Title: Mobile educational applications for children: what educators and parents need to know

Authors: Stamatios Papadakis; Michail Kalogiannakis

Addresses: Department of Preschool Education, Faculty of Education, University of Crete, Crete, Greece ' Department of Preschool Education, Faculty of Education, University of Crete, Crete, Greece

Abstract: The popularity of smart mobile devices is growing fast. These digital devices represent a new generation of technological tools that offer remarkable access to content as well as opportunities for creative use even by young children. Most the best-selling paid apps in the education category are targeted towards children. At the same time, the educational value of those applications is difficult to be determined. Parents and educators, who are turning to those devices for the potential educational benefits they expect for their children and/or their students, have a limited number of tools with which to evaluate these apps. With regard to the literature review, we present the latest findings related to the real educational value of these 'self-proclaimed' educational apps. Our analysis concludes that while there are thousands of apps available today, choosing the most appropriate educational ones for children is difficult and problematic for both teachers and educators.

Keywords: smart mobile devices; tablets; educational apps; preschool age children; early childhood education.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMLO.2017.085338

International Journal of Mobile Learning and Organisation, 2017 Vol.11 No.3, pp.256 - 277

Received: 05 Aug 2016
Accepted: 16 Jan 2017
Published online: 23 Jul 2017 *

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