App Ed Review: Designed to support teachers in finding and using apps and websites!
App Ed Review was born when Dr. Todd Cherner was teaching a graduate-level literacy class at Coastal Carolina University. As part of that class, Todd set aside time for “app-etizers” that were mini-lessons about apps. Because the school district where the majority of his students worked provided each of them an iPad to use in their classroom, Todd’s students were very interested in these mini-lessons. Then, during one of these app-etizers, a student asked him, “What makes an app good to use in the classroom?”
Although Todd had been using apps as part of his teaching for two years at this point, he had never considered the worth of an app. In response, Todd investigated if there was a research-based app evaluation rubric and he found that a comprehensive one had yet to be developed. At this point, Todd met with Dr. Corey Lee and discussed how they could create such a rubric. During the remainder of that semester, Todd and Corey collaborated to create that rubric, which would eventually be vetted in an article published by the Journal of Information Technology and Teacher Education.
After creating the rubric, Todd and Corey used it to evaluate the quality of apps. However, they soon realized that an app’s quality and how it was used are two different key areas. As such, they developed a framework to review apps, which included: (1) An original app description, (2) a comprehensive app evaluation, and (3) instructional ideas for using the app. Todd and Corey saw these elements as being the information teachers needed to use apps quickly and effectively.*
The result is App Ed Review website! A great resource for teachers, students and families. The site can be searched by content based, creation based, skill based, by age/grade and also has a great list of apps for teachers!
*from the “About Us” page on the App Ed Review website.
