The Internet is still a relatively new technology in the world, and it presents many opportunities for entrepreneurs to realize a passion that they have. Some people have even said the Internet is in the “wild west” stage for business startup and growth. The internet provides a medium that is relatively free and can reach millions and millions of people. This means that if you have a compelling idea, you can skip the middleman, so to speak, and present your idea directly to the public, mostly free of charge.
With these thoughts in mind, I decided to embark on an Internet project myself. I had attended a conference on Educational Technology in the past, but, when entering the exposition hall for the conference, I found that there were hundreds of apps to choose from, and I wondered how any person could make any sense of it all. Thus, this was the beginning of my website that attempts to provide a simple way for schools, businesses, or individuals to find learning apps that would fit their individual needs.
I grouped the apps according to Piaget’s well known and accepted principles of cognitive growth. Piaget believed that we all go through 4 stages of cognitive growth: sensory-motor, pre-operational, concrete-operational, and formal-operational. However, in order to advance to the next stage, you have to successfully master the current stage, and there is no skipping forward. While the sensory-motor stage happens when we are babies, the next three stages generally happen during “formal” education. In addition, I further categorized the apps according to knowledge, skills, and experiences, which are the three ways that the brain interprets and encodes new information.
The knowledge category includes all apps that contain everything that usually happens in a classroom (curriculum apps). They provide the learning instruction, ways to practice the instruction, and ways to assess the learning. Next, I divided the knowledge apps into the primary and secondary level. The primary level apps are for general K – 6 learning. We all need to learn the basics of reading, writing, arithmetic, science, and social studies. This level is for children or adults of very little literacy background. The secondary level also contains all that is required for learning, but these apps are specific to one academic area, such as Astronomy. These apps are intended for adolescents and adults who have successfully completed primary education, and they can be used for more in-depth instruction or as a base to complete an academic project.
The next category is skills. The skills category represents apps that are generally supplementary to what is taught in the classroom. In most academic areas, such as math, you need to work many problems before you get to the level of understanding and proficiency that is required. Like knowledge, I further divided the skill apps into primary and secondary levels, which allow for practicing skills at the most basic level or in greater depth. Practicing primary skills may include doing multiplication tables but in a fun way such as through a game or story. Practicing secondary skills might include building an aquarium to better understand the principles of an eco-system.
Another category is that of experiences. Experiences are apps that don’t “teach” but are more sensory in nature. For example, you could walk through a pyramid to get a better understanding of how the ancient Egyptians lived. There are many media and virtual-reality apps that allow you to directly experience academic learning that will lead to increased motivation and interest in the subject.
Lastly, I added the two categories of STEM and STEAM, which contain instructions for learning the technology that is so much utilized in today’s world. Most everyone knows that STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. These apps are mostly in the areas of computers and robotics but also contain newer areas including AI. I divided this STEM category into primary and secondary as well. So, the primary K – 6 apps would be for people who have no background knowledge in STEM fields. The secondary, 6 – 12 level are for those who have some background in STEM fields and want to learn in more depth or to do a project, such as building a robot.
The Acronym STEAM is also fairly well known. The A in STEAM refers to art, and these apps mostly contain technology used to create or build things. I divided the STEAM apps into two sub-categories of Content Creation, such as media production, and Maker Tools, such as digital printing. Mastering these STEAM tools only requires time and practice but must be directed to the field of study to which the individual wants to use the tools.
All the apps on my website are currently available and being sold to school districts. I thought, why not allow the general public to have access to these same apps? There are many home schoolers, learning centers, immigrants, etc., who could benefit from these educational resources. Even businesses who need training, but don’t have the money to fund a training program, could benefit because they could design a project using the app that aligns with the company’s goals.
My passion in life is to allow anyone to advance their abilities and make learning easier. The goal of my website is to pool together a large range of knowledge and skill-building apps. While many people may feel that AI has the capability to teach you anything, you have to be very familiar with the content in order to write a correct prompt and understand completely what the AI is telling you. When you can play around with learning apps, you can get a much broader understanding of the content. While AI can answer any question you may have, this learning is at a surface level. To thrive in the real world, you have to understand fundamentally how things work. I hope that my website will provide a way to do that.