Stephen, I like the idea of some of these apps, and I truly appreciate the power of technology to improve the learning experience for students, but there are many challenges to their application in class that have to do with their design. There is a sense, I think, for many that the use of an application will solve a behavioural problem, much like the belief that the use of a particular resource will solve an instructional problem. There are no silver bullets. We need to remember that it is the meeting between teacher pedagogy and philosophy and the content and resources that makes something effective. In the case of one of these applications in particular there was massive parent push-back and outrage at the way the application worked. The thinking was that it was more focussed on punishing poor choices which stigmatized certain students disproportionately. I would love it, and this isn’t a dig at you, but at tech reviews in general, if there was some kind of connection to practice in the recommendation — here is teacher ‘x’ using this application, and here are her/his recommendations on best practice. When we trust an application to do the work for us, we are in real trouble — because if an application can fix the problem how far away are we from making ourselves obsolete?
Thanks for sharing. I know you do this from a love of technology and a desire to share exciting things with other educators.
