Mark Prensky. Find more information about him on his website.
Eliminating the "App Gap" By Marc Prensky
This article was extremely interesting. Several
people in my family have had an iPod Touch for years now, but I had never
really thought of it as an educational tool. It’s mostly been used for many
hours of Angry Birds, quite honestly. Marc made a really great argument for
using them for educatio, as well as recreation. He talked about how his first
grade son has his own iPod Touch, and he uses it to play several different
educational games. This little boy even learned the alphabet in two different
languages by using a letter tracing app. New apps are coming out every day, and
Marc believes that schools should utilize the resource they have right in front
of them. He even says that he thinks apps are better than using textbooks.
Now,
my main concern would be the funding. He’s right when he says that apps are
cheap, and most of the time, they’re even free. I also agree that the costs of
iPods have decreased significantly, but there are still going to be those
families who aren’t going to be able to swing $200 for an iPod Touch. There
would have to be some sort of a scholarship program put in place, but I’m also
a little skeptical about where that money would come from. Schools don’t have
any extra money just laying around. Marc does make a good financial point,
however, when he says that apps would cost far less than buying huge, expensive
suit packages for computers. If an app were to be released with a similar
quality to the expensive computer programs, it would be totally worth it to
save some money. Hey, if Marc Prensky can figure out how to make iPods in
school work for every student, I support him completely!
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