Austin Scholar #18: Do Educational Apps Really Work?
Hey, y'all!
As someone who has used exclusively online educational apps to learn since elementary school, I get asked quite often about what apps I use. I’ve tried everything from Dreambox to Khan Academy to Knewton Alta, and I can honestly say that I learn better and faster from apps than I do in a classroom. Seriously – I haven’t had a teacher since the fourth grade.
But I’m getting a little ahead of myself.
This week from Austin Scholar...
Austin’s Anecdote: How I used educational apps to ace my math exams
Do educational apps really work?
Scholar’s Sources: The apps I used to learn Algebra II
This past week at school was Spirit Week, so I put more effort into my outfits last week than the rest of the school year combined. I got to channel my inner Disney Channel star on Y2K Thursday and reverted back to my angsty middle school self with Emo-nday.
And the drama with the school’s literary magazine reminded me of how exhausting people are. No, the solution to fixing our incredibly unproductive meetings is not to just have more meetings.
To top the week off, it was essentially finals week at Alpha, so there was a lot of stress.
I love high school.
Austin’s Anecdote: How I Used Educational Apps To Ace My Math Exams
Sometimes, when I'm working through an app, I can't help but wonder if I'm actually learning anything.
Sure, the apps have their own tests and such, but am I just memorizing the content? Apps such as Khan Academy (Austin Scholar #13: The Pros and Cons of Khan Academy) are super easy to game and click your way through (AKA – cheat).
See, I know that I can get a good grade on a quiz in an app, but how would I do on a standardized test?
I was so afraid of not actually knowing the stuff I learned in apps that I procrastinated taking my end-of-year tests in math (at Alpha we use Texas Credit by Examination (CBE) tests).
It wasn’t “let me just wait a week to make sure that I’m prepared for the test.” It was, like, two years of procrastination.
Basically, near the end of my sophomore year, I still hadn’t taken the final exam for any of my high school math classes.
The procrastination caught up with me (unfortunately), and last week, I had to take the CBEs for both Algebra II and PreCalculus.
I was super nervous.
Sure, I took BC Calculus this year – but Algebra? I haven't thought about Algebra since 8th grade.
In the week leading up to the exam, I went through all of the IXL topics, watched all of the Khan Academy videos, and reminded myself how to do linear regression on my calculator.
Seriously, it would be extraordinarily embarrassing for me if I did poorly on these exams. I mean, I have a newsletter and everything!
I was really praying that I would do well on these tests.
In my eyes, this was a pretty big test – both for my grades and for the question: do apps really work?
It makes sense that using educational apps in lower school works – the concepts are a lot simpler and less nuanced. But high school math – with all of its stupidly specific questions and formulas? Can that be taught without a teacher?
I'm happy to report: Yes, it can.
It has been over six years since I have had a teacher – since I have sat in a classroom and listened to a lecture on polynomial division.
On my PreCalculus CBE, I got a 96%.
On my Algebra II CBE, I got a 100%.
It turns out that I do, actually, know math. Yay!
I learned math from Knewton and ALEKS. I put the time in, and I was able to prove that online, educational apps can teach high schoolers math.
Do Educational Apps Really Work?
The question Do educational apps really work? can be broken down into two parts: Do these apps work for every kid? and Can someone use exclusively online apps to learn high school courses?
The crux of the first question comes down to one factor: ownership.
Let me explain.