Do you have an App-titudefor Learning?

Cecilie Murray

App-titude Learning

Why Apps for Learning?• Small handheld devices enable learning anywhere,

anytime• Convergence of innovations in mobile technology

and social software• Young people’s social use of technologies• For schools it means 1:1 is achievable

The Research‘safe learning’ and ‘disruptive learning’

“learning in a more personalised way, handing over more control to the learners themselves”

(Stead, 2006)

“a small, cleverly designed handheld game can significantly enhance learner performance in mental maths as well as having a positive impact on other

aspects of classroom life” (Robertson, 2009).

‘Mobile devices can have a positive impact on learning experiences for both educators and students’

(McFarlane, Triggs& Yee, 2008; Ng & Nicholas, 2009)

‘the use of iPods in the classroom holds and heightens student interest, engages students in learning, and

provides yet another means for expressive and receptive literacy’

(Dogeby, 2007)

The Future‘public agencies [Departments of Education] and

schools are beginning to explore multimobile services – convenient, flexible tools that enable

users to access information in a range of formats using mobile devices – as a way to support…

staff and students’ (The New Media Consortium, 2009)

Educational games Apps• Relevant to kids• Use technologies that pervade their lives• Engaging for learning• Inquiry based constructivist content• High quality games prolong engagement• Kids can consolidate knowledge independently

Apps are based on constructivist learning principlesPromote deep thinking, not simply skills development

Curriculum-driven content, high quality graphics Monitor student progress online

Farm counting fun

Children explore basic counting concepts in three fun activities - flying a helicopter around the farm, herding sheep into pens and guiding the sheepdog into the truck. The game difficulty automatically adapts to match their progress, with content based on the school curriculum. Children are drawn to the friendly, detailed graphics, playful audio and lots of humorous encouragement. During in-school testing we were pleased to find 6 and 7-year-old children are happy playing 1 2 3 Sheep! for an hour or more.1 2 3 Sheep! was developed in consultation with teachers in classrooms and educational experts, and built by professional game developers.

Simple assessment

1 2 3 Sheep! is a standalone game, suitable for young learners anywhere - but it's also designed for classroom use with the innovativeApp-titude assessment system. Teachers can instantly see and track their students' progress online via the iPod's automatic wireless updates. As children complete tasks within the game they gain App-titude achievements, such as ‘All Rounder’, ‘Helicopter Ace’ and ‘Perfect Farm’. Each of the 10 achievements available corresponds to a level of participation or competency. They are displayed in a simple helpful online interface for teachers

1 2 3 Sheep! Our first App.

Available on the Apple App Store!

An online assessment system collects data from the appTeachers monitor student progress at a glance

Unafraid: The student has played all three activities at least once.

Getting Stuck In: The student has spent 10 days on the farm. I.e. they have played an activity to completion 10 times.

Hard Worker: The student has spent 30 days on the farm. I.e. they have played an activity to completion 30 times.

All Rounder: The student has scored at least 2 stars in all three activities.

Great Counting: The student has scored a total of 9 stars.

Heli Ace: The student has all 4 stars for the Helicopter activity.

Round Up Ace: The student has all 4 stars for the Round Up activity.

Jump Ace: The student has all 4 stars for the Jump activity.

Perfect Farm: The student has all 12 stars - the total number available across all activities.

Levels of Achievement

Discussion Forum for Teacher Input

References

Metiri Group (2006) Technology in Schools, What the Research Says, Cisco Systems. http://www.cisco.com/web/strategy/docs/education/TechnologyinSchoolsReport.pdf

McFarlane, A. Triggs, P. & Yee, W. (2008). Researching mobile learning - Interim report to Becta http://partners.becta.org.uk/uploaddir/downloads/page_documents/research/mobile_learning.pdf

Ng, W. & Nicholas, H. (2009a). Introduction of pocket PC in schools: attitudes and beliefs in the first year. Computers and Education.

Robertson, M. (2009) Innovative Schooling and Responsiveness to ongoing Global Change, La Trobe University, Melbourne Stead, G. (2006). Mobile technologies: transforming the future of learning, in Emerging Technologies for Learning, BECTA. http://partners.becta.org.uk/upload-dir/downloads/page_documents/research/emerging_technologies.pdf

Web: www.app-titude.com.au

Email: cecilie@app-titude.com.au

Twitter: http://twitter.com/App_titude

Facebook: 1 2 3 Sheep!