Analyzing Apple's Education App Store

There are over 500,000 apps in the Apple App Store and over 300,000 in the Android Market; a growing number of those are in the education category. The Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop released iLearn II: An Analysis of the Education Category of Apple’s App Store, a review of the 200 top learning apps for iPad and iPhone. The report also highlights opportunities for developers, educators and researchers to influence this important, but under-scrutinized category by closely examining the content of children’s apps within the education category.
Interesting findings include:

More than a quarter of parents download apps for their kids
Almost half of the education apps target preschool kids including most of the best sellers, and
Apps are different than TV, few are based on known characters.

The report makes six recommendations:

Address the ‘app gap’
Create standards for products marketed as educational
Protect kids from commercialism
Update COPPA
Enable sustainability and profitability, and
Set a research agenda.

The report also provides social media tips for developers seeking to get discovered in the sea of apps. iLearn is a valuable contribution to a dynamic new market.
See Michael Levine’s commentary on HuffPo. More coverage on Wired, e School News and kidscreen.

	Beginning	Piloting	Implementing
From Fixed Standards to Competency-Based Mastery	BeginningFrom Fixed Standards to Competency-Based Mastery Beginning	PilotingFrom Fixed Standards to Competency-Based Mastery Piloting	ImplementingFrom Fixed Standards to Competency-Based Mastery Implementing
From One-Size-Fits-All to Adaptive Learning	BeginningFrom One-Size-Fits-All to Adaptive Learning Beginning	PilotingFrom One-Size-Fits-All to Adaptive Learning Piloting	ImplementingFrom One-Size-Fits-All to Adaptive Learning Implementing
From Prescribed Knowledge to Innovation & Inquiry	BeginningFrom Prescribed Knowledge to Innovation & Inquiry Beginning	PilotingFrom Prescribed Knowledge to Innovation & Inquiry Piloting	ImplementingFrom Prescribed Knowledge to Innovation & Inquiry Implementing
From Subjects as Silos to Transdisciplinary, Real-World Learning	BeginningFrom Subjects as Silos to Transdisciplinary, Real-World Learning Beginning	PilotingFrom Subjects as Silos to Transdisciplinary, Real-World Learning Piloting	ImplementingFrom Subjects as Silos to Transdisciplinary, Real-World Learning Implementing
From Schools as Self-Contained to Schools as Embedded in Communities	BeginningFrom Schools as Self-Contained to Schools as Embedded in Communities Beginning	PilotingFrom Schools as Self-Contained to Schools as Embedded in Communities Piloting	ImplementingFrom Schools as Self-Contained to Schools as Embedded in Communities Implementing
From Standardized Testing to Meaningful Assessment	BeginningFrom Standardized Testing to Meaningful Assessment Beginning	PilotingFrom Standardized Testing to Meaningful Assessment Piloting	ImplementingFrom Standardized Testing to Meaningful Assessment Implementing
From Institutional Ownership of Student Data to Student-Controlled Learning Wallets	BeginningFrom Institutional Ownership of Student Data to Student-Controlled Learning Wallets Beginning	PilotingFrom Institutional Ownership of Student Data to Student-Controlled Learning Wallets Piloting	ImplementingFrom Institutional Ownership of Student Data to Student-Controlled Learning Wallets Implementing

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