked Instagram?

Google was the first to see the trans-formative nature of using native apps for ed-tech purposes. Despite some flaws, the G-Suite situated Google to go native. This was the part that they got right from the beginning with Chromebooks. They checked off many boxes with the product including; portability, familiarity, and multi-modality. But here’s the rub, the device they chose to integrate is not fully mobile. It lacks the qualities of a personal mobile device which is what today’s K-12 students prefer to use. Essentially, the Chromebook is just another inexpensive touchscreen laptop that can, at times, connect to Web 2.0 tools.

The next generation of ed-tech devices must take advantage of the boxes that Google left unchecked. These next-gen devices will focus on mobility, perpetual connectivity, and security. We have to start asking ourselves tough questions like are keyboards even necessary anymore? After all, keyboards tend to make a device less mobile. The final question we have to ask is how personal do we want devices for learning to be? Once we resolve this, then we can move on to creating the complementary apps and IT network solutions to make mobile learning safe and secure for “native” mobile apps to be perpetual in schools.

Thank you for reading. I invite you to leave a comment so that we can extend the conversation. Social Media is a controversial issue in schools at this time because, in general, K-12 has been slow to address realistic digital needs of students. I think we all can agree that digital citizenship is the most important topic in education that we should be addressing today.