Apps as a curriculum resource

A committee with a variety of educational stakeholders would certainly be a way to ensure that you have the interests of teachers, students, IT, and administrators involved in the app review process.

If you district hasn't yet developed a process for reviewing educational apps/websites, there are some great resources available from organizations like Digital Promise. Here's a link to an article with some valuable considerations: https://verizon.digitalpromise.org/rollout-toolkit/creating-an-approval-process-for-apps-extensions-websites-and-other-digital-resources/

I also love that Common Sense Education has developed a privacy rating system and evaluated hundreds of edtech apps & their privacy policies. I try to point teachers toward this resource when they're considering whether or not to use an app as part of instruction with their students: https://privacy.commonsense.org/evaluations/1

Good luck as you develop these policies and processes in your district!

Hi Jessica,

Thanks for sharing the links. Currently I am working on the common sense education age appropriate apps for each subjects and grades.

Interesting question!

I think that there needs to be some leadership oversight of the choice of apps available on iPads in a school so that there is not a lot of duplication of tools. If training has been done or there is a strategic approach with a certain app, it doesn't make a lot of sense to also install alternatives that you don't want students to use. For example, in my school the students use Pages/Numbers/Keynote rather than the Google or Microsoft alternatives, so we just don't install Google Docs/Microsoft Word on student devices.

At the same time, it's worth giving teachers options for exploring too and they might discover a gem that's worth using in a classroom. A committee might be a good way to do this, but that could end up being overly bureaucratic and slow down app requests ("I need this app for Monday!" ... "Sorry, the committee doesn't meet for a few months")

Maybe a guiding policy and a few empowered individuals might be a better approach?