Apps, breaking imaginary barriers to learning

As the world today is continuously revolving and depending more and more on technology, people are always opting for technology-based solutions. People have changed almost all of their daily activities due to technology. From ordering food to getting a taxi to buying a dress, mostly everything can be done from smartphones via apps. Therefore, it is obvious to see the importance of apps to humans. Education is no exception and has also been revolutionised with the introduction of several apps.

 Be it doing class homework, learning a new language or reading books-- educational apps make life much easier since they can be packed in a single place. It is like having all classes on a single device such as smartphones, laptops and tablets. The best part of having these educational apps is that they are often free, and people can get access to them whenever they want to, unlike educational institutions where there are routined classes.

There are several types of educational apps, each serving a different purpose.  Amazon Kindle is currently one of the leading reading apps. Readers do not have to take a long walk to the nearest library or bookstore to borrow or purchase a book. It is just one click away, and readers can gain access to whatever books they want.

A popular app in today's world is the Khan Academy. Khan Academy was initially introduced as a non-profit educational organisation with the aim of providing a collection of online features to educate students in every corner of the world. It creates detailed videos of academic subject topics like those of English, mathematics, science and also helps students in preparing for standardised tests such as SAT and MCAT. The videos rely enormously on visuals and hence are interactive. Khan Academy is an ideal educational app for all students because its contents have  been translated into many languages and has about 20,000 subtitle translations available.

Educational apps today can be used to learn new languages too. Take Duolingo for example. Duolingo is a freemium language-learning medium that also offers a digital language proficiency assessment exam. The app offers 68 different language courses across 28 languages. The lessons are very interactive and grading is assigned to learners instantly. It consists of various gamification features. Users can interact with each other socially and can see their positions on the leaderboard. This ensures that the users remain dedicated and also acts as a motivation to boost their confidence.

Another distinguishable app is Coursera which collaborates with universities and other organisations to provide online courses, specialisations, and degrees in several subjects. Stanford professors initially established it. Every course on Coursera is taught by the best instructors from the top universities across the globe. Courses consist of recorded video lectures, auto-graded and peer-reviewed assignments, and community discussion forums.

The last educational app for discussion is a self-explanatory and popular one— Youtube.  People in most of the cases associate Youtube with fancy music videos, movies, dramas and all the entertainment forms. But Youtube is more than that. It includes a wide range of study topics from pronouncing basic English words to elaborate explanations of a chemical reaction. 

There is no doubt that educational apps are gradually playing a vital role in human beings in this digital era. People, even from remote and disadvantaged places, can gain access to these apps and gain knowledge. But technologists should also keep in mind that replacing physical means of education with digital ones can be detrimental to future generations since there are several health concerns associated with excessive use of technological devices. Also, it has been scientifically proven that a physical connection with paper and body leads to more effective learning compared to a physical connection between device and body.

Despite all the disadvantages of educational apps, no one can deny that education is supposed to be ubiquitous. When educating people, the financial position, culture, age, gender or any other component are not taken into consideration. Education is the right everyone deserves. And educational apps are finally breaking all these imaginary barriers to deliver the world a better alternative to gaining a successful education.

The writer is a first year student of BBA programme at the Institute of Business Administration (IBA), University of Dhaka. She can be reached at [email protected]