When teachers evaluate educational apps, they are seeking substance over catchphrases and clichés, affirms a recent study from McGill University.
The study used eye-tracking technology and other evaluative measures to judge the responses of 57 pre-service and elementary teachers to the app-store pages of 10 simulated mathematics apps.
The researchers found that the teachers were more likely to be swayed by solid benchmarks of educational quality—such as connection to a guiding curriculum, creation by an expert development team, and scaffolding supports for students—than by buzzwords like "hands-on," "personalized," or "multimedia." The teachers also showed greater interest in text descriptions than in images, though they were drawn to images that included benchmark information more than to other images.
The teachers tended to value some educational benchmarks more than others, with those focused on development teams, curriculum, and scaffolding outranking information on theories of learning and feedback for students.
The researchers suggest that the study's findings could be used to develop criteria for school app selection and to identify professional development needs.
But the findings also harbor an important message for leaders in charge of larger school and district technology projects: When it comes to edtech selection and implementation, educators want substance and evidence of educational quality, not bland assurances and surface-level descriptions.
