Mathematics Apps in the App Store: Low Transparency Impedes Educators' Ability to Find Quality Apps

• In Event: 47.093 - Supporting Learners in STEM, Making, and Computational Thinking

Abstract

There are 80,000+ educational apps in the Apple App Store (Hirsh-Pasek et al., 2015) and math apps are the most common (Shuler, 2012). We searched for ‘math’ in the education category and selected the top 10 apps for each of the 3 filters provided by Apple (Relevance, Popularity, Rating) and 3 age categories (0-5, 6-8, 9-11). We examined the basic information (e.g., price), educational content, and user ratings for these top 90 apps to see how Apple and developers are marketing apps to educators. There was a surprising lack of transparency and information. The Apple App store needs to explain how it selects ‘top’ apps and developers need to provide benchmarks of educational quality in their written descriptions.

Authors

• Adam Kenneth Dubé, McGill University

• Gulsah Kacmaz, McGill University

• RUN WEN, McGill University

• Chu Xu, McGill University

• Sabrina Shajeen Alam, McGill University