Apps for Early Childhood

This week the topic was using technology with early childhood students. There are many resources talking about the proper use of technology with children this young. If this is your field I strongly suggest looking into the research for this age group. However, my topic is looking at the apps that are out there. You can find the site we used HERE.

There are many apps out there but you have to know where and how to look. I went to the app store on iTunes. One of the main topics was apps for preschool and kindergarten. I was thrilled thinking my job this week was going to be easy. I clicked on the link and was taken to a page where I had to pick an academic area to narrow my search. I selected math and went to the number and quantity section. I was surprised at what I found.  19 apps!!! Guess what else. Go on, guess. There was only 1 free app! Now I know that this could not be right. How on Earth could there be only 19 apps for number and quantity in the hundreds of thousands of apps out there and that only 1 of those 19 apps is free? Well I decided to take a different approach; I typed “numbers” in the search and came up with a far more robust list of apps. Yes, some of them were not appropriate for this age level. I’m pretty sure that there are not too many 3-5 year olds out there ready to tackle Sudoku problems. This just shows why it is important to take the time to look for the best apps for your student and taking the easy way to find an app is not always the best. 

For many schools and classrooms cost is going to be a factor in deciding if an app is purchased. Many schools are enrolled in Apple’s volume purchasing program; this is where you can get a discount if you purchase 20 or more licenses of an app. However, not all apps allow a discount. Let’s take one of the apps I found in that list of 19, Team Umizoomi Math. I honestly have no idea what an Umizoomi is but this app is developed by Nickelodeon. I went on Apple’s volume purchasing site and found this app is priced at $4.99. Multiply that cost by 20 and it is going to cost $99.80! Say you have 50 iPads; that will cost $249.50. For larger districts with 100 iPads the cost will be $499! Or you could take an extra couple of minutes and find qCat- Toddler’s Count game. Yes the “q” is intentional. This app is FREE! So downloading this app 20 times will cost you $0, 50 times $0, even 100 times it is still $0. Hopefully you see my point. Taking the extra couple of minutes is well worth the effort in the end. It is important to evaluate each app for their strengths and weaknesses and look at exactly what you are trying to accomplish with the use of the app and then make an informed decision on which app to buy. You still may decide the Umizoomi app is best for you in your situation. If you do, please email me or leave a comment and let me know what an Umizoomi is.