Selecting educational apps for preschool children : how useful are website app rating systems?

Taylor, G; Kolak, J; Bent, EM; Monaghan, P

Abstract

In the present paper, we assess whether website rating systems are useful for selecting educational apps for preschool age children. We selected the 10 highest scoring and 10 lowest scoring apps for 2–4-year-olds from two widely used websites (Good App Guide; Common Sense Media). Apps rated highly by the two websites had a higher educational potential as assessed by a validated questionnaire for evaluating the educational potential of apps and were more likely to include a learning goal and feedback compared to low scoring apps. However, high scoring apps scored on average just 9/20 for indicators of educational potential, and both high and low scoring apps had poor language quality as determined by psycholinguistic and construction type analyses. We argue that website rating systems should also include quality of feedback, adjustable content, social interactions, storyline and a more fine-grained analysis of language in their assessments.

Citation

Taylor, G., Kolak, J., Bent, E., & Monaghan, P. (2022). Selecting educational apps for preschool children : how useful are website app rating systems?. British Journal of Educational Technology, 53(5), 1262-1282. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.13199

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Feb 3, 2022
• Online Publication Date: Feb 17, 2022
• Publication Date: Feb 17, 2022
• Deposit Date: Feb 17, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 17, 2022
• Journal: British Journal of Educational Technology
• Print ISSN: 0007-1013
• Electronic ISSN: 1467-8535
• Publisher: Wiley
• Volume: 53
• Issue: 5
• Pages: 1262-1282
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.13199
• Publisher URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.13199
• Related Public URLs: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1467-8535
• Additional Information: Projects : Investigating the educational potential of touchscreen apps for children's early vocabulary acquisition;ES/R004129/1